The second of a few big industrial wastelands I explored last month. I have a thing for the places like this and they made a nice break from all the pretty churches and schools and stuff.
Brownsville is one of the many deprived satellite towns surrounding Pittsburgh which was heavily dependant upon industries that no longer exist. I first visited the town back in 2017 and explored a whole bunch of stuff, but since then the town has had a bit of a demolition spree with more than a few of the once-derelict buildings cleared so it doesn't look quite as blighted as it once did.
History
There actually isn't too much in the way of interesting or concrete history about this place. It had a pretty standard life, opening in 1903 but then closing in 1917 just prior to the introduction of prohibition laws in the state. It reopened in 1933 but lasted only a couple of years as a brewery before closing for good in 1935. It produced many long-gone regional beers including Brownsville Beer, Bock, High Proof and Pilsener.
Post closure the building housed multiple other business at the same time, Fashion Cleaners (an industrial laundry company) being the biggest, whose ghost sign can still be seen on the outside. It was also home to Fashion Stitch, Water Street Coal & Stone, and Fastek Equipment and apparently had apartments on the top floors for a while.
It's been sat derelict for a long time now slowly decaying on the outskirts of the town. It's a handsome early 1900s industrial building and it would be great to see it get a new lease of life as it's still surprisingly solid.
Explore
Another very simple one as was to be expected. We parked up and walked around back and there was a father watching his two young kids ride around on mini bikes which was very wholesome, we greeted him and left him to it. Once inside it became a game of hunt the possible compressors from the ice house, however all we could find were some ancient boilers, it seemed the ice house compressors had long since been removed unfortunately. There wasn't much else left inside other than a couple of industrial washing machines and hundreds of dumped tyres on multiple floors. It was at this point late in the day where I really began to struggle in the heat, I think I was definitely on the verge of heat exhaustion and after a little while of barely being able to focus on taking photos any more we called it and left for the beauty of the air conditioned car and the world's best shower back at the hotel.
Thanks for looking
Brownsville is one of the many deprived satellite towns surrounding Pittsburgh which was heavily dependant upon industries that no longer exist. I first visited the town back in 2017 and explored a whole bunch of stuff, but since then the town has had a bit of a demolition spree with more than a few of the once-derelict buildings cleared so it doesn't look quite as blighted as it once did.
History
There actually isn't too much in the way of interesting or concrete history about this place. It had a pretty standard life, opening in 1903 but then closing in 1917 just prior to the introduction of prohibition laws in the state. It reopened in 1933 but lasted only a couple of years as a brewery before closing for good in 1935. It produced many long-gone regional beers including Brownsville Beer, Bock, High Proof and Pilsener.
Post closure the building housed multiple other business at the same time, Fashion Cleaners (an industrial laundry company) being the biggest, whose ghost sign can still be seen on the outside. It was also home to Fashion Stitch, Water Street Coal & Stone, and Fastek Equipment and apparently had apartments on the top floors for a while.
It's been sat derelict for a long time now slowly decaying on the outskirts of the town. It's a handsome early 1900s industrial building and it would be great to see it get a new lease of life as it's still surprisingly solid.
Explore
Another very simple one as was to be expected. We parked up and walked around back and there was a father watching his two young kids ride around on mini bikes which was very wholesome, we greeted him and left him to it. Once inside it became a game of hunt the possible compressors from the ice house, however all we could find were some ancient boilers, it seemed the ice house compressors had long since been removed unfortunately. There wasn't much else left inside other than a couple of industrial washing machines and hundreds of dumped tyres on multiple floors. It was at this point late in the day where I really began to struggle in the heat, I think I was definitely on the verge of heat exhaustion and after a little while of barely being able to focus on taking photos any more we called it and left for the beauty of the air conditioned car and the world's best shower back at the hotel.
Thanks for looking
