From Dave Brigham:
Since I posted about Clinton, Mass., in early 2016, I've been jonesing to get back there (see January 27, 2016, "Finding Hope, But Losing a Mainstay, in Clinton"). I drove through a section of the old mill town after exploring nearby Sterling back in November of 2019, took a few photos and made a mental note to return (see March 26, 2020, "A Sliver of Sterling"). Finally, in mid-April of this year, I got back there.
This is the first of two "redux" posts about Clinton, in which I will cover former mills and industrial spaces. The second installment in this mini-series will cover the main drags and their great old buildings, as well as other stuff.
In my 2016 post, which I wrote back in the days before I really got into exploring a town or neighborhood as deeply as I could, I skirted around Clinton's industrial past, just briefly mentioning the old Bigelow Carpet Mill. This factory and others defined the town for decades, and the buildings today are still woven into Clinton's fabric.
Originally part of neighboring Lancaster, Clinton split off in 1850 after it became clear that the latter, with its burgeoning inudstries and highly concentrated population, was largely incompatible with its more spread-out, rural "mother" town. The largest and most successful mills of Clinton were founded by the Bigelow brothers, Erastus and Horatio, beginning in the early 1840s.
Erastus, the more mechanically minded of the pair, invented a power loom to mass produce ornamental cloth bordering known as coachlace, according to this Bigelow Society article. "Horatio created a company to manufacture [the cloth]," the article continues. "They chose the name, 'The Clinton Company,' because of their love for the DeWitt Clinton Hotel in New York. Thanks to this new industry, the district first became known as Factory Village, then Clintonville. Bigelow's invention dropped production costs of coachlace from 22 cents a yard to 3 cents a yard and created many new jobs in the area."
In time, the brothers developed the carpet loom, and their Bigelow Carpet Company "manufactured the world's best carpets from 1849 to 1933," according to the arguably biased Bigelow Society web site. "Its carpets could be found in the White House, the U.S. Senate and House, the State House, the Waldorf-Astoria, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the SS Titanic, and many of the finest restaurants and theaters in the world."
The brothers also founded Lancaster Mills and the Clinton Wire Cloth Company, each of which I will discuss below. Let's get to the old Bigelow Carpet buildings for now.
I featured a photo of this mill building in my 2016 post. I just love the tower, and how boldly the name BIGELOW CARPET CO. and BUILT IN 1864 are chiseled into it. And of course the GIN RYE ghost sign near the base of the tower. I haven't found out why those liquors are painted there, but I assume there was a distillery or liquor warehouse here at some point.
Located on Main Street where Union Street intersects, this building's current tenants include Society Cannabis (not the only pot shop in a former Clinton mill building), carpet-cleaning business Pro Expert Services and H&R Auto Services.
There are multiple buildings between Main Street and the old railroad right of way just to the west. Bigelow Carpet also used buildings between Union and Pleasant streets.
(The above photo was taken in 2019.)
Part of the factory complex, now known as Blackstone Mills, is currently occupied by Phillips-Medisize, which manufactures various medical injection devices.
In my 2016 post, this smokestack was emblazoned with the corporate name INJECTRONICS. Phillips-Medisize acquired that company in 2016.
Across Mechanic Street, at the eastern end of the old Bigelow complex, is the Museum of Russian Icons.
The museum was founded at some point in the 1990s, in what the organization's web site refers to as a 150-year-old former mill building. I assume it was once part of the Bigelow complex. Plastics engineer, and member of the Plastics Hall of Fame, Gordon B. Lankston, who was president of an injection molded plastics company in Clinton, founded the museum after becoming quite enamored with icons during his first visit to Russia in 1989, according to the museum's web site. Lankston's company, Nypro, Inc., was located at the former Bigelow site. The company was acquired in 2013 by Jabil, Inc., which is now located at that site.
I was quite taken by two sets of rowhouses located a three minute walk from the mill complex. It's likely that factory workers lived here. The buildings may have been built or owned by the Bigelow company at some point.
(The Clinton assessor says these units were built in 1900.)
