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.