This is really awesome news. Not only are the erstwhile vacated factory space (often in disrepair) finds productive use, but more importantly, it brings new lease in life to these towns that so desperately need it.
These factories and mills could also be excellent for art galleries, studios and struggling artists who are squeezed out from fast gentrified urban areas. Another potential use, is space for kids' indoor programs like futsal that will bring steady traffic day and light.
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These developments appear to be responding exclusively to market forces and various project specific government subsidies.
There appears to be no plan or planning whatsoever to channel these forces to reflect the public interest or address basic planning considerations: energy, traffic, affordable housing, water resources, balance, equity, et al.
Have these progressive northeastern states abandoned land use planning? Why do exclusively market values seem to drive the projects? Does a slogan like "sustainability" extinguish the need for planning and codes?
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@Bill Wolfe Ahh, land use planning. Is that like when they did plan to make building lots outside the town square bigger, much bigger? That great idea lead to suburban sprawl, big lawns, a death to insects and hence birds. We don't know yet how to plan the use of land. Not with profit driven human short-sightedness as our guiding light.
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@Bill Wolfe in small New England mill towns, buildings are either abandoned or someone invests and does something with them. Land use planning is a luxury for towns with money
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How things change. I considered myself lucky to be a young woman working in GE in Pittsfield, driving a fork lift, a 'man's job'. Met people from all over the county, blue-collar heaven it was. Good times that just aren't a part of our culture here anymore. Most of that place is buried under piles of dirt and concrete. Nothing revitalized there yet, wind blowing over the memories, waiting for a new idea that just hasn't come to that particular part of the Berkshires. It is good to see all the other buildings showcased here come back to a new kind of life. But I will always have a nostalgic fond memory of those good ole days, when we made things, and made things happen.
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@Marilyn We've gone from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. It's the cost of capitalism. Those countries that can make it cheaper will. Our economy is too busy trying to make sure the CEOs and stockholders are taken care of to worry about the worker. The Middle Class's death knell began when Reagan broke the unions.
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@Stephen Collingsworth . In a nutshell, yup. Watched a thingy on AI on PBS, end result being we are raising billions of kids with nothing to do once they reach the magic age, the one where they age out of 'programs', and age into self sufficiency. If people think we are evolving into some sort of natural selection betterment, I'd like to see how this is gonna pan out. I'm feeling like I already live in zombie land, even though I still do like the nature here.
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Well, re-use and re-purposing is good, from someone who lived in Rhode Island right across the Fall River from an old textile area, famous town of that name, and then near Andover, just south of the great mill towns that so resonate with American history, good and bad: Lowell and Lawrence.
I read the story quickly, and then thinking I must have missed the mention, and went back and scanned in reverse: no, no mention of energy efficiency, lighting, solar, heat pumps or insulation.
Long live the Green New Deal! Someone please sent David Moresi a copy of the 14 page Resolution which a Massachusetts Senator co-sponsored, and Bernie Sanders' 35 page version of his vision for a Green New Deal.
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@William Neil, it would have been great to have the places refitted with the latest green technology. But it would have to be cost-effective first. You can put the latest and greatest in the space, but if you're not sure if the next tenant can afford it and for how long, you can't afford to pass Bernie's purity test to be the greenest of the green.
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@William Neil who is going to pay for everything on your wish list? The green new deal has not been passed
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Good story of peoples resourcefulness !
Have often wondered
why the companies that left for foreign climes were allowed to leave buildings to rot. Why were they not made to clean up their mess before they left ? Ticks me off that the great corporation spouting bulroar does not have to make clean up cost part of their analysis. Its called Corporate Socialism. I move my corporation and leave people unemployed and buildings rotting and let the taxpayer clean it up and pay for it. /
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@rnrnry I concur! I've often wondered why tax deals didn't include a stipulation that if you abandon the property, you have a certain number of years to sell it, and if that doesn't happen, you are responsible for taking down the building and cleaning up the site so it can be repurposed.
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If all else fails, Amazon is always looking for warehouse space...
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@Sully the Squirrel, most of these factories and mills are not big enough to becoming amazon's warehouse (which is truly enormous). And it would need to be close to logistic routes that places further afield won't fit the criteria.
