Paterson, New Jersey has always struck me as a bit of an overlooked city as far as the urban exploring game is concerned. It is no secret that nearby Newark is full of ruins to explore, including many that have been abandoned far longer than I've been alive. The Silk City, however, seems to have a bit more uncharted territory to discover, despite the city boundaries being much smaller than Newark. Paterson being built specifically as America's first planned industrial city means it is most certainly loaded with ancient decaying silk mills and various other accompanying industrial ruins. Yet, it always surprises me how many of the old mills are still being "used"; while certainly not for their original purposes, they tend to have been converted into warehouses for storing assorted crap. This makes poking around the Silk City sort of an adventure in itself. Mills that look completely abandoned are sometimes not or perhaps only small sections of massive buildings are truly vacant.
Things seem to always be changing in Paterson too. One year a building may be loaded with squatters and the next year it has been completely cleared. Some of the most interesting stuff I've discovered in Paterson has been just from walking the streets and experiencing the city on foot. Such was the exploration of the old Reinhardt Mills, which was for many decades a blown-out, partially collapsed, red brick and wood mill complex built in the early 1900s. Maybe a decade or so ago, the mill was somewhat restored and stabilized and is now better locally known as the "Padded Wagon Building" based upon the large sign on the roof for a moving and storage company which can be seen clearly while driving Interstate 80. Earlier this year (2026), it was announced that the building may be reimagined as a multi-million dollar Digital Entertainment Studio, home to such garbage as "AI studios" and production stages for nontent creators and podcast dunces. I think I'd rather it stay as storage.
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