Abandoned laundry room.....

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Hi!    Did you take this photo?   

 

If so what are the machines in there?  

 

The dryers look like whirlpool.  

 

What is to be done with it?  

 

Is it going to be demo'd or just sit and continue to rot?

 

Thanks!

 

Kevin 
 
I did not take this photo.....

I Found it on a NYC "urban explorers" blog....I'll provide the link, besides this pic there are tons of other interesting ones. The washers and dryers BOTH appear to be Whirlpool, notice the washer facing the camera, it appears to be push button/digital...one could try contacting Floyd Bennett Field directly, they might let someone haul them away...I will find the contact info for you guys.

http://kensinger.blogspot.com/
 
If you notice on the blog...

The pictures were taking on July 4th, so most likely the machines are still there. You guys might want to contact the blog owner and ask him how he gained permission to access the buildings as I am sure they are not open to the public...just a thought.
 
What in the hell make you think any of this is precious? TOL laundry appliances are not chosen for laundry rooms and TOL WP dryers did not have side opening plug doors. Look at the advanced rust on the cabinets; corners are missing. It is possible that the agitators are the only parts of this whole collection to still survive and that is more of a tribute to the durability of plastic than anything.
 
Interesting machines...

The dryers are new enough to have the side indents on the cabinets, so that puts them as 1980s models or newer, correct?

I count four dryers and I think six washers? The washer facing us looks like a 29-inch BD unit, as does the first one on the right (because the top is off-center, which is hard to do on a DD). The open lids though look very DD, with no plastic handles that you'd expect on an 80s belt-drive.

I don't know if these are precious or not - I suppose that is up to individual evaluation, however I know I would not address a member here as was done above.

Interesting picture indeed - I love abandoned properties and machines, and really enjoyed reading about the airfield where this building is located. There is a long write-up about the history of this field at an abandonded airfields website called www.airfields-freeman.com

Gordon
 
Thank you KenmoreGuy64 for your post.

I posted this pic for fun, not to cause members to be chastized. I highly doubt anyone is going to "rescue" these machines. I thought maybe guys in the NYC area would maybe want to explore the site itself. The machines have to be at least MOL as they seem to be all push button, no dials.
 
The instant I saw this,

I thought: professional, artistic, evocative. It reminds me of the theme of "beauty in decaying decadence" like something out of "Grey Gardens" or that haunted yet beautiful mansion "Dana Sculley" lived in the PBS's recent version of "Great Expectations."

 

I love stuff like this, and thanks for bringing it forward. It's really gorgeous and a unique archive photo for Automatic Washer.
 
NYC Urban Explorers & Forgotten New York

Often go places that are either off limits and or shouldn't be trespassed upon for safety reasons.

Regarding Staten Island one of both have been to places like much of the abandoned Seaview Hospital complex, the old Staten Island Hospital (now demolished), and Howland Hook area where there is a vast boat/ship graveyard.

Other places have been abandoned, hospitals including a huge former psychiatric hospital complex in Long Island,railroad/subway tunnels, estates, and so forth.

While one does enjoy reading their exploits and seeing pictures you really have to becareful in such places. Not only is tresspassing illegal many of these places have become a refuge for the homeless, drug dealers, and other criminal elements. Then there are the scrappers..

Anything can happen from falling several floors through a hole or rotted floor to meeting up with a "Nightmare on Elm Street" situation. While today many are blessed with cell phones one must hope there is service and even if LE manage to find and rescue, you still may face charges for being there in the first place.
 
 
These appear to be mechanical-control, on-premise/commercial machines.  Per this somewhat tweaked cut of the picture, the washers have three pusbuttons on the panel.

dadoes++7-12-2012-23-32-27.jpg
 
These machines

Appear to be 1990's Whirlpools. They should be Direct drive OPL commercial machines along with matching dryers. I'm not sure where the oversized top panel came from on the one washer. However the washer in the centre of the room is for sure a DD due to the size of the lid outline(this can be confirmed in other washers by the size of the raised lids). The design of the control panels along with the destressing indents on the dryer panels tell me these were later model machines.
Nick WK78
 
I really appreciate urban exploration... from home.

Here is a link to Opacity this guy Mr. Motts  is an urban explorer and fascinating photographer.  He uses fictitous names to protect the properties from vandalism, or at least he tries.  In addition to everything Launderess pointed out remember these places are full of mold and unabated asbestos.  The property listed as "Rathen" state hospital has a cool old "westinghouse Laundromat" that looks to  be paired with an ancient huge commercial dryer.  Opacity is a great site to enjoy in  winter months with a nice cup of joe.  alr

http://www.opacity.us/
 
Originally from Bayside, Queens, New York, I remember Floyd Bennett Field. It is a piece of history and had it's hey day during WWII. It Is across Jamaica Bay from Kennedy International Airport. I am a former Lufthansa German Airlines employee and in the Lufthansa History Book that all the employees received in 1976 upon the 

50th anniversary of Lufthansa, was a picture of a 4 engined Focke Wulff propeller plane that flew

nonstop from Berlin to New York City landing at Floyd Bennett Field. Had WWII not have occurred, it would have meant non stop flights between Berlin and New York City.

 

Ross
 
Explorers of the local Abandoned Edifice:

There are plenty of abandoned structures such as this around the Detroit are, too!

