Quite a few of Maine's towns were built specifically to house employees of factories and mills during the industrial age. Follow any of the major rivers and you'll probably encounter dozens of them, yet very few are still in operation- most of these mill towns are struggling to survive in the shadows of these old Victorian husks.
Here a woolen/textile mill in western Maine during its heyday:
This mill was originally built around 1880. One wing was built in 1929, some of the smaller buildings seem newer. I've found court documents online referring to paycheck disputes here during the mid 1990's. The whole place seems to have abruptly closed right after that, leaving tons of machinery, paperwork, and personal effects behind to rust and rot.
Urb-Ex time!
All shots were taken by me with a Samsung S850 8.1mp point-and-shoot. My friend Steve was using a Canon Rebel, I'll have to see if he's willing to let me post some of his photos later since he's not registered here.
Part I
Looking out over the river from a shaky bridge. The closest white building is an active hydroelectric plant.
Sweet, free bikes! Mill-town rivers are full of delicious mercury, some are rumored to have been nearly flammable in the past.
Once you're past the red furnace building, you're pretty much hidden from the main road.
Looking back towards the rear entrance of the furnace building. We later found a tunnel running under the pavement.
"No Trespassing?" Totally didn't see that, no siree.
Past the smaller office building, looking back. Never found a way into this one.
Side of the 1929 wing.
Workshop building (I guess?), opposite the 1929 wing.
Detail of workshop building's front corner.
... oh. :awesome:
That black metal building in the back was inaccessible, the only door into it was barricaded with planks of wood screwed on from the outside. Nothing could be seen through all those oddly unbroken windows.
It's probably where the grues live.
A shed full of pipes and an enclosed fire hydrant. Strange place for a hydrant.
Inside a loading dock, looking down into the first floor of the workshop building.
Makeshift step down from the loading dock, very damp in here.
Big old scale facing the loading dock, attached to an iron platform in the floor.
Rear of the workshop building, first floor. The windows open directly into a rock wall. There's a line of workbenches to the side, covered in tools and chemical bottles.
Box of gears under one of the broken windows.
Front of workshop building, first floor. Loading dock is to the far right, stairs upwards are found behind that sliding fire door. There's also a pretty icky dessicated pigeon somewhere to the left.
What could be inside those open desk drawers?
Metal filings! Fuck yeah!
A lone gear hanging out with some articles about corporate fraud on the desktop. Odd.
Time to go upstairs.
Oh good, a doorway to death!
Farther down that wall.
Back windows, facing into the steep rock wall again.
Not really sure of what's inside that metal section.
More gears!
And another damned gear.
Some sort of pneumatic device half-buried in old burlap sacks.
Alright, screw this building. Let's go back outside.
Wood shaving silo at the far end of the main mill building, behind the first-floor woodshop (seen later.)
Laying on my back inside the silo, looking straight up.
It's starting to rain, better get inside the main building.
The loading dock door to the main building was jammed, but a door just out of frame on the right was unlocked.
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