And, I'd rather see various retail uses than going back to the old days when the town is dependent on one gigantic employer. God forbids, when (and it's only a matter of when, not if) the one largest employer leaves town, the whole town will invariably die.
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Just before the end of World War 2 my military father was transferred to an air base near Holyoke, Mass.a small town on the banks of the Connecticut River. I was very young but I remember my mother taking me to visit the Skinner Silk Mill, in full operation. Very impressive with most of the employees women.
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The city is on its to rehabbing some of the old mills- the cannabis industry will help the city of Holyoke immensely. Unfortunately we have a very high rate of vacant buildings, which contributes to a cash-poor city. Given the failed school vote from yesterday, it is clear that we have a long way to go until this city, so rich in history, can rejoin the ranks. It’s beautiful here.
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Ah, cannabis -- the great savior.
Come to Brooklyn and see the leaden-eyed puffing weed shuffle past at 8AM, at noontime, at four o'clock -- or smell them drive by, at all hours, while you await a green light -- what a marvelous thing cannabis is.
Years from now, we might revise our heady hopes for this product.
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@Rachel I attended William Whiting Elementary School. I wonder if it is still there.
We just attended a wonderful photographic exhibition in the old Crane company stationary factory in Dalton, Massachusetts. You can have a look http://stationary-factory.com, a fabulous venue that houses a distillery, a fine arts paper company, an acupuncturist, a restaurant, and a large concert, wedding, and other celebrations venue.
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@Helen Epstein Ummmm, if it's Crane, it's "stationery" with an "e." The Internet doesn't recognize misspelled URLs.
Therefore, it's https://stationery-factory.com
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if i could live in the same building as a craft brewery Id die a happy man.
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Adaptive reuse is great, but here's a crazy tbought: maybe some of these old mills could...be mills again? As more of us realize that clothing made from fossil fuels is harming the planet, I'm hoping for the rebirth of an American textile infrastructure, focused on natural fibers (wool, flax, hemp), raised and processed regionally.
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@A
That's a crazy thought, indeed. That line of thinking will take us back to the 18th century when a man was considered prosperous - if not ostentatious - when he owned three shirts. I don't want to give up three centuries of labor specialization and increasing productivity, thanks.
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@A
Most of these factories were next to rivers for a reason: so they can dispose of their toxic waste. The Beacon factory was a textile mill and made significant contributions to pollution in the Hudson River. We’ve just spent decades trying to clean up the Hudson. We’re not willing to go back. Keep the restaurant/hotel!
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So happy to see mention of MassMOCA in North Adams. The site started as a textile printing mill, then Sprague Electric, then a museum that was considered Gov. Dukakis' folly for years. Now it is the largest museum complex in floor area in North America. It is probably only the Tate Modern that is larger. MOCA has become a gem, worth a whole day's visit. Also of note, visits to other institutions in the area can be facilitated by joint admission tickets (do see the Clark).
Western MA has a robust arts presence, in part facilitated by the availability of mill space. A district in Springfield, Indian Orchard has many artists in a mill complex. Nearby Easthampton also has many artists working in old mill space.
Old mills are also being repurposed for business use. Springfield has a major medical campus separated from the primary hospitals, and medical offices are located in several old mill and warehouse spaces. A commentator was concerned about heating cost and energy efficiency. Having worked in converted mill space, I can assure others that heat loss can be regulated, and the brick buildings are inherently cool in summer.
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@Jeff MASS MoCA is a great and glorious place. I can't wait to get back.
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A lot of these towns actually did deteriorate overnight. GE’s leaving was devastating to Pittsfield. Whole families left in droves, once good paying jobs were gone. Businesses followed. Cheap housing drew the attention of the state. The city has never been the same.
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Old mill towns are perfect for retirees like me who want out of the suburbs where we must drive to get a cup of coffee.
Retirees are perfect for old mill towns.
Retirees don't need jobs; no need to bribe industry to move there.
Retirees don't need schools; their kids are grown and gone.
Retirees don't need transit or more lanes on highways because we aren't on the road at rush hour going to work.
