After our discovery of the concrete stack at No. 3 we knew that the boiler house ruins would not be too far away. Near the base of the stack was a collection of concrete remains which looked to have once been the stack’s flue. We follow them a short distance before we came across what looked like a foundation wall capped with sandstone blocks. Most likely this was an outer wall for the boiler house, with the sandstone marking an old window or door opening. Beyond it was the buildings basement, now simply a large whole in the ground. We dropped down to investigate.

Amazingly the moment we dropped down into the building’s basement (and below the surrounding underbrush) we found ourselves surrounded by poor rock walls. The walls stood nearly 10 feet in height, and were in remarkably good shape. Inside the floor was covered with leaves and brush and a few small saplings, but nothing that we could identify as belonging to a boiler house. But these walls and the smokestack nearby meant that this could be nothing else but a boiler house.

Those walls that surrounded us were featureless and without any windows or openings- save one.

Sitting at the far end of the boiler house was this impressive opening. Lined with bricks and topped by a gentle arch the opening looked to have once encased a door. Interestingly, it was hard to tell which side was the inside and which was the outside in the building’s current state of ruin.

Here’s a closer look a the doorway’s brick lining. A good deal of the bricks have since fallen off, but a few have managed to remain. Like most of the bricks we have found in our journeys these have also been nicely weathered smooth.

Stepping through the doorway we took a look at it from the opposite side. Though we were pretty sure this was the outside facing side, it looked a lot less finished then the face we saw on the inside. Weird.

Making our way back inside, we followed the wall to see what else we could find. Before long we found ourselves back at the smokestack, but it was there that we noticed something else very familiar – a hoist foundation. This time it appeared the hoist was inside the boiler house…