Paper Company

    As the manufacturing exodus continues in the Hudson Valley, so goes the places where things were made. One of the last paper mills to operate in the Hudson Valley may soon be demolished. The first structures were probably built here in the 1840s or 1850s. The original mill buildings have since disappeared or have been cannibalized into one large factory encompassing many different eras. The No. 1 Mill machine was removed a long time ago, but the steam engine, and twin coal boilers that provided steam to the engine, survive inside the original stone and brick walls under a newer cover of corrugated metal roofing that covers what were once separate buildings.

    In November of 2005 I was invited to tour the decommissioned paper factory. At present, the largely vacated complex is partly used for storage, and a company dwelling is retained as an office. The former paper company truck garage is still in active use while under different ownership. Although the mill closed in 1997, machinery was not removed until November 2004. Thus the days of paper production here are over, and the present owner is preparing plans that may bring about demolition of all mill buildings and some of the company dwellings - perhaps one or two of the former homes will remain standing. One would hope that the significance of one of the very last surviving  paper mills below Albany would be cause for preservation, at least of the oldest part o f the complex including the boiler room and steam engine. Of course, the preservationist would prefer retention of the entire factory, but at the very least, a monument or two could surely remain. At Piermont, in Rockland County, part of the steam engine including the flywheel survives on a "village green" surrounded by condominiums and shops. At Camillus, near Syracuse in central New York, a steam engine was relocated to the local historical society as its former home, a typewriter factory, was demolished.

View of the factory from a company dwelling.

Aerial view of the mill complex. North at right.

 

Plan from ca. 1940s appraisal, showing Office (bottom center, in pink); 
Mill No. 1, Raw stock paper warehouse and Mill. No. 2 (center);
Machine shop and Raw stock paper warehouse (right);
Mill No. 3 (top, right of center). North at top.