Stafford Springs, Part I: The Mills

From Dave Brigham:

Up until this month, on the rare occasions when I thought about Stafford Springs, Conn., I imagined the stock-car track there. That's it. But when I looked at Google Maps recently and realized that this village in the town of Stafford has 19th-century mills and commercial buildings of the same era, I knew I had to find out more.

Regular readers will recall that of late I have explored former (and, in some cases, still somewhat current) mill towns on the route between my house outside Boston and my mother's home in Connecticut. To date, I have tromped through the Rockville area of Vernon, Conn., (see April 24, 2021, "Zooming Through Loom City, Part I: The Mills" and April 30, 2021, "Zooming Through Loom City, Part II: Other Than the Mills"); and Southbridge, Mass., (see July 30, 2021, "Keeping an Eye on Southbridge, Mass. (Part I)" and August 18, 2021, "Keeping an Eye on Southbridge, Mass. (Part II)."

Incorporated in 1719, Stafford initially was, like most towns in New England, a farming community. The Industrial Revolution brought mills to the town, especially to Stafford Springs, which sits astride the Willimantic River. By the mid-1800s, a railroad connected the town to the rest of New England, and a trolley ran to the aforementioned Rockville.

One of the mill complexes that still stands in this north-central Nutmeg State town rose in 1853 as the Converseville Company, according to this fantastic Hartford Courant article that I relied on heavily for this post.

(Now part of the American Woolen Company, the buildings in the above photos have been home to a variety of mill operations over the past 168 years.)

Located along Furnace Avenue in the heart of the village, the mill complex is still known to many as, and has signage for, the Warren Woolen Company.

"In 1879, [Parley] Converse sold the textile manufacturing company to brothers Daniel and Thomas Warren, who would rename it the Warren Woolen Company," according to the Courant article. "In 1890, it was acquired by J. M. Valentine and would continue to be operated by him and subsequent family members almost uninterrupted for the next 80 years. In 1978, the mill was acquired by Joseph Anderer and the name changed to Warren Corporation. The well-known Italian clothing company Loro Piana purchased the mill in 1988, but difficult economic times and competition from abroad forced the company to close its doors in the spring of 2014."

I'm amazed that these mills were in continuous operation from before the Civil War until the year that a robotic spacecraft landed on the Agilkia comet. And part of that time by an Italian clothing company! But the story doesn't end there.

In June 2014, "Jacob Long of American Woolen Company purchased the mill and reopened its doors once more," according to the Courant article. "The mill remains the only Connecticut firm which still manufactures woolen cloth using the entire process from raw wool to finished product."

That's pretty cool.

I also shot photos of another former mill downtown.

The former B.P. Cooley Mill faces River Road; its backside overlooks the railroad tracks. Now home to businesses including a town-run thrift shop, a dance studio, a book store and several artist studios, the old mill building dates to 1875. William Smith & Co. was the original occupant, according to this wonderful history from Preservation Connecticut. From the 1870s until the 1930s, the company was known as Smith and Cooley, manufacturing woolen products. Buildings were added over the decades. Benjamin P. Cooley acquired the company in 1936 and reorganized it as B.P. Cooley Co. There were other ownership changes until the wool company went out of business in 2002. In 2005, a town resident acquired the building from an outfit that had used the mill to reprocess wool for clients such as the baseball manufacturer, Rawlings, according to this Journal Inquirer article.

There's a cool mix of old details and funky new artistic ones around the complex.

That wraps up a few mills in Stafford Springs. Stay tuned for a future article about more of the downtown shops, parks, statues and more, as well a post about the nearby race track.

Keeping an Eye on Southbridge, Mass. (Part II)

From Dave Brigham:

Welcome to the second, and final, installment in my short series about Southbridge, Mass. (see July 30, 2021, "Keeping an Eye on Southbridge, Mass. (Part I)"). Once known as the Eye of the Commonwealth, due to the importance of optical product manufacturing in town, Southbridge is home to tons of beautiful old commercial buildings, churches, storefronts and homes, as well as remnants from the city's heyday as a manufacturing center. In this post, I will spend quite a bit of time on the former American Optical facilities, as well as current and former churches and other neat stuff in and around downtown.

Let's start with the elephant in the room.

(The one-time headquarters of American Optical, located along Mechanic Street. The building is now home to the Southbridge Hotel & Conference Center.)

The company that became American Optical was founded in 1833 by William Beecher, who had set up a jewelry business in Southbridge seven years prior. In 1843, Beecher was the first in the United States to produce a pair of steel eyeglasses, according to the company's web site.

Eventually, Beecher's apprentice, Robert Cole, bought the business. In 1869, American Optical was founded via the merger of at least a handful of companies, if I'm reading this document correctly.

