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.