With the completion in 1907 of the washhouse at the largest coal mine in the Ruhr region, Shaft 1/2/8 became the central hub for the miners of the Zollverein Coal Mine.
The washhouse is a changing room with showers, designed for 3,000 miners. In the "white" washhouse, the miners removed their street clothes, and in the "black" washhouse,
they removed their work clothes in baskets, which they then hoisted up to the ceiling.

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