In the ensuing decades, the company reached milestone after milestone, from manufacturing the first rimless spectacles in 1874, to becoming the largest optical company in the world in 1892, to developing the original "aviator" glasses in 1935. In 2019, the company moved its manufacturing to Illinois. American Optical had by that time already begun to reduce its footprint in Southbridge.

According to the web site for a guy named Dick Whitney (also linked in the prior 'graph), who worked at AO, the company closed its various operations in phases over the span of a few decades. The glass plant shuttered in 1979; the fiber optics business was sold in 1981 and is now Schott Fiber Optics, which is located in Southbridge, including in some of the former AO buildings; the company's casting and lens-making operation moved to Mexico in 1992; the warehouse closed in 2001; AO Ophthalmic R&D closed in December 2006; and AO Safety announced the closure of its manufacturing outfit in June 2009.

There is still an AO facility on Ashland Avenue, a little more than two miles from the former American Optical main campus. There are other optical industry facilities in town, as well. Lensmaster Optical, for instance, doesn't manufacture spectacles, but it does make "coating frames, vacuum chamber fixtures, vacuum chucks, diamond tool truing, templates and processing fixtures." I don't know what any of that means. United Lens provides plenty of services (but not spectacles), such as thin film coating, polishing, annealing and precision machining for industrial clients. There is also the Optical Heritage Museum, which has galleries featuring, among other things, antique spectacle frames and cases; protective eyewear; an American Optical collection; and a history of Southbridge.

Let's get back to some photos of the former American Optical complex.

There is a mix of old and new buildings on the site, some occupied, many not. Some buildings have been rehabbed and are occupied by companies including Stonebridge Press, SBC Energy and Franklin Realty Advisors, which I believe owns the site; others are awaiting redevelopment and new tenants. I was a little unsure whether I was trespassing, so I just drove along, taking pictures and waiting for someone to tell me to stop. Nobody did.

Now known as the Southbridge Innovation Center, the property contains 1.2 million square feet of commercial, industrial, manufacturing and hotel/conference space, spread across 150 acres, of which 20-30 are developable.

Southbridge Associates, an arm of Franklin Realty Advisors that operates the complex, has announced plans to add neary 150 affordable housing units, a training site for Massachusetts law enforcement, walking trails and public water access to the Quinebaug Reservoir. Having explored many former mill towns, I'm well aware that all of these visions may not come to fruition.

(Cool sculpture across the street from the former American Optical headquarters.)

I wish Southbridge and Franklin Realty Advisors all the best in their redevelopment efforts.

OK, let's move on to a few more things I stumbled across on my second visit to Southbridge. After exploring the old American Optical site, I walked through the downtown a bit more, as I had during my prior trip.

Located between Central and Foster streets, the Corner Pocket seems like a tidy little place. It is located directly behind the Ammidown Building, below.

Built in 1874 and currently home to Savers Bank, this handsome brick structure was named, I assume, for Holdridge Ammidown, who was an early owner of the business that eventually became American Optical.

A little further east along Main Street I really dug the sign outside Gordon LaSalle Music, which has been in business since 1979.

On the opposite side of Main Street I spied what I'm guessing are the remnants of a thrift store.

A block in from Main Street, along Elm Street, is the Southbridge Evening News (I'm bummed to report that I missed a ghost sign nearby, a photo of which I'd seen on Flickr).

Built as a private home in 1832, this Greek Revival building is known as Tiffany-Leonard House, per MACRIS. In 1812, according to MACRIS, Bela Tiffany and his father and brother, James and Lynman, and Samuel Slater formed Slater & Tiffany, which operated the first cotton mill in Webster, which is about 10 miles east of Southbridge (MACRIS misspells Tiffany's first name as "Bella."). Bela (and perhaps his kin) sold his share in the busness in 1816, after a downturn in the market. He moved his family to Southbridge and had this home built in 1832. Businessman Manning Leonard acquired the home in 1855; his family owned the property until the late 19th or early 20th century, I believe. The rear wing on the house is a later addition.

The Southbridge Evening News is published by Stonebridge Press, which operates 10 other newspapers, including the Auburn News, the Blackstone Valley Tribune and the Woodstock Villager.

Just steps away from the newspaper office on Elm Street is the Romanesque Revival Southbridge Town Hall.

Built in 1888, this beautiful building served as town hall and the high school until 1927, when a new school was erected, per MACRIS. The fantastic statue in front honors the men of Southbridge "who served their country in the war for the preservation of the union."

The rest of this post relates to former and current churches, including ones located in non-traditional places.

You wouldn't know it to look at this old warehouse/factory/mill, but it's the back of a church. This is one of a handful of industrial buildings along Dupaul and Goddard streets. I've been unable to find out how old the buildings are, are what their original uses were.

Currently, this particular building is home to the Southbridge Church of Christ. I've seen plenty of "storefront" churches before, but not many located in former industrial sites.

