From Dave Brigham:
When I drive by a place like this, and I don't have my camera....
....you know I'm gonna return to shoot it. Took me several months to get to the former Troy Mills complex in New Hampshire with my camera in hand, but I never doubted I would.
In the late winter of 2020, after jamming with The Slade Wiggins Band in Keene, NH, I took a funky way home to Massachusetts. I was a bit lost as I cruised through Marlborough and into Troy, but not worried. As I wound my way along Monadnock Street, all of a sudden I found myself staring at that industrial behemoth in the photo above.
"Where the hell am I?" I wondered. I slowed down and marveled. "I need to get back here," I told myself. Within 20 seconds, I was back on South Main Street, my usual route heading southeast back toward home. So I knew exactly where to go whenever I was able to return.
Earlier this month, I finally got my chance to kick around the town of Troy, including, of course, the complex that was once home to Troy Mills, which made horse blankets. I will write about other backside features of Troy in another post.
This old mill, which was established in the mid-19th century (I've been unable to pin down an exact date), is suffering like so many other industrial complexes I've featured on the blog over the years. And of course the town -- population 2,145 at the 2010 census -- is suffering too, both in terms of having a gigantic eyesore in its midst, and a loss of potential employment and tax revenue. But there may be hope on the horizon.
From Wikipedia: Troy Mills "served as the backbone of the town's economy for nearly 100 years. In 1865, the company was sold by founder Thomas Goodall, who in 1867 would establish Goodall Mills in Sanford, Maine. Troy Mills declared bankruptcy in late 2001, and ceased operations in 2002."
For a time, the mill complex housed two spin-off companies: Knowlton Nonwovens and Cosmopolitan Textiles, Wikipedia continues. The former company was acquired by Northeastern Nonwovens and moved elsewhere. I'm unsure what became of the latter outfit. In 2008, a plan was announced to renovate Troy Mills into a retirement community, according to to Wikipedia. I'm guessing the financial calamity of that year put the kibosh on that plan. At this point, there is little to nothing going on at the old blanket mill.
Here's a quick history of the years since the mill shut down, courtesy of this Keene Sentinel article:
"[T]he textile operation had left the land and buildings polluted enough that it was designated a federal Superfund site, and it’s easy to see how the closure could wreak havoc with the town for decades....The town’s signature business wound up in bankruptcy court in West Virginia, where the company’s headquarters had relocated. The town, seeking to protect a major source of revenue — Troy Mills accounted for about $1 million, or 8 percent, of the town’s tax receipts — and nearby property owners and residents, held a lien on the property. The court eventually awarded the entire site to the town.
"And that was the beginning of a lengthy saga that included the selectmen setting up a new panel specifically to deal with the property, multiple developers expressing interest, millions of dollars spent cleaning up the pollution, and lots of infighting and scandal. Much of this might have been avoided had the selectmen opted simply to auction off the property immediately. Planning board members and others argued for that approach, and brought the issue to voters, but as with other huge, vacated industrial sites in the region, the potential was too much to ignore.
"So it has sat, though not inactive. At times, parts of the buildings have been leased to other businesses. And there’s been [an] ongoing cleanup effort. The EPA substantially finished its Superfund work in 2005, but that was only part of the pollution. The rest was cleaned up over the next decade or so using more than $1.5 million in Brownfields grants and other funding.
"[T]he Troy Redevelopment Group, appointed by the selectmen, entertained a variety of developers and plans. Among the various visions woven for the site: residential condo units; senior assisted living; an upscale grocery store; a heated indoor swimming pool; a pharmacy; a health club; rooftop gardens; a movie theater; a hydroponic fish farm, distribution network and farm-to-table restaurant; storage units; a conference facility; high-speed Internet service; educational and research facilities; a charter school; and, of course, manufacturing.
An out-of-state developer announced a plan to spend upwards of $30 million to convert the mill into some of the above-mentioned uses, but eventually bowed out. In May 2020, a group called Cougar Capital offered to buy the site from the town, and to create 135 apartments there.
I'm not sure if an agreement was ever made with Cougar Capital, which, among other projects, has converted a former toy factory in Leominster, Mass., to apartments. I'll update this post if and when I find out more.
In addition to site clean-up and demolition, another thing a potential developer would have to deal with is the river running through the site.
Also on site (I think; this might be a separate property) is an old barn that looks great from the front....
...but which is collapsing in the rear.
I hope something gets developed at the old mill site. So many places like this have been turned into apartments/condos, senior living, artist lofts, etc. Hard to know what would work best in a quiet town in southwestern New Hampshire....stay tuned for a post about other stuff I found in my trek through Troy.
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