Rexleigh Marble Mill And Old Bus

I went to Rexleigh Bridge in Salem, NY on the 4th of July as a day trip just to take my dog swimming, I didn't realize there was a ruin of an old marble mill right next door. The bridge itself is a historic site, being originally built in 1874 and has been constantly changing since. It's actually on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built because farmers needed a way to cross the Battenkill River to get to the newly built railroad on the other side.

I've been searching for awhile, and this beautiful building on the Battenkill River has an unclear past. One blog post stated this mill opened in 1795 originally as a grist mill, which is where a mill grinds grain. Eventually it was transformed into what it's known for now, a marble mill. The last known use of this building I could find was it being a pottery commune in the 1960's. 

 There isn't much else on when it closed down for good or why it's been sitting, abandoned, for so long. As you can see though, the front is a beautiful site. The white stone wall faces the river and absorbs the daily sun, lightening the stones even more. When I looked at some drone footage of the place, I found out the stone building is an empty shell, all four walls are crumbling ruins and there's no roof left whatsoever. The majestic site stands next to a smaller building. The following pictures are of that smaller building. I was able to walk to the smaller building which is why I got more views of it. A large fence separated me from going to see more of the stone building unfortunately, but it's right behind this smaller building in the follow pictures.

The picture above me is the side of the smaller building. The front of the building is shown in the image above this picture. The front is a cement wall where the doors say "keep out," while the side is made of old, dark, wooden boards. It's eerie but enchanting.




The picture to the side of this text is an inside shot of one of the corridors. Paint has been splattered on the right wall, and graffiti takes up almost all of the clear spaces. You can see how strong the beams are on the top and left side though. They've held this place up for a long time.

The picture right above is the wood panels on top of the corridor of the previous hallway I just showed. It almost looks like a small room looking out. I'm thankful I didn't see any faces sticking out between the boards.

The two pictures below are two angles of the same room. It's the main room you can see into from the front of the building, remember the one where the door said to "keep out?" I tried to lighten the photos as best I could, but it's hard to make out exactly what's in there - remnants from the pottery commune would be my best guess.

This was probably my favorite part here. It's an old bus right next to the retired marble mill. It's obviously been neglected for awhile. I've also looked up where the bus came from, but it's not mentioned in any articles I could find. It's just a mysterious, rusty, old bus, with some cool artwork on the outside. You can see the moss inching its way across the entire surface of it as well.

When you walk into the bus and turn left, you can see the whole picture of this long bus. It doesn't even look like there's too much graffiti.

When walking into the doorway of the bus and looking straight ahead, this the first thing you see. There's a lot of wires all over the place. They're immensely tangled. I also put in a close-up picture, down below, of the box and the controls on top of it that everything was wired up to.

Here's a picture from almost the back to the front. There's shelves to the left of the picture. 

You can see there's a pretty good amount of storage here. If you look at the little details, you may notice the broken window and shattered glass on the third shelf down. Also, the amount of collected dust is astounding. I really wonder the story behind this bus, and how long it's been here.

Here's a shot from the pink back. There's a nice contrast from the slim portion of the pink wall in the photo, to the faded, brown floorboards covered in dirt and debris. The white splotches of white on the pink almost make this look like an art project.

The picture below me shows the pink back more in depth. The moss is making its way onto the bubblegum walls here.

I just thought I'd add this shot here because it's the view of the building from the bus's window. That's how far they are from one another.

This bus was such a cool sight to see. It's not often I find something like this on accident. A hidden gem among the remnants of this marble mill. It's just sitting among the forest, the elements breaking it back into earth, slowly.

According to Battenkill Conservancy online, the old marble mill was donated by the Oakley family in 2016. Their website states they are going to permanently preserve the land.The surrounding trees have thickened out with leaves due to the summer season, and the land around this area is very lively. I'm glad I was able to see these old buildings and bus. I don't know what they're going to do with these buildings, but the area itself is beautiful with thick forest and a rushing river right next door. It's a happy ending the land was donated so now they can't add a new business to this historic area. If you're ever walking around the Battenkill River, I hope you stumble across these treasures that blend in but slightly peak themselves out from behind the forest wall.

Burnt Down Textile Mill

 A crumbling, burnt down textile mill sits at in a small town called Valley Falls. This enormous structure was once known as "Thompson Textile Mill." Built next to the Hoosic River, it's in a very attractive location. Railroad tracks to one side, and the river on the other, it's a beautiful sight to see. There's thick foliage that has started to take over this disintegrating building, as you'll see in later pictures. As I looked up into the gaping holes and rotting wood, I wondered what this place was like in its prime. Luckily the internet exists, and I was able to find out this building's extensive history.

These railroad tracks lead me to a place that was opened in 1860. It's original purpose was as a textile mill. Cotton from the south was sent up here and made into fabric. Business was booming in New York back then during the Industrial Revolution, so this business thrived. Reading on the history page of the website the owner of the mill put up, I found out they made "Thompson Netting" which was given to union soldiers of the civil war. When I said there was a lot of rich history here, I meant it.

 

Seeing remains like this on my way to the mill reminded me that there are so many worn out structures in this area and how everything around here has a story, including the mill. The mill made it through a lot; new ownership, the Great War, even the Great Depression. The business became so successful that it eventually couldn't take on so much production that in 1972, another mill was opened in a town called Greenville, which is about an hour away from Valley Falls. In 1992, the building was shut down from production. The company lives on to this day though, so it's a happy ending for them. I did read that in 1992, the building was sold to a new owner who let it fall into disarray. 

