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.

Former Chemical Compound Has Deep History

From Dave Brigham:

This is the third and final post in my short series about former industrial properties in Waltham, Mass. As with the other two (see here and here), the former Atlas Chemical Company factory is a place I'd been past countless times without thinking about shooting photos and doing some research.

Located on one-way Calvary Street, across from a large Catholic cemetery, with its backside facing the Charles River and a multi-use path that I've walked and jogged along on dozens of occasions, this property isn't as large as the former Boston Manufacturing Company and Waltham Watch Factory sites I wrote about previously. But the site has an industrial history stretching back roughly 140 years.

As with those companies, Atlas Chemical came into being in the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution rolled across America. From MACRIS: "The Atlas Chemical Co. was founded by H.B. & W.O. Chamberlain in the early 1880's. The firm manufactured sulphuret of antimony, a chemical used in the making of rubber. The founding and rapid growth of the Hood Rubber Co. in Watertown led to significant growth in the business of the Atlas Chemical Co. (I will talk about the former rubber plant in a future post about East Watertown). After this time, about 1930, the plant was vacated and remained so for most of the decade. Before World War II the R.B. Lados Co. (fertilizer manufacturers) and the Davenport Abrasives Corp. took over the factory."

In more recent years, the buildings were occupied by various industrial operations, including manufacturers of chemicals, woolens, machine tools, and screw machine products, per MACRIS. Today, the buildings house a handful of transportation companies (JSC Transportation, Veterans Taxi and Harrison Global) and other businesses.

The site is also home to Apex Centerless Grinding, as seen in the photo above.

This small complex is located across the Charles River from the River City Plaza, home of Shaw's grocery store, Ocean State Job Lot and several smaller businesses. That site has quite the industrial past, as well.

River City Plaza is the site of former Waltham Cotton and Wool Company, according to a Waltham Land Trust article I found online. "Incorporated in 1812, the factory employed over 200 workers. In 1818, a larger mill was built next to the Cotton and Wool Company, which became the Waltham Bleachery and Dye Works."

This area of Waltham is still referred to as the Bleachery. This is a business that you just know was horrible for the environment, especially the adjacent river. "The Waltham Bleachery and Dye Works remained in business until 1951 when the buildings were taken over by Raytheon," per a Waltham Museum article. Founded in nearby Cambridge in 1922, Raytheon built death rays and weather-changing supercolliders at its Waltham property. Seriously, though, the defense contractor built everything from missile-guidance systems and magnetron tubes to microwaves. I knew that the company's former campus sprawled across sites on the north side of Pleasant Street in Watertown (which becomes River Street in Waltham), but I didn't know that River City Plaza was part of its operations as well.

For more on the former Raytheon site, check out April 17, 2021, "The Honey Hole."

Prior to the doomsday, cotton and bleachery businesses, there was a paper mill on this site, constructed in 1794 by Christopher Gore, who also built a dam on the site, according to the web site for Gore Place.

Former Mill Complex Now Apartments, Artist Space and Museum

From Dave Brigham:

The Boston Manufacturing Company holds a vital place in America's industrial and financial history, and the textile operation's mill complex has been nicely restored as apartments for traditionally underserved populations, as well creative spaces for local artists and a cool museum. I can't tell you why, but I'd never walked through here with my camera until recently. I'm glad I did. This post kicks off a mini-series about former mills and factories in Waltham, Mass.

Located hard by the Charles River between Moody and Elm streets, the old mill buildings date from the early 19th century to the early 20th. Boston Manufacturing was founded in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell, a Harvard-educated member of Boston's Brahmin class whose various family branches made money from shipping (rum, opium and slaves) and the legal world (his father was a judge). FCL got the idea to set up what became known as the "Waltham-Lowell system" -- in which "mill girls" worked long hours and led regimented lives and often dwelled in company-owned housing -- after a trip to England, where he "paid particular attention to the power loom, a device for which there was yet no equal in America," per Wikipedia. "Upon his return trip to Boston in 1812, he committed the plans to memory, disguising himself as a country farmer, since the British banned export of the new technology at the time. In September 1813 The Boston Associates purchased the Boies Paper Mill site in Waltham."

The Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was the first water-powered textile spinning mill in America, according to Wikipedia. Lowell built on this idea, and was the first to integrate all aspects of the production of cloth into one facility. His efforts wouldn't have been possible without the technical know-how of Paul Moody, who built the power loom and supervised construction of other machinery for the mills

In addition to creating a new mode of operation for textile mills, Lowell also transformed the way such operations were financed.

"He revolutionized how corporations might be financed to fund this endeavor," according to this article from the web site of the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation, which is located in the mill complex (more about this below). "Individual or partnership ownership, as was the method in the United States and England, was inadequate to the needs of large-scale industry. Lowell proposed a joint-stock arrangement, and if 'a shareholder died or sold his stake, the company could continue to function.' And, when shareholders reaped dividends, they might be motivated to invest even more money in the company. The use of publicly traded stocks (individuals could own a share of the company and their investments would pay of dividends, hopefully) by the BMC contributed to the evolution of modern financing and modern corporations."

There's more history, but you can look that up if you're interested. Let's see the photos!

The first building I saw, below, had a plaque dating it to 1813.

I felt sure this brick behemoth wasn't more than 200 years old, as that carving indicates. As I mentioned above, Boston Manufacturing Co. was founded in 1813, and was built on the site of an older mill. My hunch about the date was correct, based on my online research, but I'm not sure how old this large building is. Another section of the building has the date "1878" carved into it, so perhaps that's when the entire structure rose.

I didn't realize until I started researching Boston Manufacturing, that the company used to own more buildings in this area, including across Moody Street, at the corrner of Felton Street, and at the corner of Moody and Main streets. Still, there are plenty of cool old structures on the main site to check out.

The largest building on the site has been home to the Francis Cabot Lowell Apartments for many years. The complex is "a project-based section 8 community for individuals who are 62 years old or older and individuals with disabilities 18 and over," per the web site. Amenities include community rooms, a wellness center, a hair salon, a gym, a game room and more.

At the rear of the property, facing the Charles River, is the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation.

The museum, which opened in 1988 (I'm not sure if it's always been in this location) and whose vast collection includes items related to industry, tranportation, genealogy and much more, is located directly underneath the old mill's towering smokestack. The museum also hosts live music acts, discussions and other events, although most, if not all, of that has taken place online in the past year.

In a few of the windows near the museum, I spied some cool art showing what the mill environment looked like in its heyday.

As I mentioned, the museum faces the river. Below is a shot of the boardwalk that connects to Moody Street and takes folks under the Elm Street bridge.

(Old fire hydrant located between the apartment building and the river.)

(Front entrance to the museum.)

There are several buildings on this site, some more interesting than others. Below is arguably the least intriguing, home to Arr-Max, a general contracting company.

The building is more interesting, however, along the side and back, where creative agency Egg Design Partners is located.

I like the building below -- Building 24 -- despite the second-story addition. I believe it's home to a realty office, among other businesses.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, there are artist studios on site here as well. Below are photos of the rear of a building and an old pedestrian bridge that I think are from one of these buildings.

Below, on the left, is the rear of an artist space, complete with industrial-sized hoist apparatus.

Building 18, below, is home to Moody Station Studios, Steamchine Sculpture, S.B. Lowell Lighting Design and other operations.

In between Building 18 and 4 is a remnant of the train tracks that used to serve the Boston Manufacturing Co.

(Train bumper.)

Building 4 is the largest of the artist spaces, home to Waltham Studios, River Street Artists and Artists West. I'm not sure how many individual artists are represented by those groups. Every year, these groups and many others take part in Waltham Open Studios, an event that I always tell myself I will visit, but to date I have not.

The east side of Building 4 is a little rough-looking, which of course is exactly what I was looking for.

The west-facing side, however, is a different story.

The Ira B. Gordeon Center for the Arts, as Building 4 is officially known, was named for "Ira B (Sonny) Gordon, a prominent local businessman, and a leader in the transformation of the downtown Waltham area," per the Waltham Open Studios web site.

So, that's a wrap on a former mill complex gone good (although I suspect this place had more than a few "bad" years before its transformation). Stay tuned in the near future for photos and a profile of the former factory that gave Waltham its nickname: the Watch City.