Having a Whale of a Time in New Bedford, Part IV

From Dave Brigham:

In a series I published last summer, I covered a LOT in New Bedford, Mass.: old theaters, ghost signs, cool architecture, a jail, churches, murals, a former candleworks, a giant tea kettle, new development, a whaling statue and much more (see June 22, 2024, "Having a Whale of a Time in New Bedford, Part III", June 15, 2024, "Having a Whale of a Time in New Bedford, Part II" and June 8, 2024, "Having a Whale of a Time in New Bedford, Part I").

But I knew there was more to explore. Today I am sharing the fourth part in this series, featuring all sorts of great stuff I found on my return trip: a former Sunbeam bread factory, an old ladder manufacturing plant, some cool old signs, a 94-year-old hot dog stand, an ivy-covered mill building and much more. I hope to visit the city again in the not-too-distant future.

After parking at Riverside Skateboard Park, I walked past some massively long old mill buildings hard by the Acushnet River. I was happy to see that some of these have been redeveloped into housing and office space. I thought there was still a mill operating here when I saw the bright and shiny Cliftex Corp. sign at 170 Riverside Avenue.

But Cliftex is no longer producing its Clipper Craft suits for boys and men. More than a decade ago this massive building -- measuring 130 feet deep by 598 feet long -- and others in the area were converted to apartments, per this South Coast Today article from 2013.

The building, known historically as Manomet Mill No. 1, dates to 1903, per MACRIS, and was "built for the manufacture of Mule Spun combed yarns....At the peak of it's (sic) activity, the entire Manomet complex was New Bedford's largest cotton yarn manufacturer, with 318,000 spindles and between 4,000 and 4,500 employees. Manomet No. 4 was the largest single spinning unit in the world."

The building "was sold in 1928 to the Delaware Rayon Company," MACRIS continues. "The structure, built of brick...stood three stories in height. The Delaware Rayon Company changed their name to New Bedford Rayon. The company remained in business until 1970, when a fire swept through Manomet Mill No. 1, and New Bedford Rayon was liquidated. In the same year, Cliftex Clothing purchased & refurbished this mill."

A nearby mill complex is home to menswear company Joseph Abboud. I was happy to see so many old buildings given new life.

Heading southwest on Belleville Avenue, I spied the Whaling City Club.

The building dates to 1896, according to the city's assessor's office; I'm not sure how long the club has been in existence.

I got back to my car and was heading west on Coffin Avenue when I slammed on the brakes, made a U-turn and got my bread-loving ass out of the car to make the shot below.

This former Sunbeam Bread baking plant dates to 1934, but has been empty for nearly two decades, I believe. This site is where My Bread Baking Company was founded in 1912, according to MACRIS. "In 1927 My Bread Baking Company joined the Quality Bakers of America Cooperative, Inc., of New York," MACRIS continues. "After the Second World War, Quality Bakers affiliates acquired an exclusive license to bake and sell Sunbeam Bread, doughnuts, rolls, muffins, and sweet goods. The bread was first produced in Philadelphia in 1942, but the 'batter-whipped' process for which Sunbeam Bread is principally known was pioneered by Joseph P. Duchaine" of My Bread Baking Company.

"In 1955 [the company] was bought by the New Bedford Baking Company," according to this New Bedford Guide article. "[I]n 1996 First Citizens’ Federal Credit Union purchased it and in 1998 it was resold to St. Louis based company Earthgrains. When it closed its doors in 2005, it employed approximately 180 people. Malden-based corporation Lucar Development LLC bought the property in 2006 for $725,000....In 2011, New Bedford Baking Company opened discussions with the city to reopen the Coffin Avenue facility and begin baking again. They figured it would take $8 million to being the building up to code, repair and purchase equipment, and get up and running. Getting the facility going again was projected to create 150 new jobs. Alas, nothing came to fruition and the property [was put] up for sale."

I'm not sure of the status of the building today.

