This Old Federal Bank Vault Holds Haunting Remnants Of The Nation’s Past

When the Exploring with Josh YouTube channel uncovered an abandoned bank, you might have expected to see teller’s windows, plain carpeting, and the remnants of a queuing system. But the video also turns up some things that might well surprise you! We’re talking about remnants of the past that are evocative of a world that’s now vanished.

The bank is an old federal facility, a large building. This isn’t your local Wells Fargo, but an edifice that has all the hallmarks of the grandeur of the Federal Reserve. Or at least, it did, once upon a time. It’s now abandoned and left to local graffiti artists and mice.

When the explorer reaches the vault, he’s confronted by all the best in security. A heavy, thick door and a whole suite of locks are between him and what’s inside the vault. He has to hope whoever last walked out of this area didn’t bother to lock the door on their way out.

The building provides a compelling and intriguing insight into the past, a monument to days gone by. It’s a place you rarely see these days, somewhere still holding a forlorn beauty despite the crumbling of years of neglect. And what’s actually inside the vault brings that past right back to life.

The trip into the bank vault appears in two videos uploaded to the YouTube channel Exploring with Josh. This page is packed with explorations of buildings and places that have been abandoned. Sometimes it’s scary, but it’s always entertaining. The same creator has a gaming channel called JustJoshing, but this is his main gig.

So, who is the man behind Exploring with Josh? Well, the eponymous Josh is a Rhode Island native, one of three boys in his family. There’s not much out there about his childhood or where he went to school, but we do know he enjoys photography and loves to dance.

The young man, not yet 30, is modest about his success. In the “about” section of his channel, he says of himself, “I’m just a dude with a camera.” On Facebook, he explains that he’s a “YouTuber/TV show host exploring the less traveled around the world while having a lot of fun!”

Josh has become pretty experienced in the YouTube business. He started up his channel back in 2013. At first, it featured videos of him dancing, but soon he started to indulge his urge for adventure. Nowadays, you can find videos of Josh exploring buildings of all sorts and natural wonders such as caves and parks.

It’s fair to say the channel has proven very popular. At the time of writing, only eight years after its inception, Exploring with Josh has been viewed on nearly half a billion occasions. More than four million people have subscribed to the channel, which means they see the output every time Josh uploads something new.

So, is Josh looking for treasure in these abandoned places? Not unless you consider photos “treasure.” He says, “I do NOT vandalize or cause any trouble. I go explore abandoned buildings/ forgotten places because that’s what I love to do. I take pictures of the places I explore because to me they are nice. You can see them on my Instagram or Facebook.”

The explorer doesn’t just stick to the United States, either. No, he’s been all round the world to take a look at buildings that are abandoned in other countries. Some of the places he’s been to include Hong Kong, Germany, and Japan. And he’s had some hair-raising experiences, including when a ghost apparently slammed a door shut!

The videos of the federal bank vault have proven to be one of Josh’s greatest hits. Right now, just the first part of the two clips has been viewed more than 17 million times. That’s a lot of clicks in barely six years since it went online. But it’s typical of the fascinating content that Josh specializes in on his channel.

Of course, Josh has a bunch of other very popular videos. Plus, a notable feature of his channel are the various playlists he compiles of related videos. These offer several clips that are strongly connected to one another, though not necessarily because they’re filmed in the same abandoned places. For instance, they might be tied together by the same theme or they might all be set in the same country.

An example is the Hong Kong series. In one video in this playlist, we get to see the inside of Josh’s own apartment in the city. Then in another, we visit an abandoned school, which is littered with dolls that are frankly creepy. And that’s not all, as we also get to enjoy exploring the world’s smallest Disneyland.

In another series, Josh takes us to Chernobyl, the site of a nuclear disaster in Ukraine. Thanks to the first video — which is full of eerie, wintery scenes — five million viewers have joined the explorer in the area. The area — once home to 50,000 — is, as he describes it, a ghost town nowadays, and the series lets us get a good look at it.

Elsewhere in Europe, Josh explores abandoned parts of Italy and other countries. In the series “Abandoned Europe,” you’ll find a mansion no one lives in anymore, a hotel that no one stays in, and a graveyard for French aircraft. You can even see one that got away: a gothic castle that had been partially demolished before Josh could enjoy showing it to us.

In his “Curse of the Mummy” series, Josh gets a bit more sunshine, as this time he’s visiting Egypt. And yes, that means pyramids! Well, of course it does. This guy is in heaven with abandoned monuments that are spooky and interesting. He even finds a mummy in one pyramid.

But Josh doesn’t always focus on countries or regions. No, in “Beyond the Dark,” the videos are all about scaring the bejesus out of us! Haunted castles, ghost mansions, abandoned hotels — you name it, he’s been there. And, of course, he’s come back with tales of exploration of these places where things go bang in the night.

Back to the federal bank video, though, and we find our intrepid explorer outside the abandoned building. He shows us a scary-looking tunnel. Inside it is John, who’s going to be helping him with the video. Josh tells us he’s going in, just to get to the interesting bit. In they go!

