Upstairs in Drexel Hall

Sometimes I take pictures and then sit on them a long time before I do anything with them. I have had dozens of pictures of Drexel Hall that I took last October sitting on my hard drive for months now, and in addition I have dozens of other pictures that I took about five years ago. The main reason I have not done much (I did a post here) is that I have too many pictures--it is much easier to organize a post when there are only a few pictures from which to choose.

Anyway, last October I promised a peek at what was upstairs in Drexel Hall, beyond the door that was supposed to be locked. There were hallways painted in bright colors.

There were broken light fixtures and and crumbling plaster.

Below is another hallway, this one a bit narrower.

 

This passageway was at the back of the building.

 

Peeling paint was everywhere.

 

In this bathroom the urinals were smashed into little pieces.

 

But in an almost identical bathroom they were still intact.

 

On the top floor the spaces were different. There were no individual dorm rooms.

 

Below is one of those rooms, this one a corner room. It has new windows, but nothing has been done inside around the windows.

 

Some of the windows allow a lot of air leakage. To restore the top floors would require a tremendous amount of work. I recall being in the building before the new windows were installed, and the condition of the top floors seems identical to what it was before any of the building renovation was done. Clearly they did nothing up there except to the exterior.

 

In the front of the building a bit of the old roof developed a leak before it was replaced. The leakage affected the floors all the way down as the water leaked from floor to floor.

 

I think this staircase was in the back of the building. It is rusted, and most of the plaster in the stairwell has come off the brick or the lath.

 

Here is another staircase. The rail at the top has been bent, which must have required quite a bit of force. There is insualation showing at the bottom that seals the first floor from the top of the building.

 

Here is a blog with some more information, and some links to still more pictures.

I have more pictures and will in time do some additional posts on this building.