Retirees bring FREE MONEY from outside pensions of YOUR jurisdiction, from our IRAs, nest eggs, Social Security, etc, which we spend it in YOUR jurisdiction.
Retirees pay taxes in YOUR jurisdiction but add no burden on your schools which are a huge chunk of your local expenses.
Retirees spend free money in YOUR jurisdiction for the usual necessities plus medical care, services, entertainment and other CLEAN industry.
How about someone rolling out the red carpet for retirees....
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@Mike
If you haven't seen North Adams MA, you'd be pleasantly surprised. It is a world apart from any parts of Arizona that I've seen.
Maybe 75 miles from Hartford/Springfield....the Mohawk trail makes it that much better. I promise!!
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Beacon has also seen the transformation of a decaying dangerous abandoned factory site situated next to a waterall into the beautifully renovated Roundhouse restaurant/hotel. The pathways of a wooded park next to the resturant were onece littered with the depressing site of broken liquor bottles and syringes but now one can have a bench seat or stroll at the edge of the falls to enjoy the serenity. It’s been a wonderfully heartening change.
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It's not just New England. Troy NY and Cohoes NY were major mill towns located about an hour west of North Adams and several miles north of Albany at the confluence of the Mohawk River into the Hudson River. Both of these cities have renovated mills or "mill worker housing" into new apartment buildings and business space.
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Beautiful spaces, lovingly renovated, and not a WeWork in sight.
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The high ceilings make these mills energy pigs. Who benefits from heating the empty cubic feet from 7 feet to 12 feet during the brutal Berkshire winters ? Inefficient dinosaurs from the 19th Century with no place in the 21st Century world of climate change that demands optimum use of energy. Like Fenway Park, ornamentally charming relics of a bygone era that are functional dumps.
Tax credits for renovations are insane public policy intended to buy off politicians in rust belt America.
Nothing historic here so take the advice of Ed Logue. Demolish and start with a clean slate.
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@Dan M no one would tear them down, because no one builds new apartment buildings in small town New England. If anyone was crazy enough to put up a new apartment complex there, they wouldn't bother with the expense of tearing down brick factories, because of that's an expensive undertaking and land is cheap there. These buildings will either be re-used or they will sit empty.
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I’d be really interested in the efficiency math before tearing them down. Demolishing and building are both high energy activities that consume a lot of resources. These structures also tend to be in the center of towns which should reduce the carbon foot print from transportation in their new life.
I would much rather see us spend money on refurbishing old structures and making better use of our existing infrastructure than spending money building new.
Finally, we need our historic buildings to separate the real from historic fiction.
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@Dan M
Perhaps you want to turn them into energy-efficient Being John Malkovich 1/2 height floors?
It's clear from the photos that the windows have been replaced with more energy efficient double-pane glass. And even older apartment bldgs are more energy efficient than single-family homes. Heat loss goes to your upstairs neighbor, not out the roof.
Finally, these structures revitalize and catalyze downtown development and reduce suburban sprawl--which more than offsets their slightly inefficient nature.
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All of these old mills, warehouses, and factories are perfect for renovation and repurposing. Senior housing, low income housing, artist spaces, small business spaces. As we move into new times ahead, these are what are needed.
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Some of New Bedford's old mills have been converted to senior housing and artists' condos and studios. A Riverwalk by some of them will help revitalize the city too. I've always thought industries like boat building, even rowboats or kayaks, make sense for a former whaling city. Plus all cotton clothing makes sense for the old textile mills. People are will ing to pay more for quality. They still buy Wamsutta sheets for example. The main thing to me is the much needed housing, including affordable housing or space for artists, and making the urban areas safe and more livable.
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This is not new. It has been happening in NYC for decades. Old factories become loft spaces.
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@Katye Holland Maybe not new in NYC, it's almost a no brain-er there with millions of people, but in smaller towns like North Adams it's a big deal...and Mass MoCA, helped by former Governor Weld, has, I believe, lead the charge for North Adams slow return.
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I worked in economic development in the Berkshires in the late 2000s and know firsthand the beauty and potential of former mill buildings up and down the County from North Adams to Sheffield. They're a tremendous potential asset for a County long on history and beauty but short on developable land. I just wish I'd been there 12 years later when the economy and these adaptive reuses finally intersected.
