Office of the Dead

From Dave Brigham:

This quaint little abandoned building in Winchendon, Mass., was just the fix I needed on a recent trip up and back to New Hampshire.

I'd gone to Keene, N.H., to play music with my longtime friend Ken in a little combo we're calling The Slade Wiggins Band. On my way back home to Newton, Mass., I passed through Winchendon, a small burg on the Granite State's border that is known as Toy Town. I stopped for a few minutes to check out the town's replica giant toy horse (see July 18, 2019, "Trotting Through Toy Town"), but felt I needed something more to satisfy my suburbex urges.

As I drove east on Route 12 toward the outskirts of downtown, just before Gourmet Donuts, I looked across a small body of water and spotted a telltale smokestack. That could only mean one thing: an old mill.

After continuing on Route 12 just a short distance, I turned north on Glenallen Street, figuring I'd try to loop around to the northwest and find that stack. I passed two graveyards -- the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery and the Calvary Cemetery -- and noticed the above building on the same side of the street as the latter burial ground. I made note of it but kept driving.

I didn't want to delay my arrival home too long, so after just a short time, feeling like I was heading in the wrong direction to find the old mill, I turned around and headed for the faded little building in the photo above (looking at Google Maps later I realized I could've made that loop, but I surely would've found more and more things to explore and didn't have the time). On my way back, I noticed an old brick building hulking through the woods. Noticing no public driveway, I put it in my mental notebook for another time. Subsequent research online has led me nowhere about this possible old mill hard by Millers River.

In a minute or two, I pulled into the parking lot for this well-weathered building with the perfect patina, looking like something out of Suburbex Monthly.

After walking around the place, I ventured inside. I'm not in the habit of crossing the threshold of abandoned places in cities, but nobody (living) was around in this quiet town and so in I went. There was plenty of light inside and I was sure nobody was in there having sex, doing drugs or playing rock and roll.

This place used to be the office for the Cavalry Cemetery, I guess. There wasn't much to look at on the first floor, so I went upstairs.

Things were a little more interesting up there.

And a little spookier.

For more about cemeteries, see:

September 10, 2018, "A Boneyard Within a Cemetery"

October 20, 2017, "Dead Reckoning"

January 13, 2012, "Peaceful Rest"