(This adjacent building rose in 1932, according to the assessor.)
Half a mile north along Main Street, we get to the next mill and mill-adjacent sites.
Located at 625 Main Street, the former Swift Cold Storage building rose in 1892, according to MACRIS.
Currently home to Country Dogs, a dog daycare and retail shop, this impressive and imposing building has seen better days. At some point in its history, it was also the site of the Witherell Shoe Factory. The Romanesque Revival-style building was designed by architect Warren B. Page. "Throughout the 20th century, the building was altered with additions, and the building has begun to deteriorate," MACRIS indicated in a June 2016 report. "In the early to mid-20th century, several window openings on the facade were infilled with concrete block."
The Swift/Witherell building is located in what's known as Depot Square, which features a nice little green space where Main, Sterling and Water streets meet. Directly across Main Street, on the southwest corner of Sterling Street, is Union Station, which dates to 1914.
I wish I'd gotten better photos of this gigantic slab of a building. "The station is a north and west-facing, Renaissance Revival-style, one- to three-story, brick building," according to MACRIS. "The building is seated on a brick foundation and topped with a flat and hip roof. The flat roof has an arched parapet at the north end, and is surrounded by a white terra cotta cornice. The hip roof has a white and red terra cotta cornice and is clad with terra cotta tiles."
I've never seen a brick train station with these types of details, which were obviously quite impressive in the depot's heyday. The station sits at the "intersection of two sets of railroad tracks, one at ground level, and the other, elevated set, crossing the Railroad Bridge over Main Street," MACRIS continues. "Union Station opened [in 1914], serving lines on two levels, the upper serving the Worcester, Nashua, and Portland Division (WN&P) and Central Massachusetts Branches of the Boston and Maine system, and the lower, the NYNH&H line linking Worcester and Fitchburg," according to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database.
When the mills in this area were running at full steam, I imagine this station was humming, with freight coming in and going out on one set of tracks, passengers arriving and leaving from the other. While the ground-level, north-south tracks are defunct, the east-west railroad is used by freight haulers CSX and Pan-Am, I believe. "Since the cessation of rail service to Union Station, the building has deteriorated and has been altered on the first story with the addition of commercial doors on the north and east elevations and infill of historic window openings," MACRIS reports.
To read more about the station and see some great photos, check out this blog post at I Ride the Harlem Line, a blog dedicated to transit.
Current tenants include Clinton Speed Wash Coin-Op Laundry, Six 20 Six consignment boutique and Regonini-Zoll Memorials.
North and west of Union Station, along Sterling Street all the way to Greeley Street, are several buildings that were originally part of Clinton Wire Cloth Company, another Bigelow brothers venture.
But first, let's discuss a building that I really love, from the painted brick to the mansard roof to the hint of a ghost sign.
Built in the 1870s for the Gibbs Loom, Harness and Reed Company, this beauty was converted to condos sometime late last century. "The building is a Second Empire-style, two-and-one-half story, nine-bay, U-shaped, brick building," MACRIS indicates. "The building is seated on a granite block foundation and topped with a mansard roof....The Gibbs company began as the Loom Harness and Reed company under George H. Foster and was taken over by 1868 by Gibbs, who incorporated the Gibbs Loom, Harness and Reed Company in 1874," MACRIS continues.
OK, let's get to the Clinton Wire Cloth Company, which was in business from 1863 to 1919, according to MACRIS. The former company's footprint is 11.49 acres and comprises nine parcels. Here are the technical details from MACRIS: "A combined 8.92-acre plot south of Sterling Street is bounded on the north by Sterling Street, on the east by the Springfield Terminal Railway’s north-south right-of-way, on the south by CSX Transportation’s freight line between Clinton and Leominster, and on the west by Greeley Street and consists of three parcels at 56 Sterling Street (...3.89 total acres), one parcel at 96–100 Sterling Street (...3.03 acres), and one parcel at 104 Sterling Street (...2 acres). The area also includes four parcels north of Sterling Street: a 0.59-acre parcel at 55 Sterling Street... a 0.36-acre parcel at 19 Parker Street...a 0.87-acre parcel at 10 Parker Street, and a 0.75-acre parcel at 89 Parker Street that is disconnected from the main area boundary."
