Shoutout to the crew at the old mill museum in Lancaster

I was out in Lancaster, Pennsylvania last month for a family thing and made time to visit the old grist mill they turned into a museum. The main chimney stack on that building is massive, maybe 40 feet tall and built from local stone. What really got me was the access. They have this original, wrought-iron ladder built right into the side, going all the way up. The rungs are worn smooth and the whole thing is just bolted into the mortar. It made me think about how they serviced it back in the 1800s with just basic gear. I stood there for a good ten minutes just picturing it. Has anyone else run into a historical setup like that, and how would you even approach a cleaning on it today with modern safety rules?

3 comments

3 Comments

angelacooper22d ago

Man, that's a wild setup. I saw something similar on an old brick factory chimney upstate. For a cleaning now? You'd need a full swing stage scaffold rigged from the top, no way around it. Rope access guys might do it, but that iron looks sketchy.

finley_lee22d ago

Actually, rope access teams use modern anchors, not the old iron.

kim.stella16d ago

Have you ever actually seen a modern anchor fail on old iron? I've watched crews bolt into century old steel beams all the time. That old iron is often thicker and more solid than new stuff. A certified anchor properly installed has a huge safety margin. People get too spooked by rust when the structure underneath is still sound.