As for Sunbeam Bread, the company's "long-time mascot is called Little Miss Sunbeam, according to Wikipedia. "In 1942, illustrator Ellen Barbara Segner was commissioned by the Quality Bakers of America to create a marketing symbol of a young child." In the summer of 2020, I stumbled across a Sunbeam Bread delivery trailer in Wareham, Mass., that features a faded image of Little Miss Sunbeam (see August 4, 202, "A Little Sunbeam").

My next destination was about a mile due south from the old bread factory, but I ended up finding something completely different than what I'd planned for. Ahead of time, I'd found via MACRIS the old Grinnell Cotton Textile Mill on Kilburn Street, just south of I-195. The complex is huge and held some promise, but it wasn't quite gnarly enough for me, which is a good thing for the many small businesses located there. Instead, I walked around the corner onto North Front Street and found....

...this amazing site.

Built in 1887 as a drug store, this place was constructed for Louis Normandin, according to MACRIS. "The building’s north and south halves remained a store and drug store, respectively, until at least 1924. By 1927, the building was owned by the Grinnell Manufacturing Company," MACRIS continues. By 1955, the building was in use by the Cape Cod Ladder Manufacturing Company, whose sign is still so prominent today. I assume Cape Cod Staging -- as seen in the roached-out metal vertical sign -- was part of the same business.

Located in what is known as the Hicks-Logan district, the old shop/factory is part of what New Bedford's mayor, Jon Mitchell, referrred to as the "most distressed neighborhood in the city," in this January 11, 2023, article from The New Bedford Light. That story is about a redevelopment plan for the area that's been in the works for many years.

The plan calls for, among other things, an "inland area west of Belleville Avenue and North Front Street extending south to Wamsutta Street" for residential, commercial and some limited industrial use, according to the article, and a "smaller waterfront area east of Belleville and North Front" for waterfront-related uses and possibly hotels and restaurants.

From there, I headed north to a section of Acushnet Avenue, where at #1637 I spied a building that I thought might be an old theater.

It's not. This building dates to around 1920 and is known as the Happy Home Furniture Company building, according to MACRIS, which provides no further details. One source online about Whaling City history indicates the store had a Sunday radio hour on local station WNBH.

The current tenant is Sugar Daddy's Tanning salon.

I headed south on Acushnet Avenue for a ways, and then doubled back. Along the way, I saw a handful of cool signs, a mix of old and newish.

(The One 2 Five bargain store is out of business.)

(Mi Antojo (My Craving) Market is located in the the Allen-Charrette Building, which I mentioned in Part III of this series.)

(I really like the sign for the Casanova Gift Shop, especially the clock.)

(Around the corner on Coffin Avenue, renovation work has brought to light an old sign for Mainline Paints. This building was (maybe is?) home to the Portuguese Times and the Portuguese Channel.

(I'm always happy to see new signs that make an effort to stand out, such as the one at Lord Utmost School of Martial Arts.)

As I continued north on Acushnet Avenue, crossing over Earle Street, I did a double-take.

Wow. Just wow.

I've been to a few Italian festivals in Boston and other locations, but I've never seen a welcoming gate like the one in New Bedford for the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament. This past summer the community enjoyed the 108th such celebration, which featured four days and four stages of live entertainment, as well as a special procession on the opening day and food and drink and more food and drink.

According to the festival's web site, the feast is the largest Portuguese Feast in the world, and the largest ethnic festival in New England, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the globe.

Steps away is a legendary New Bedford takeout joint.

Charlie's Hot Dog Stand traces its roots to the 1930s, when Charlie Poulos began selling food in a temporary spot at 1648 Acushnet Avenue. In 2018, the stand closed "due to health issues," according to a Facebook posting. I'm not sure when it reopened, or whether it was closed at any other time in the last 90 years.

Across the street is Samuel's Place, a breakfast joint and "waffle heaven" that unfortunately has hung up its chef's hat and waffle iron. It was located in what's known as the Dr. Bertha F. Carl House, which was built in 1896.