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@David Rooney And in Troy and Cohoes too...
Go RPI!
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My ancestors moved from abroad to work in those mills in New England, and my grandparents were the last generation to do so. It is good to see these very solidly built, and in their own way, beautiful, buildings get a second life. I just hope some of it goes back into the community proper. rather than for people newly moving in, ie gentrifiers.
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Fear not -- even the gentry require a solid mix of service providers, plumbers, doggie daycares, and pediatricians. Bringing money into a community, and spending it, is not the worst thing that can happen.
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In the past decade, they've been renovating the mills in Lewiston and Auburn Maine, turning them from eyesores, fire hazards, and depressing reminders of a more prosperous time, into restaurants and public areas. These projects of renewal do more than economic stimulation, they offer hope and a glimpse of a better future that embraces our past, rather than eradicating it.
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In my city in Alabama, there were about a dozen textile mills many of which were built and owned by New England companies such as Merrimack. Some were demolished and some burned spectacularly over the years. Two still stand; one is an office and light manufacturing complex, and the other is an arts center. One factor that turned the fires in those mills that burned into conflagrations is the oil that was poured onto the heart pine flooring while the mills were in operation to keep cotton dust from becoming airborne. Oil for lubrication of the spinners and looms also spilled onto the floors. This oil never went away. I hope the mills now being refurbished have excellent sprinkler systems or other means of fire suppression. I would certainly check that out before I worked or lived in an old textile mill.
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When I – rarely - head back to Western Mass, I often wonder why those mills right on the river aren’t converted to housing for seniors. Great views, presumably space for elevators (so level living), and services nearby.
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Lowell, MA took a similar approach with many of the cotton mills. They were mostly vacant when I was a child but now are flourishing. (I actually remember quite a few being burned down under suspicious circumstances).
It has taken very many years but there are now museums, condos (a new one JUST opened up along the commuter rail to Boston), art galleries, restaurants, dormitories for UMass Lowell, etc.
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Manchester NH has over a mile of mills along the Merrimack River almost all of which have now been repurposed. The uses include colleges, high tech firms, housing, restaurants, a children’s science museum, and First Robotics. When I moved to NH in 1980, the Pandora sweater factory was the last surviving manufacturing operation and the other mills were derelict. It takes time and patience to see these guys structures have their best and highest uses, but it is worth it to the communities. It is the foundation of rehabilitating what used t9 be a polluted and unpleasant waterfront!
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I echo some of the other comments about the concern for who exactly these places are for and whether they are sustainable for the long term. I doubt that these small steps can act as anchors for thriving new communities. I read the article drawn in by the "revitalizes" in the headline, but that seems like a gross exaggeration for now.
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@Kristen
Let me allay your fear. The earliest projects have now been working for decades. The Chinburg properties (I do not work for them) in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have indeed been anchors for thriving communities. They are not panaceas. Such a thing does not exist. Still, last night, I had sushi in a restaurant in Newmarket, NH adjacent to a mill/apartment complex. This restaurant, along with others, would not have been there without the mill/apartment. The same could be said for Dover, NH, Lewiston, ME and Haverhill, MA.
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Last May I had the pleasure of visiting Friedrichshafen, Germany. This medium size city located on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) across from Switzerland, is home of ZF Company, a €37 billion operation that's a direct descendant of the company that built the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg airships. An interesting feature of ZF is that 93 percent of its shares are owned by the Zeppelin Foundation which in turn is owned by the City of Friedrichshafen, meaning a city with a 58k population itself owns 93 percent of a $41 billion company. Probably goes some way toward explaining the lack of potholes, cutting-edge infrastructure, abundant well-paying jobs, no visible homeless. and obvious overall prosperity. So I wonder if Friedrichshafen could serve as a model for distressed medium-sized American cities. Unlike a company town in which the company can anytime take a hike to greener pastures. the city itself would own the company and have every incentive for keeping it viable and local. Just a thought.
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@Phillip Usher What happens when a municipality's business fails and drags the municipality's finances down with it?
