Abandoned Paint Factory, Baltimore

On Saturday morning, Emily, Mukul and I went scouting around Baltimore and ended up exploring an abandoned paint factory which used to produce paint for ships and boats but closed down in 1988.

 

 

  There were some interesting doorways and the many windows let in plenty of light along with gallons of rainwater which dripped continuously from ceilings and pooled in large puddles on the floor.

  

This 'doorway', which was actually just a painted rectangle on the wall, and windows reflected in the water kept me busy for a while with my camera.

  

There was still plenty of color on the walls and empty tanks although paint was peeling in great chunks and dropping to the floor from the damp.

  

Rusty paint lids were scattered on the floors along with labels but not a paintbrush in sight!

  

This old temperature gauge was hidden behind smashed glass and a few broken desks were disintegrating in crumbling offices.

The building sat empty until 1995 when Environmental Health found drums, tanks, vats and thousands of containers with solvents and paint related materials. There were also underground and above ground storage tanks filled with similar materials which had to be emptied and removed.

A tank must have been removed from here. The removal action cost $1.4 million and a later clean up in 2001 cost $800,000. There has been little interest by developers since then so the factory remains open to the elements and fellow explorers.