Drying Your Clothes The Old (Old!) Fashioned Way on the Upper West Side

This past weekend, I was scouting one of those gargantuan pre-war beauties along Riverside Drive. While in the basement, I accidentally walked into the laundry room and stumbled upon the coolest thing…

Check out these amazing laundry drying cabinets, easily 100+ years old!

Each slot features a vertical rack that slides out, with numerous rungs for clothes.

I’m guessing this dates to the building’s original construction in the early-1900s – perhaps this was once an area where servants did the laundry for their employers? Also curious if the interior of the cabinets was originally heated. Update! As readers Steven and Tom reveal in the comments below, these are gas-fired clothes dryers, similar in design to the wooden, chimney-heated cabinets used by the Shakers.

So funny to this early 20th century technology juxtaposed with that laundry money card dispensing machine on the right.

-SCOUT

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