Inside the Abandoned National Silk Dyeing Co.: Paterson, NJ's Forgotten Textile Mill (Photos)

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  The text message from my friend J was simple: a list of addresses in Newark and Paterson. An invitation. An urban treasure map with Xs marking forgotten places. I picked the one on Piercy Street. Pulling up, I saw the building wasn’t exactly hiding. It was a behemoth of brick and colorful lettered graffiti, a whole city block of decay. A door gaped open next to an old loading dock, but the scene gave me pause. Mounds of illegally dumped trash lay along the floor of the loading bay. This part of Paterson has a tough reputation, and the open doors felt less like an invitation and more like a dare. I took a deep breath and stepped inside. The air was thick with the smell of dust and damp. I found myself in a vast, open space littered with plastic containers and skeletal metal shelving. I moved deeper, drawn toward the old boiler house section. Before I reached it, I walked into a room that stopped me cold. Everything was stained a deep, blood red. A fine crimson powder coated the fl...
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Abandoned Camp Rock



When one spot is a failure you move on to the next.






I had my sights on this spot for a long while. It wasn't until Sunday that I was in the area after exploring a previous spot to check out its theater and bowling alley. After pulling away from another spot that was quite open and risky to access and explore I ventured here. Pulling through the back I butted up on a deer who just stood to stare at us chewing on its cud before a loud CSX train passed by with the loudest sound I've ever heard from a train as it dashed away into the bushes.



Pablo the Deer


Building One Exterior 


Building One Interior






Squeezing through a gap in the fence we came upon four boarded-up buildings lined up neatly surrounded by heavy vegetation. Nothing special or of note was found inside any of the buildings. One building to the far left looked like a stable for cows. The center building was locked and seemed to hold unknown items in storage and the first building on the right was completely empty. This was the only building that still had electricity running to it.  All in all, not a bad site. Even the not-so-interesting spots can be small but still significant. A and I would never have met that friendly deer or built those rocks alongside the small water management stream behind the residential houses.















Building Two



Building Three - The Barn


Updates: As of May 2023, satellite activity picks up the renovation or reuse activity on the property. A revisit soon.

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