Somehow our old HUDSON building seems to be the only thing demolished, to date! (After all, if we were to eliminate more buildings, it would take years & money for replacing them & giving our increasingly dense population for someone to even move in there again!)

I have a friend, who, too, who goes into these places & somehow manages to come out w/o a scratch or a fine (& whatever treasures he can carry in his arms or his hand or fit in his truck!) while putting his photos on Facebook to boot!

Nice stuff in there, though...

-- Dave
 
You can find sites devoted to "forgotten" places in most every language for every country. Have seen such sites in German, French, and so forth.

There really is quite allot of abandoned property and or forgotten places out there, one only has to look.

Remember spending a long night looking at a site devoted to abandoned church yards, grave yards and other burial grounds located in England. Scary but none the less interesting.

Don't think many persons/governments intend for things to end up abandoned and or forgotten, just things happen, usually time. In all of our lives we can think of things that are supposed to be done, but we put them off for "tomorrow", then we die.
 
I think I have to agree with Gordon

Tom, I think the language you used was hardly appropriate when you responded to Dave's statement regarding these abandoned machines. To those of us who have been in the repair or restoration business for a number of years (for some of us, more then we would like to admit), what would be considered one man's trash in another one's treasure.
 
I am sorry for the tender ears. If I left out the word "hell," what about the response is harsh? Do you see the rust? Do you see the depth of the organic material and ceiling material on the floor that these appliances are sitting in? Do you see the evidence of the wet environment that cannot do any part of these machines any good? What would you pick of these "precious artifacts" to restore? Would you exhort someone to go into this building without seeing any of the access points or paths to grab these machines in a situation that would be trespassing and without knowing how far away you would have to park? Would you, as a restorer, pick any of these rusted hulks as a prime subject for restoration? I would hope you are not so desperate for machines that you would risk life and health to go after these. They are pieces of crap. Dave's response was an emotional outcry couched in ignorance of the subject. All he saw were old laundry appliances.

John and his brother Jeff and I began restoring appliances together in 1981 and we were doing it separately before that. In 1969 I took apart and put back together a 1958 WP combo with the old style pump and lint filter so I know a bit about restoring appliances, but you have to pick your restoration projects with a little more discernment than Dave's cry and you really try to avoid middling machines like these in a dangerous environment with phyto-toxins & animal waste all over. Fortunately, these would not have the fiberglass insulation to get saturated with rodent urine like some stoves we have reconditioned.

I am very sorry if I disparaged what you consider to be treasure; it looks more like scrap metal in a toxic environment to me.
 
Considering the age of these machines, I seriously doubt they would be worth restoring, even if you could get one good chassis out of these.

There is a lot of rot on those chassis. Even if you could find a good chassis, would you really want to restore an early-90's era machine?

Tom is right about one thing, the rust on the bottom of these machines looks horrendous. Who knows what the mechanicals look like on the inside. Chances are, these things have been sitting in a good six inches of water.

Look at how the ceiling has collapsed, these machines have been rained on. If you could get one of these working, it would be one heck of an investment. The wiring is probably quite delicate and fragile now.

It's a beautiful picture though.
 
When I was on the board of directors for the 1940 Air Terminal Museum in Houston at Hobby Airport we had to deal with a lot of these same kinds of issues. When our foundation acquired the building it looked very much the same way as the room pictured with the washer & dryers.

There is usually asbestos in these old types of buildings and you have to call in asbestos abatement contractors to remove all of it before you can. And they ain't cheap. It can take years of fundraising and work to restore something like that.
At the museum we had roof leaks where water would enter on the top of the building and leak all the way to the first floor through all the walls & floors. And rooms that look like this smell.

The room in the terminal that back in the 1940's was the nurse's office still to this day smells like iodine or merchurachrome even though the room hasn't been used in probably 40 years.


http://www.1940airterminal.org/history/galleries/current/asbestos/
 
When I was on the board of directors for the 1940 Air Terminal Museum in Houston at Hobby Airport we had to deal with a lot of these same kinds of issues. When our foundation acquired the building it looked very much the same way as the room pictured with the washer & dryers.

There is usually asbestos in these old types of buildings and you have to call in asbestos abatement contractors to remove all of it before you can. And they ain't cheap. It can take years of fundraising and work to restore something like that.
At the museum we had roof leaks where water would enter on the top of the building and leak all the way to the first floor through all the walls & floors. And rooms that look like this smell.

The room in the terminal that back in the 1940's was the nurse's office still to this day smells like iodine or merchurachrome even though the room hasn't been used in probably 40 years.


http://www.1940airterminal.org/history/galleries/current/asbestos/
 
Machines surrounded by dereliction can come good!

Hi guys.

A couple of years ago some photos were posted on an urban explorers website in the UK and were reposted on a Discuss o' Mat thread.

After a week or so of investigating and contacting the owner of the building, the machines were rescued by myself and another member.

The machines had resided in a derelict school in Plymouth, on the south west coast of England and are photographed in their old home below...

matchboxpaul++7-17-2012-16-16-45.jpg
 
The machines were purchased from the buildings owner and he was present when money changed hands, outside the building.

Would always suggest that permission is sought and gained, to prevent issues arising later. Plus its simply a lot safer - in my case the school had developed a reputation for being a bit of a drugs den and was in one of the less salubrious parts of Plymouth...

matchboxpaul++7-17-2012-16-20-21.jpg
 

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