Large Pots

Great shot - very interesting composition. But after ~Me got me last time, I shan't make nary a comment about the size of these vessels. :-( [pouting]

Maybe these ones were used to make cookies, as long as they didn't impliment the dreaded "One Milk Only" rule.

Maybe Dayton State School had a more liberal milk policy than Linton . . .

Lynne, no HARD feelings meant. So please stop that pouting! :) It is unbecoming of such a lovely lady as yourself.

[batting eyelashes and blushing]

Now, That is much better!

Big urns for soup. Institutions did well with soup. Soup was cost effective and didn't involve any dangerous cutlery for the patients!

Soup is the perfect food. You can make anything into soup. Even if you're down to bare essentials, chances are there's at least SOMETHING in the pantry that you can boil in water and convince someone to eat. I dunno, though, I find the assembly line attitude evident in the picture more than a little depressing.

These are called "Steam-Jacketed Kettles". As someone else mentioned they are used to make soup. You can also make sauces, cook pasta or masked potatoes etc. The ones in this picture seem to be in pretty good shape. Although I'm sure they are quite old, their design has not changed much.

they musst have alot of people to feed.

there called steam kettles

I find it very interesting some of these stainless steel appliances have been preserved so well, in comparison to their surroundings.

Yet, my stainless steel cutlery and large appliances look like crap after just a few years. ;)

These may have served as laundry-tubs too.

This school is like a prison

Plenty of Porage for everyone!

this place was a prison & cruel!

the pots look super clean almost as if someone licked em clean before they left...

you people could just might be way off...

I sat in those things yesterday

dever was not a prision it was a institution for the retarded back in the day they did some cruel experiments though before they understood why people were that way

I'm pretty sure we used stuff like this when I worked at the dining halls at college... maybe not quite that big, though!

it was not like a prison at all you had to work there to get it .my first job was in the kitchen. this is how they all ate,very good cooks i might add......................................

I worked in that kitchen. The people I worked with were the best. The picture only shows a little of the kitchen. Too bad it had to close down.

soylent green

i need one of those at my place

Im surprised their not corroded

My son was nin hours old when he did. it is the hardest thing to go through, the hospital asked me if I want to do the ceremony or do you want us to do it, I was so sick than and my family decided, but if I know that morgues look like this it would of been a different decission. I've been crying ever since I feel that I own something to my son I wish I can go back but I know is to late, and when I read some of the comment i think is sick. I believe that if you did not go through this losing someone you should not make a comment. My only wish right know is that I wish morgues are handel better and I wish i did a ceremony for my son and I hop God will forgive me Nora Dedushi Prendaj

Nora that's the kitchen.

i used to work in the kitchen at the paul a dever school. everyone is close. those pots were used to make soups, yes, hot cereal, lots and lots of frozen broccoli and other frozen vegetables, clam chowder, corn chowder. the turn-vavles that you see to each of the kettles to the right was to tip the kettles after it was thoroughly washed where the floor drains that you see to discard the dirty wash water. yes, they were very very clean. when i had time to myself, i even helped the cooks finish up before the end of my shift.

Industrial, darn those are huge...

yum institution food

I started working in this building back in 1985,this was my first real job after graduating High School I and still work for the state now, some 25 years later. These were used for all of the purposes mentioned above. Yes the staff that I had the pleasure to work with back then were awesome and the food was of exceptional quality. I feel that it is a shame what has been allowed to happen to the buildings and the property as a whole. Some of the buildings as well as the bandstand area were used as sets for the movie " The Surrogates " starring Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames. the exterior of the kitchen building was made to look like an abandoned elementary school. In the movie,they were part of the dread community. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to take pictures of the buildings as they appeared in the movie and got to actually talk to Bruce Willis as well. I agree with Jo Q & nanadoone totally... it wasn't a prison setting, and you had to work there to "get it".

*cooking purposes, not laundry...lol

The chicken soup was delicious but you would have been wise to stay away from the fish.
Nurse Fronsenna was nice.

EW X Patient, you ate EXPIRED soup??? That's gross!!!!

like u said Thad you had to work there. the kitchen was the best place to work. the food was good and eveyone got along . I haven't seen anyone since I left. remember the chute that we would throw the trash bags down and press the button for the compactor. to crush the trash and throwing down cabbage crates to hear them crunch. and smoking on the stair wells . lily mercier would catch me smoking and i would say its not me lily.

I heard that these pots are like, extremely clean and it's eerie.

Looks like a drum set o_o

my father has a nice picture of those kettles, we've been there, u could feed an army out of those things lol

I worked in the Kitchen in the Summer for several years between 1979 and 1982. We made sauces and cooked vegetables in the kettles. We made the meals for the whole facility and some were fed in a cafe that was part of this building and the bedridden patients were fed in the buildings with delivery via a panel truck. The facilities were very clean and the food was of very good quality. It wasn't as bad a life as people think for the patients. They had gardens to tend and exercise facilities. Some of the patients were abandoned by families and this was the only real home and community they knew. When they were cut loose and sent into the community many were just plain lost souls at that point. My sisters also worked in the Laundry facility.