This isn't the only house of worship located in the old manufacturing/storage buildings.

Iglesia de Mesias has found a spot, too.

And finally, fronting nearby Marcy Street is Iglesias Pentecostal de Dios Vivo.

This house of worship is located in the same building as Paul's Automotive, a machine and repair shop.

Located on the corner of Main and Hamilton streets, the former Southbridge Universalist church dates to 1841.

This Greek Revival stunner has been, according to MACRIS, home to a book store, a clothing store, apartments and office space over the years. I'm not sure what's in there today.

Just a little north-northwest from that church is the First United Methodist Church/Sovereign Grace Chapel.

Erected in 1843, this wonderful Greek Revival church appears to be in great shape.

I'll finish this post with arguably the most amazing building in Southbridge, and one of the most stunning churches I've ever seen. My photos don't do it justice.

Completed in 1916, the Notre Dame Church "is constructed of white marble with a red Spanish tiled roof, and measures 190 feet in length," according to the web site for the St. John Paul II Parish. "The nave is 78 feet across and the transept is 123 feet across." The tower rises 210 feet, and the level of detail on this building is amazing.

The church -- despite its size, it's not a cathedral, as Notre Dame isn't the church of a bishop who is the pastor of a diocese -- was built for the French-Canadian population that had moved to Southbridge to work at the mills. "By 1852, the Catholic community had multiplied such that land was bought for the first Catholic Church which was dedicated on September 15, 1853 in honor of Saint Peter, Prince of Apostles," according to the church's web site. "By 1869, the French-Canadian community had grown to the point that it became its own parish on November 29. A large wooden church was built on Pine Street and completed for an opening Mass at Midnight for Christmas of 1870. The parish grew quickly with an influx of immigrants from the farms of Canada to the mills of Southbridge."

I didn't get inside, but my favorite detail on the outside is the massive bronze doors.

There are five pairs of doors. "They were cast by Gorham’s of Providence, RI," according to the church's web site. "The theme of the decoration of the doors is the Mysteries of the Rosary. The style of the doors is French Romanesque, with an ornamental border and moldings adopted from some French cathedrals; they are molded in mezzo relief. The outer borders hold niches with statuettes representing the 12 Apostles. The total weight of all five pairs of doors is more than seven tons; they open on hydraulic hinges installed in 2004.

OK, that wraps up Southbridge. In the near future I'll be posting at length about Stafford Springs, Connecticut.

A Lovely Walk Through Roslindale Village

From Dave Brigham:

Sometimes I pore over online maps trying to find a place to explore. Other times, a location just pops into my head. That was the case with my recent walk through Boston's Roslindale Village neighborhood. I lived in neighboring West Roxbury for a few years a while back, and thought about returning with my camera. But then I remembered that Rozzie likely had more of interest to me, so that's where I ended up.

Located about six miles south-southwest of downtown Boston, Roslindale was originally part of the town of Roxbury, per Wikipedia. "In 1851, current day Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and West Roxbury seceded from Roxbury. The area voted in 1873 to be annexed to the City of Boston."

The neighborhood's name has an interesting origin story.

More from Wikipedia: "In the 1860s, the area was called South Street Crossing, due to the railroad's intersection with South Street. However, when the community applied for a post office district of its own, the name 'South Street Crossing' proved to be unacceptable to the government. The name Roslindale was suggested by John Pierce, a well-traveled member of the community, who told the assembled citizens that the area reminded him of the historic town of Roslin, Scotland, outside Edinburgh. Pierce thought the area was like a dale because of the hills surrounding it. Thus the combination of 'Roslin' and 'dale' was submitted to the United States Postal Service and the name Roslindale was formally established."

On my short visit to Roslindale, the first thing that caught my eye, because it just seemed so out of place, was Alexander the Great Park.

The statue at the center of the park was presented to the City of Boston by the people of the City of Athens, Greece, in 1997. The park is maintained by St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Spirit Committee.

Across from the park, on a small traffic island dividing Belgrade Avenue and Corinth Street, which is quite a busy intersection, is a whimsical sculpture.

Called, appropriately enough, "Traffic," this piece was sculpted by George Greenamyer, an artist who has a "moralistic message" and is "not afraid of preaching or offending others," according to his web site. I believe his Roslindale sculpture was installed in 2012.

I headed out southeast on Corinth Street, and quickly ducked down Birch Street. There, I found one of my favorite things to shoot: a social club!

My fascination with shooting social clubs is well documented here. I have a connection, albeit a tenuous one, to Sons of Italy clubs. When I turned 40, I joined a men's baseball league. I got drafted by a team called the Quincy Sons, short for Sons of Italy (see March 31, 2019, "A Slow Jog Around the Bases of My Memory"). I only went to the club once for a post-game drink, but I did get to hang out with a guy named Crusher.