On the side of 1700 Acushnet Avenue, heading down Nash Road, is a ghost sign that's so worn I couldn't make out anything.

The commercial building rose in 1919, according to MACRIS. At least I know that the advertisement was painted by a company called Gaudette Signs.

My time running low, I left Acushnet Avenue and drove south to the area of Rodney French Boulevard, to check out some old industrial properties. Rodney French, by the way, was an abolitionist, politician and merchant who served as mayor of New Bedford in the mid-19th century, according to Wikipedia.

At 63 David Street, I liked the rough look of the building and the sign for Allen Gasket Cutting Machine Company.

I'm not sure when Allen Gasket was founded, but it was no later than the 1930s. In 2012, The Allpax Company of Mamaroneck, New York, acquired "certain assets" of the company. The building is shown on a map for the MACRIS file about the adjacent Butler Textile Mill property, with information indicating this building was erected in 1921, and was used to manufacture insulating plastics.

Fronting on Rodney French Boulevard and running between David and Mott streets, the former Holmes Manufacturing Cotton Yarn Mill is quite an imposing presence. And even though the complex is in decent shape, I could've made a ton of my usual gritty old factory shots. But I went with two softer images.

(Industrial vent and lovely hydrangeas.)

(I believe this ivy-covered building was where administrators worked.)

Ccurrently a distribution center operated by Cornell-Dubilier, which makes capacitors for the power electronics industry, this giant complex dates to 1909. "Holmes Mfg. specialized in high quality (sic) mercerized combed yarn for crocheting, it was the first mill in the city to 'mercerize' cotton yarns," per MACRIS. Merriam-Webster defines mercerize as "to give (a material, such as cotton yarn) luster, strength, and receptiveness to dyes by treatment under tension with caustic soda."

Hmm. This seems to foreshadow an environmental problem.

MACRIS continues: "Because of the high quality of the fine yarns made here, two very special kinds of cotton were used. Egyptian and Pima cotton were used....During its peak production, the mill produced 200,000 pounds of yarn per week. The mill was equipped with approximately 65,000 spinning spindles.

"Holmes Manufacturing ceased operation in 1931. Holmes sold out to Kendall Company in 1934. Land, buildings and equipment were sold for $100,000. Kendall added 800 looms and manufactured gauze and diaper material until 1940. Kendall closed the plant in 1940 as a non-profit-producing unit. In 1940, Cornell Dubilier purchased [the] plant."

Now, I don't mean to single out Cornell-Dubilier or the prior tenants of this mill complex for environmental issues. Any factory or manufacturing plant is going to, unfortunately, produce toxic waste of one sort or another. It just so happens that in searching for information about this site and the present occupant, I came across a June 1, 2022, article from The New Bedford Light headlined, "New Bedford looks to end its 40-Year environmental nightmare," which focuses on two companies: Aerovox and, you guessed it, Cornell-Dubilier.

"By the late 1970s, it was clear that Aerovox, along with Cornell-Dubilier (a second electronic capacitor manufacturer on the South End peninsula), had done quite a job on the New Bedford-Fairhaven Harbor," according to the article. "Not to mention the city’s landfills. In fact, the two companies had spilled and dumped so many dangerous PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) into the Acushnet River that the site was to become the largest Superfund (EPA cleanup) site in any harbor in the country."

Wow.

In 2010, the federal government reached an agreement with Aerovox's parent company to demolish its building, which sat directly across from the Cliftex site mentioned at the top of this post. The site remains vacant. The company also commmitted to paying $366 million to clean up New Bedford Harbor.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced last year that it had secured an additional $73 million (I'm not sure from what source) to finish cleaning up the harbor. "The EPA announcement...included the fact that the state of Massachusetts has reached a deal with Cornell-Dubilier to fund $3.6 million of shoreline remediation along the remediated harbor and $400,000 for the state’s cost of operating and maintaining the Superfund remedy," per the article.

Here's hoping the harbor finishes getting scrubbed ASAP.

I have more New Bedford sites in mind, so keep your eyes peeled in the coming months (years?).