The Old Ballston Spa Tannery

Broken windows and tangled vines make up this old building in Ballston Spa, NY. Although this building has had a multitude of different uses, the most notable one was it being a tannery. A tannery is where they tan animal hides and make leather. The original land of this site was made up of various smaller buildings that were involved in tannery services. However, 1945 started a five year construction of the immense, 80,000 square foot building we see today. This main building replaced all the other smaller buildings on the site. The tannery was in function, by different company ownership throughout, from 1887 to 1960. Rumor has it that it was the largest tannery in the U.S. at one time. From 1970 to 2011, the building was used by a company called "Angelica's," where they cleaned hospital linens. For the last seven years though the building has sat empty. It's extremely prevalent that nature is beginning to take back this historic building. Lush, green ivy leaves are growing on the spreading vines around the building. You can see in the following pictures how extensive it's spread throughout. Without the ivy leaves, the prevailing, brown vines are hugging almost every corner of this building. 

The front of the building held the largest portion of ivy on it, although there were still great spots of green surfaces in the back, more than half of the front was covered by the immense amount of foliage.

 

More windows appeared as I starting walking around the vast property. The picture above this text showed the side of the building that was getting hit with the most sun. Shattered windows and fading, red brick were showcased here. The picture below shows the shaded back of the building before it curved around to where I could see the tower on the left side of it.

We're now at the very back of the building. You can see stairs perched on the back of the tower. The sun doesn't hit the back here so frequently so the brick is a bit more bright maroon compared to the suntanned side bricks. The ivy leaves and vines are also not as ubiquitous back here. On almost every door leading to the inside, there's a sign that says "no trespassing." Based on the derelict look of the building, I can tell those signs have been ignored and the building has been extensively bullied. I wonder how long the dark interior of this building has been sitting with no visitors to brighten it up again.

This was the only spot where you could walk inside of the building. Doesn't it look inviting with the thick surrounding vines and dark interior? The rooms didn't lead to any other hallway of the inside of the rest of the building which is probably why no one has boarded it up. As you can see in the pictures right below, there wasn't anything too interesting in here. The windows are smashed open so the plants outside are starting to poke their way in. I can see two carts in the back of the bottom, left photo which looks like remnants of Angelica's linen cleaning business.

This was a small creek that ran equal to the sun-kissed side of the building. This creek, as well as some vegetation, divided this property from a mechanic shop next door.

Right behind me when I was facing the back of the building laid these ruins. Crumbling piles of brick and decaying, stone edges were here. My best guess is these are the remains of the various small buildings on the site that got replaced by the 80,000 square foot building. It was truly an outstanding site to see.

In the picture above, this graffiti riddled spot was above the large piles of bricks. It must have been a more intact part of the old structures, but from down below it looked like a man-made cave.

As you can see, this building, although run down and neglected, is beautiful and strong. At the front of the building, there's a sizable sign out front advertising the time and place for when this land will be auctioned off. That's probably why no one questioned why I was going around the perimeter of the building taking pictures, they most likely thought I was interested in buying the site. Even though I'm not, I sincerely hope that the next owner of this land will clean it up and restore the building. The tannery was not this site's first use, there's an ample list of businesses that have owned the land here. I hope Angelica's will not be the last functioning company to take use of this building. It has a rich history and so much potential for new use, let's hope the new owner sees that. If they don't, I'm thankful I had the opportunity to document its memory here.