Waiting Area

Mr. Motts, Was there overhead plumbing visible?

What the hell were these for? This picture is almost as creepy as "Basement Room". Come Lynne. We need your expertise.....

My best guess is that this was the shower area and the small drawers or shelves to the side were where you would put your clothes while you showered. Or perhaps they had numerous laundered hospital gowns or robes in there for after people showered. There were times in the history of institutionalization when there was very little money for patients, and the state bought bulk clothing which everyone wore.

Thanks Lynne ~ I keep getting creeped out by some of these pictures until you explain. LOL

Interesting!! there is a "knee-wall" with tables and floor drains through-out, a shower room does come to mind opposite the knee wall.

One point to mention, through all the rooms and all the buildings I've not seen a laundry as of yet, surley they must have washed something, somewhere......ummmmmm.

All institututions had/have full scale industrial laundries and most have their very own power plants, kitchens, and garages.

That's what makes this a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
We see the power houses, we see the kitchens, but we see no laundries.
Most laundries used steam from the power house.

Mott has a mission, to be completed by only the bravest and most nibble, to dig deep into the bowels and search out the laundries.

The most nibbles, Hehe.


I like this new guy Bob, I do, yes I do.

Hey! I was just looking for that same picture to show Bob! Great minds do think alike!

Yea! I guess your right Motts, they're boring when in-use anyway, so you do make a very good point about the laundry after life.
I guess i just needed to feel complete, and the link completed me.

~Me; good catch, no idea how i got "Nibble" from "Nimble" but the more I read it the more I laugh at my silly self.

Nibble on these, if you will! :-)

http://www.opacity.us/image2736.htm
http://www.opacity.us/image2672.htm
http://www.opacity.us/image1285.htm
http://www.opacity.us/image303.htm
http://www.opacity.us/image342.htm

Thanks Lynne.
I guess laundries make me feel a little dirty in a sick sort of way. Man! I'm demented.

Anyway, there is still so much more of this site that I haven't seen yet, off I go->

Don't feel bad (dirty), Bob. I met my Hubby in a laundry room of a motel we worked in, Laundries can be fun!

or maybe we are both demented?

Apparently there was no such thing as privacy. Yikes.

i've had nitemares that looked just like this. holy crap.

THIS AREA WOULDN'T MAKE ME WANT TO WAIT AROUND MUCH! UGH!

Woah thats creepy if you look up. Everything just goes black.

I find it strange that there are so many of them. Isnt it a point to try and not have too many patients together in one room. I thought it would be safer. Maybe there is another explanation for this because i truly believe they didnt have 10 patients bathing at the same time nonetheless 40.

the industral laundry for the entire hosp. was located behind administration bldg along with power plant mattress shop etc.

is there any way to get inside to check this out for ourselves!?

this is really creepy looking.

very cold looking place

It looks like a room that people would write letters to family members.

In my comments on another picture I mentioned a former client who had a phobia of showers after several decades of institutionalization. I never was able to get a completely accurate description of what had happened during showers in the institution, but the image I have formed in my mind, sadly, fits well with this photograph. Bits and pieces I have gathered have included a large room, many patients, benches along the walls, and the impression that "showers" were from staff with a hose rather than from plumbing fixtures. I hesitate to post this, because I know some will likely jump on it as yet more evidence of how these facilities, although started with the very best of intentions, came to be staffed with sadistic predators who victimized the patients every moment of every day. What is absolutely crucial to remember is that virtually every staff person did the very best he or she could with what was available for doing the job. There was never enough money, never enough space, never enough help, never enough material, never enough time. THAT is what we must never forget--what happens when we set impossible standards and then turn our backs. I am not posting this to sensationalize what may have happened (again, I am just saying that this picture matches pretty closely the image I had formed in my mind from patchy bits of recollections I was given, not to say that I KNOW how this room was used), but to say that neither can we hide from the truth. I really hope my mind's picture is wrong. Also, the person to whom I am referring had developmental disabilities and was not able to bathe independently. Situations may have been different in facilities for patients with mental illness (although often the two populations were mixed in those years, so trying to clarify only makes the picture muddier).

A few years ago, before any of the buildings were torn down, me and a few friends came here to explore, and I sat on these very benches. I had such a weird and eerie feeling, sitting on the same benches as everyone did in this hospital. I wish I still had all the pictures from here. I have a few up on my flickr.
www.flickr.com/casino_brawl

But it is a same that they tore the buildings down.