Walking south on Corinth Street, I spied the lovely sign for the Blue Star Restaurant.

A little further south along Corinth, I spied another social club.

I'm not sure how long the club has been here. I found a short article online indicating that the club used to be in neighboring West Roxbury, but was forced to move from that location in 2009.

On the opposite side of the street, along the entire side wall of Family Dollar, is a faded mural.

I haven't been able to find out who painted it.

Across Corinth Street, on the side of Fornax Bread Company, I found another mural. There are so many great ones; a few more will follow below.

This one has been here for nearly 20 years. It was painted by Alex Cook, who has created more than 190 murals in 18 states and five countries, per his web site. He did at least one of the other ones I'll look at below.

At the intersection of Corinth and Washington streets is Mi Finca Mexican Food & Pizzeria.

I love the color scheme and the details on the building.

Across Washington Street is the Roslindale branch of the Boston Public Library.

Built in 1961, this circular building with a blue dome (it was tough to get a good photo, unfortunately) sits on a pentagonal-shaped lot and sits over an underground brook, according to the Friends of Roslindale Branch Library web site.

Directly behind the library, on Poplar Street, I spied the lovely contrast below.

This is a barn or garage behind a main house that was built in 1905, according to the Boston Assessor's Office. Obviously somebody takes nice care of this place. In my dreams, this quaint little building is filled with antiques and an old car or two.

Heading southwest along Washington Street, I was happy to see an old-school Irish bar, B.K.'s Pub.

I continued for a bit on Washington Street, as I knew I had to shoot the locally famous Pleasant Cafe.

In business more than 80 years, the Pleasant is best known for its pizza. I've only eaten here once, and that was many years ago, but I remember the food was excellent.

I swung back in the other direction, toward the heart of Roslindale Village. There, I spied a great mural overlooking the outdoor patio for Mexican street food restaurant Chilacates, which is named after a type of pepper. And yes, that's Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the mural.

Continuing northeast along Washington Street, I made sure to shoot the former Roslindale Substation.

Built in 1911 as part of the power system for Boston's network of streetcars, the Classical Revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Empty for quite a few years (decades?), the substation was renovated in recent years, and is now home to Turtle Swamp Brewing's beer garden and perhaps other businesses.

On the side of Dragon Chef, at the corner of Washington and Basile streets, is the awesome mural below.

This fun and colorful work was done as part of the Boston Mayor's Mural Crew effort to beautify all corners of the city.

The sign for phone and computer retail/repair business Easy Fix caught my eye.

I like the dichotomy of the high-tech store next to Binta's African Hair Braiding.

Next door, at the corner of Murray Hill Road, is a wonderful marketing mural for this village.

This work of art is on the side of hair salon Studio M.

Continuing along, I saw one of the few missing teeth in the area, the former J&P Dry Cleaners.

As far as I can tell, the cleaners moved to Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Not sure if anything is slated to move into this space.

The side of the Roslindale Market -- "Now Serving Dominican Food" -- has a massive homage to the Boston Red Sox, including some high-profile players from the Dominican Republic.

(Top left corner is, I believe, Jason Varitek; lower left corner, could be Derek Lowe; to the right of Varitek, I'm guessing Johnny Pesky; below Pesky appears to be Manny Ramirez, from the Dominican; above Ramirez, I have no idea; next to that guy is Ted Williams; then Babe Ruth; below Ruth is, of course, Big Papi (David Ortiz); and in the upper right corner is Pedro Martinez. The latter two are also from the Dominican.)

The final mural on my tour is located on the side of the Little People's Playhouse on Washington Street.

This lovely work of art was created by Alex Cook, who I mentioned above.

Back in the main square of Roslindale Village, I spied the Prescott Building, which dates to 1929. This place, as with most older buildings, has an interesting history....

...so let's talk about that. Or rather, let's allow Historic Boston Inc. to share its knowledge: "In the early 1930s, [Anne] Prescott filed a permit to include an indoor miniature golf course in this building. Other long term uses included Charlestown Savings Bank, a beauty salon on the second floor, and Blair’s Foodland, for which a small 1 story rear addition was built in 1946. The building’s storefront has been altered several times."

And here I thought that indoor mini golf courses were a newfangled thing (relatively speaking)!

Steps away from the Prescott Building, I found what I'm always looking for, but rarely find these days: a ghost sign!

Located at the intersection of Corinth, Poplar and Washington streets, the sign is difficult, if not impossible to read, unfortunately. I asked a former longtime Roslindale resident if he had any clue, and he said, "Sorry, nope." I believe this building was once the Roslindale Department Store. It dates to 1890. If anyone has any idea about this ghost sign, please let me know in the comments below.

Well, that wraps up Roslindale Village. For the only other post I've written about this Boston neighborhood, see November 30, 2017, "Stone Cold Monuments."