Courageous John leads the way through the cramped tunnel, and we’re already wondering whether this will be one of Josh’s scarier videos. But there’s nothing more frightening than spiders in this crawlspace. Soon, Josh emerges into a graffiti-strewn hallway. He’s up in the offices, he tells us, and he’s going to take a look around.

It’s an eerie landscape. Trash lies everywhere, as though the workers left in a hurry. Josh tells us, “You can tell this place is literally old and destroyed… There [are]… trees growing in this room.” He explains that he’s wearing a mask because the conditions are so unhealthy and possibly dangerous.

Next, Josh discovers an old elevator, much like the ones you see in cafes in movies — but pressing the button doesn’t summon the cage! Of course, he’s not going to take the elevator. After all, probably no one has for many years. Instead, he climbs upstairs to the next level of the bank building.

Walking into an office, it strikes Josh how old everything is. There are computers — broken into pieces, but still recognizable — and lots of papers and files floating around. There’s even a kitchen, which looks pristine. Josh jokes that it’s nicer than his own kitchen, and it does look kind of out of place among all the trash.

Josh points out a chalkboard, contrasting it with today’s whiteboards. The chalkboard is adorned with graffiti, similar to the tags that sit on the wall behind it. The explorer pushes on, up another flight of stairs, where he finds more office space. This part of the building is barer, with less stuff, and another nice-looking kitchen.

Next, the wanderer stumbles across something he says is “awesome.” Certainly, it’s big. Josh claims it looks like something out of an ’80s burger joint, a door that once opened into a “weathermaker.” This seems to be some sort of air conditioning equipment, labeled by Josh as “sick.” He pushes it on his hinges, then he moves on.

The next stop is by some machinery, but it’s not clear what it once powered. What excites Josh is that he finds a blueprint on the next level up. It’s kept extremely well, and the tiny writing on it is still readable. It’s an amazing piece of history, even if it’s not clear to us what it’s a blueprint for.

Leaving the blueprint, Josh climbs one last set of stairs and emerges onto the building’s roof. Although there’s a fine view out over the unidentified city, Josh has been disappointed by his journey so far. It’s just been floors full of trash — this isn’t what he came for. He’s going to have to go to the lower levels to find something more exciting.

As Josh goes down a couple levels, his excitement rises. The discovery of a payphone reminds us this is a real trip into the past. Looking at the ceiling above the elevators, Josh sees that it’s ornate, in contrast to the banal office spaces above. He expresses his approval, remarking, “Now this is sexy!”

Josh then enters the main hall of the bank, and he’s blown away. He says, “We found it!” Certainly, we can imagine the elegance of this grand hall in days gone past. Huge pillars hold up the ceiling, and the artistry of the walls is still evident, despite the peeling paint.

The explorer points out where the tellers worked. He’s amazed by this — it does look like, with a bit of tidying, it could operate tomorrow. Josh notices lines of chairs, where people could sit to wait. He notes that it looks like a DMV, with a desk for people to be “checked out” at.

When our host comes across a fireplace, he reflects, “I feel like I’m in a mansion.” He looks over the detailing, which reminds him of Greece. Then he steps up to a mezzanine that holds small offices — the places where customers could fix the details of loans and so on.

Now it’s time to move on, and Josh goes in search of the vaults. Winding around fancy rooms, he hunts. Finally, he sees a doorway with arrows, which point him into a bathroom area. Not quite what he hoped for! Finally, part one draws to a close, right on the brink of discovering something amazing…

It’s the vault, of course! Josh turns a corner, and there it is. A barred door with strong, interlocking wheels stands before him. He says, “It’s the jackpot!” Admiring the door’s fixings, he notes it looks like those on the Titanic. The locking mechanism intrigues Josh and his buddy. It’s lucky that the door is open. If it wasn’t, there’s no way he’d be able to get in.

Josh peers through some bars at the room where the money would have been kept, but it’s impossible to get through. There doesn’t seem to be any money there now anyway! But he’s not done yet. We join Josh again on his descent to yet more vaults. Will these ones be more interesting?

This vault is dark, but Josh is fearless! He moves inside the vault — and he then finds a letter. It’s an insight into the past: a demand for a refund of gold. But that’s not all there is in this place. More documents in there tell fascinating tales of their own.

Josh has found thousands of letters, a treasure trove for historians, all abandoned in this vault. One relates to an intriguing tale of stolen merchandise and a police operation. But there’s no time to read them all, so he pushes on. He moves through rooms full of checkbooks and receipts, to more trash, and then out he goes. The visit is over.

When asked about the experience by the U.K. newspaper the Daily Mail in September 2015, Josh said, “In some parts, the building was like a horror movie. The bank must have been so grand when it was opened with its ornate decoration. Even though most of it is falling apart and vandalized, it’s still interesting. When we got to the massive vaults, a couple were still locked, but they were rusting.”

But Josh wouldn’t share the location of the bank. He said, “Others were open and it was fascinating to walk around rooms that would have kept expensive and precious items so secure. I don’t want to say where it is as it could mean people go in and destroy it.”

So, what was the best part of the experience for Josh? Well, he explained it was almost the last thing he’d found. He told the Daily Mail, “Of course it’s amazing to explore the building itself, but the letters were my favorite part. There was just so much personal correspondence lying around.”