Across the north-south railroad tracks from Union Station is the former weaving and winding mill for the wire cloth company, dating to around 1910.
Currently occupied by Consignment Gallery at 56 and Lloyd & Bouvier, Inc., a wire and cable manufacturing operation, this building was also the main office for the wire cloth company. The Romanesque Revival-style building rose in 1882, per MACRIS.
(Details from newer part of the weaving and winding mill. I took these photos in 2019; I don't believe these details still exist.)
(Clinton Wire Cloth Company office entrance.)
Across Sterling Street from the former main office building is #55, below, which was built in 1904 and served as a storage and electric welding building for Clinton Wire Cloth, according to MACRIS.
From MACRIS: "In 1911, the building stored wire and reels on the first floor and wire netting on the third and fourth floors, and the electric welding department occupied the second floor. It is a south-facing, Italianate-style, three-and-one-half-story, 8-by-14-bay, rectangular, masonry industrial building."
(Detail of Clinton Wire Cloth Company storage and electric welding building.)
(Boarded-up entrance to the former storage and electric welding buildng.)
55 Sterling Street is currently occupied by AIGA Eye on Design, something called Custom Window Treatments Drapery Workroom and perhaps other businesses.
I wish I'd taken more photos of the buildngs along Sterling Street on my most recent trip. I mistakenly thought I had more from my previous visit in 2019. Anyway, I did shoot photos of some buildings along Sterling and Greeley streets that were also once part of the Clinton Wire Cloth operation.
Located just north of the train bridge at Rigby Street, this is the former galvanizing building for the wire cloth operation. "A conveyor at the northeast corner originally connected the building to the annex of the No. 10 Hex Netting Building," per MACRIS. "The building was constructed in 1914 and is a west-facing, 13-by-8-bay, rectangular, masonry industrial building." A steel-frame building was added in the late '60s or early '70s, seen below.
Businesses in these buildings include Keith Industrial Group, Inc., which provides high-quality chiller solutions for industrial and commercial use, per its web site; Varise Bros. Florist, which has been family owned for more than 90 years; T.C. Lando's Sub & Pizzeria; and Breakaway Billiards Sports Bar & Lounge.
I will get to more outlying Clinton Wire Cloth Company buildings in a moment, but first I want to point to a site across Greeley Street from the former galvanizing complex. There I found a gigantic empty lot that had obviously been cleared of several buildings.
Here's the same view from Google Street Maps, from several years ago:
A company called Rockbestos Surprenant Cable Co. was here most recently, but I believe these buildngs were torn down around late 2007 or early 2008. I found a Town of Clinton Master Plan from 2009 that indicates oil and hazardous materials exist at this site. I don't know whether redevelopment is planned here. This site is listed alongside several others in a separate Town of Clinton Open Space & Recreation Plan from 2016 about contamination, but it's not clear whether this site is being considered for green space.
Now, back to the wire cloth outer universe.
At 89 Parker Street, about a five-minute walk due north from 56 Sterling Street, was once Clinton Wire Cloth's perforating building, according to MACRIS. "The building was constructed after 1894 by the CWCC as an offsite foundry connected to the main complex by spur lines on the B&M [right-of-way], converted to a perforating facility by 1915, and expanded northward between 1938 and 1963."
Today the building is home to cannabis operation New England Harvest.
As for Clinton Wire Cloth, the company in 1919 merged with Wright Wire Company, Morgan Spring Company of Worcester and two subsidiaries, the National Manufacturing Company and Miller Wire Company of Worcester, according to MACRIS. "The Clinton-Wright Wire was incorporated with a capital stock of $12,500,000. The Spencer Wire Company...joined shortly thereafter, expanding the organization to the second largest wire company in the country. The nextyear Clinton-Wright Wire Company purchased the Wickwire Steel Company of Buffalo and formed Wickwire-Spencer Steel Corporation, the second largest steel corporation in the world.