 Here was the first part of the building I stumbled on. It's the side of the building right next to the tracks. Yes, the door remained wide open when I got there. Next to the yellow part of the building, to the left, was a fence that was kicked in. I can imagine plenty of kids daring one another to go explore the structure more in depth on those spooky summer nights. 

Here's a shot of the start of the brick texture next to the yellow section. It's to the left behind the broken, chain linked fence. I loved seeing the dark brick and faded white in between.It was a romantically eerie sight. I didn't realize how old the structure was until after I came back and did my research, but what you're seeing right there is over a century year old brick. 

The photo above this text and below to the left were the first room in the yellow section. There's a lot of trash and someone graffitied "Hakunah Matata" in the background of the bottom photo. Other than being abused and trashed by people, the space was very light and open. It obviously has a lot of age, but the structure is still looking in good shape for being over a hundred years old.

I just wanted to put these two photos that are to the left of me here because of the orbs my camera caught. The photo up top is the same area from the photo right before it, but it has a giant orb in the center of it. And the photo right next to me has a few orbs in a room I haven't shown yet.

This room was right off the side of the lit up room we just saw. It was dark and dingy so I didn't explore it much. I couldn't see too well so it was safest to just take a picture inside, but as you can see it's not a very big room. Perhaps it was an office or break room for employees.

 

Now when you first stick your head into the door of the yellow section of the building, you'll see this. The two rooms I just showed you were to the right side of the door and I could walk in them. If I had walked a few paces too many just straight forward, I would have fallen into a giant ditch on the bottom. You'll see in an upcoming photo that the ditch was filled with furniture. I am unaware on if the furniture was part of the original structure when the business was alive in these buildings, or if it was dumped by some people who didn't know what to do with their old mattress. The door here was to the right of the big dropout. It's connected to the lit up room from before.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Here is a picture of all the furniture on the bottom of the ditch. You can also see some gorgeous rock wall to the right of the photo. I can see why this place hasn't crumbled in yet - An extremely sturdy structure indeed. You can also see the many chairs, two mattresses, and other miscellaneous furniture on the bottom as well. 

This power line was in front of the frontal part of the main building. You can tell it's an old power line because of the older styled bulbs on the top of it.

 

Here's the giant front of the building. To the left it is extremely burnt. Also if you look through the gaping center hole, you can clearly see lots of fallen in, burnt wood as well. It's an enormous structure and the brick has held well considering its age and all its been through.

I wanted to focus in on this photo to the right, just how much the fire got this land. There was an immense amount of burnt wood all over the place, but this photo shows the most compact section of it. The fire happened in 2009. After the new owner let this majestic building crumble throughout the years, the fire caved almost all of it in. Looking around the charcoaled wood, there's numerous bricks surrounding it all. It's a good reminder that just because the bricks from the main building made it through, not all of the structure on the land was so lucky. It was truly a forgotten and unloved place for too long.

As I got closer I could see the ivy creeping up the brick wall. The brick is fading and falling apart. There's so many bushes and trees surrounding the structure as well, it's all very overgrown to this mass of a building.

Here's an up close of the shattered windows and gaping hole of the structure. The ivy is climbing up slowly - earth is taking its place back here.

When I first poked my head into the structure and looked up, this is what I saw. Splintered, broken wood looked down on me. It was dark and wet because it was raining that day - the lack of roof made it so the wood got soaked and more rotten. 

The brick here is beautiful. Some parts are bright maroon, others are completely white, and there's every other shade in between those two as well. The scratched, beat up surface of the brick have given them a rough look. These walls have been through a lot after all.

My guess to the picture above me is it was an unloading area. On the left side, in the bright yellow lettering, it says "passengers not permitted," and the far wall looks like it can open up to load/unload supplies in.

Right here is a dark, long room, held up greatly by the strong beams up top and metal poles throughout. I'm constantly reminded when looking at old buildings like this how they built things to last back then.

This picture to my right was very sad to see. The wood had fallen in and daylight peered through the empty roof. This building looked like it had so much dignity and strength at one time, and now it's falling in more and more everyday.

Here's another angle to the dark room from before. The washed out wood to the right was attractive to look at. The discoloration of its fading pieces transitioned well and almost looked stylish. I believe people pay money for wood purposely designed like this when they want something decorated "rustic."

One last angle of the main pole room. As you can see, it just leads on. I did want to point out to the very left, you can see an almost rainbow wall. It was very pretty to look at but may have been something like mold - I'm hoping it was paint though.

My husband took this picture. Even he didn't want to go any further in. Just a reminder that this picture was taken with a flash, which lit everything up, without the flash we only had a tiny flashlight so this was a dark room that we could only see sections of from the flashlight. It was probably the most creepy experience from the building, as bathrooms usually are. 

  

The opening right here is directly back from the front of the building. If you were to walk right through the openings of the front, straight back, you'd see this. Plant life has overgrown here over the piled bricks and wood.

On my way back out to the train tracks, in the opposite direction of my car, the tracks did a nice "S" shape. It was worth a picture to me.

This building is great, and I'm surprised it's stayed up after all it's gone through. I do have a conclusion for this land though. It is going to be turned into a public park, so the building will be getting torn down soon. I'm thankful I got the opportunity to document it before that though. In future generations, kids will be playing on the playground next to the river and might not know the massive structure that once stood where they're standing. But it did stand, beautiful and magnificent to the end.