@Bill W. That, of course, could happen and bankruptcy and reorganization rules would apply. Meanwhile, remember ZF is an independent company in which Friedrichshafen is the dominant shareholder. As such, it's not subject to direction by the city's elected officials. And since it's so far been highly suceessful in fiercely competitive markets, it seems to have chosen its leadership and workforce very wisely.
@Phillip Usher
"So I wonder if Friedrichshafen could serve as a model for distressed medium-sized American cities. "
You can stop wondering. It's never going to happen here. The "American Model" of cutthroat, what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine capitalism won't ever allow it. American businessmen believe they are entitled to a larger slice of the corporate pie than they either warrant or deserve. It's simply the way it is here. The "I got mine screw you" attitude.
Let’s hope local and state politicians and their economic advisors soon become equally creative and supportive of improved transportation infrastructures that will extend westward from Boston to the CT River Valley and beyond.
Expanded and reliable 21st century rail transportation would greatly ease the Boston-centric housing and commuter crucibles, while nourishing enterprising efforts to redevelop idle 19th century mill behemoths in more rural areas of New England.
MA is a small state and would be so much easier to navigate with better regional railway options that link Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Pittsfield and beyond into southern VT NH.
But woefully, real leadership still seems lacking.
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@DK I know state legislators in Berkshire county have been exploring rail options to Boston and NYC, and both are great ideas
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@DK
Railway needs corridors, and particularly "level" ground, which isn't much abundant in the 2/3 of Massachusetts West of Boston to the NY border in extensive straight lines. So the railways snake along the low lands. Without massive land removal or tunneling, it's not going to work.
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@Moehoward the rail lines and tunnels are already there from when the factories were still producing. Some have fallen into neglect, and others are used to move freight, but the issue is whether there will be enough travelers to make regular service economically viable. When the area was dead economically, it made no sense to run trains there, but as more people come for tourism/second homes, it may be viable again.
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I've been looking to move back to the Cleveland area and reclaim a small industrial building but hardly anything is to be had under $300K, which is unfortunate. I love the idea of adaptive reuse and would love to open up an artist co-op/live work studio spaces.
I can't imagine buying a building for $16K and then sinking in $10s of millions to make it profitable.
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Great, but: Are the new spaces affordable or just more gentrification for highly paid people? Can the people who live in these towns afford them, or are they just for “the elite”?
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@Citizen of the Earth
An excellent point...in my experience with these developments near my hometown in Western Mass/VT/NH area they're not really for "locals." That said, young people who want to move back home after having some early success in some metropolis also seem to be common inhabitants, but only if they have independent money or have set up some kind of remote working arrangement with an employer in Boston or New York...Overall I'd call it a positive trend, sure beats tearing them down and leaving a polluted slab or rebuilding a cheap, poorly constructed modern replacement.
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@Citizen of the Earth many of these are being re-used as businesses rather than residences, but in North Adams some of the mill residences are high end and some are cheap
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@Citizen of the Earth If the new businesses get on the tax roles, it generates new revenue for the town, could benefit the locals by creating jobs, and ancillary businesses. Agree that if just creates space for rich folks, then your point is well taken.
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A story that is a joy to read! My spouse and I are soon leaving California to return to the Midwest, and I'm shopping all the renovated industrial buildings along the Mississippi for an apartment in the town we're headed for. We frequently vacation in England because we both love the way Brits revere the preserve their incredible past; this story gives me hope that America might take a lesson and do more of that ourselves!
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We can only wish the very best for these towns and developers, just not sure these small, entrepreneurial breweries and etc will be able to hold up their end of this bargain and stay in biz. There is already an awful lot of brew pubs and distilleries and etc around the country, furniture makers and artists need a certain premium to stay in business. One company already decided retail didn't cut it and are re purposing their location into residential units. Then who is going to live there? I love these old places, have been "collecting" them in Brooklyn for years now, love the look, the feel, the ambiance, I just hope these optimistic folks remain so after a year or two, a cold winter or two, fingers are crossed.
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@David Shaw Bright Ideas is, so far, the only brewery in North Adams. It was something many of us have been looking forward to for a long time. So indeed, we too hope it is a success.
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We recently moved into Newmarket Mills. What a wonderful spot. Great view right on the river-you can walk to vibrant Main St. Building management team are the best.
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