"During the Second World War, concertina and heavy wire netting for air fields were produced in the Clinton plant. In 1944, Wickwire-Spencer Steel Corporation was bought by Colorado Fuel and Iron. The Clinton operations were closed fourteen years later. Of the ten buildings, some were sold, to Standard Signal and Sign Company and Van Brode Milling Company."
Just a short distance further north along Parker Street, is another building that isn't listed as having been part of the Clinton Wire Cloth empire, but it served some sort of industrial/warehouse role for some company.
The building was most recently used by MPHW, Inc./77 Recycling, which specializes in the postindustrial recycling of plastics.
If you were to walk north-northeast across the railroad tracks, you'd see a remnant industrial smokestack next to the CVS (located on the former site of Mass Chair, Inc.), and then come to a partially demolished industrial building along Main Street.
Currently occupied by Continental Cabinetry, this very long, one-story brick building dates to 1960 and was once home to Quantum Chemical Corp. According to this LoopNet listing, the site is a proposed new retail development on 2.84 acres. "Initial concept plans include multiple pad sites with flexibility on the size of the buildings and opportunities for drive-thru establishments," the listing indicates. "The developer will accommodate specific tenant requirements upon request."
I'm going to wrap up this review of some of Clinton's mills with a gigantic complex on Green Street, hard by the Nashua River.
The Lancaster Mills was the Bigelow brothers' first venture, founded before the carpet mill and wire cloth company. "In 1845, Erastus Bigelow received a patent for the manufacture of ginghams of complex patterns as well as checks and the next year such cloth was being produced by his power looms in the Lancaster Mills," according to MACRIS.
"The site chosen for the new mill on the banks of the Nashua River was one of the oldest industrial sites within the present Clinton town limits," MACRIS continues. "Elias Sawyer settled there in the late eighteenth century, but apparently did not meet with success as little is known about his venture other than the fact that he sold the remnant of a dam and an incompleted building to James Pitts in 1810. Pitts, who did not occupy the site until 1815, had a fully operative multi-purpose mill powered by a seven foot water fall by 1816. During his tenure the mill produced a variety of products including cotton, lumber and wire.
"When the Lancaster Mills Co. acquired the property in 1844, the complex was entirely rebuilt, and the wooden buildings which housed Pitts' activities were moved to the Sidney Harris Comb Factory at 525 Water St....The first structure [for Lancaster Mills] measured 614'x46' and ran parallel to Green Street. The dam was reconstructed to provide a fall of thirteen feet and a canal was dug. Power was supplied by three 26' breastwheels each capable of producing 75 horsepower. This was supplemented in times of drought by a 250 horsepower steam engine. The original wood dam-works were replaced with stone in 1867; it has been rebuilt and strengthened many times since, the last being in 1930.
"The original structure was demolished and another one story structure (256'xl74') which housed carding, spinning and weaving operations and was lit entirely by skylights was erected. A three story packing house (181'x72') and a one story dye house (182'x96') were also constructed to the southeast of the Main Mill. By 1877 there were over 1,500 looms in operation at the Lancaster Mills."
The mills shut down in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. In the 1930s the principal owner was the Colonial Press, which for a time was known as "the World's largest book bindery under one roof," per MACRIS. In 1977 the Press closed operations and the Lancaster Mills sat vacant and unused until 1981, when the complex was purchased by NIUNA Corp., a Massachusetts-based real estate development corporation, according to MACRIS.
The western portion of the old mill complex has been refurbished, renovated and redeveloped into The Lofts at Lancaster Mills, which comprises 202 apartment units.
The eastern section of the complex is rougher-looking and still used for commercial purposes.
Known as MacGregor Mills (and before that Amory Mill), this taller section of the old mill complex is home to Newton Bindery and Dunn & Co. Legacy Publishing Group, which offers a "full line of high-quality greeting cards and fine paper-based gift products," per the company's web site.
That's a wrap for Clinton's mills. Make sure to check back for a post about the town's main drags and other features.
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