Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room

Last updated

Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room
DaltonMA CraneCompanyMuseum HABS.jpg
HABS photo, 1988
USA Massachusetts location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Dalton, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°28′10″N73°10′42″W / 42.46944°N 73.17833°W / 42.46944; -73.17833
Built1844
ArchitectZenas Crane
Part of Cranesville Historic District (ID05001208)
NRHP reference No. 83004376 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJuly 1, 1983
Designated CPNovember 9, 2005

The Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room is one of the oldest surviving buildings (built in 1844) of Crane & Co., one of the oldest papermaking businesses in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. [2] It is located in southwestern Dalton, on a site where paper has been manufactured since the early 19th century. The building, originally used for processing rags, has housed the Crane Museum of Papermaking since 1930, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983.

Contents

Zenas Crane began making paper in Dalton in 1801, taking full ownership of an established operation at the Rag Room site in 1822. In the mid-1840s his sons constructed the Old Stone Mill, of which the Rag Room is the only surviving portion. The Rag Room is where Crane's grandson Winthrop Murray Crane learned the business; through his efforts Crane secured a monopoly contract to provide paper for the nation's currency, which it still holds today.

The Rag Room is a gray fieldstone building with a slate roof. Its interior is a large open space that houses exhibits and artifacts of the company's history.

History

Zenas Crane (1777–1845) was educated in the processes of paper manufacturing in a mill owned by his brother Stephen in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts. After a stint at another paper mill in Worcester, Crane traveled west into Berkshire County in 1799, looking for potential papermaking sites. [3] He found a highly desirable site in Dalton, but the owner, a local farmer, was unwilling to part with it. Crane instead established his business on a nearby parcel in 1801. [3] [4] Other papermakers followed over the next ten years, notably Henry Wiswell and David Carson, who acquired the more desirable site and established what became known as the Red Mill. [4] Through a series of partnership and purchase transactions, Crane eventually acquired control of the Red Mill, taking full ownership in 1822. [5]

Zenas Crane, founder of the Crane mill complex in Dalton ZenasCrane.png
Zenas Crane, founder of the Crane mill complex in Dalton

In 1842 Zenas Crane retired, leaving control of the Red Mill to his sons Zenas Marshall Crane and James Brewer Crane. They founded Crane & Co., and set about expanding the business, beginning construction of what became known as the Stone Mill. [6] The Rag Room was part of this construction effort, and was built in 1844. [2] A visit in January 1851 inspired Herman Melville the second part of his short story The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids . [7] In 1869 the Stone Mill was damaged by fire; while it was being repaired in 1870 the Red Mill was destroyed by fire. The Stone Mill was then expanded, and also became known as the Pioneer Mill. [8] The Stone Mill was used by the firm until the 1890s, when most of it was demolished, leaving only the Rag Room. [2]

In 1930 the company adapted the Rag Room for use as the company museum, a role it has filled since. [2] Following plans developed by architect Charles S. Keefe, the company reinforced the building's foundation with steel and concrete, filling in a number of its windows with stonework. The interior was significantly reworked, with new structural woodwork and flooring. Upon completion the interior was said to resemble that of the Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts. [9] In 1967 the company retained the Olmsted Brothers firm to design landscaping of the area, although their work has since been compromised to some extent by later development on the property. [9] The site was declared a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. [1] In 2005 it became part of the listed Cranesville Historic District, which includes, among other properties, the 1816 home of Zenas Crane. [9]

The Rag Room was where Zenas Marshall Crane's son, Winthrop Murray Crane (1853–1920), began his career in the papermaking business. [2] In 1878 he was responsible for acquiring Crane & Co.'s exclusive government contract to manufacture the paper used in the currency of the United States. [10] In addition to running Crane & Co. during the late 19th century, Murray Crane served as Governor of Massachusetts and United States Senator, and played an influential role in Republican Party politics. [2]

Description

Museum, 2009 Crane Museum, Dalton MA.jpg
Museum, 2009

The Rag Room is a single-room single-story gray fieldstone building. It is three window bays wide and seven long, featuring stepped gable ends and a slate roof. It originally stood at the southwest part of the Stone Mill complex, and its north end was where it connected to the larger mill buildings. The building was where rags arriving at the mill were processed at the start of the papermaking operation. [2]

In 1930 the northern facade was given a proper entranceway with transomed doors and Doric columns below a frieze identifying the building as the Crane Museum. Above this doorway a circular window was also added. The slate roof and its support beams were also replaced in 1930, but without altering the exterior lines of the building. A late 19th century brick addition to the east side of the building (not a part of the landmark designation) is screened from view by plantings. The interior of the building is a single large space in which artifacts from the company's history are displayed. [2] Displays included tools used by Zenas Crane and a replica of the early vat process equipment used to make paper. [11]

The museum is closed until further notice. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalton, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Dalton is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Dalton is a transition town between the urban and rural portions of Berkshire County. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 6,330 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paper mill</span> Factory that produces paper

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, all paper in a paper mill was made by hand, one sheet at a time, by specialized laborers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crane Currency</span> Manufacturer of cotton based paper products

Crane Currency supplies central banks with design services, currency papers, and banknote printing services as well as anti-counterfeiting technology to issuing authorities and brand owners. Crane Currency is headquartered in Dalton, Massachusetts. The company was originally named Crane & Co. and is owned by Crane NXT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic RittenhouseTown</span> United States historic place

Historic RittenhouseTown, sometimes referred to as Rittenhouse Historic District, encompasses the remains of an early industrial community which was the site of the first paper mill in British North America. The mill was built in 1690 by William Rittenhouse and his son Nicholas on the north bank of Paper Mill Run near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The district, off Lincoln Drive near Wissahickon Avenue in Fairmount Park, includes six of up to forty-five original buildings. RittenhouseTown was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Landmark District on April 27, 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Papermaking in Duszniki-Zdrój</span> Museum in Duszniki-Zdrój, Poland

The Museum of Papermaking in Duszniki-Zdrój is a historical museum located in the spa town of Duszniki-Zdrój in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, southwestern Poland. It was founded in 1968 in an old 16th-century paper mill on the Bystrzyca Dusznicka river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Main Street Cemetery</span> Historic cemetery in Massachusetts, United States

The Main Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery on Main Street in Dalton, Massachusetts. Although the cemetery dates to 1781, much of it was laid out in the 19th century, during the rural cemetery movement. Its most prominent burials are those of the Crane family, whose papermaking business, Crane and Company, has dominated Dalton since the 1820s. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eaton-Moulton Mill</span> United States historic place

The Eaton-Moulton Mill is a historic industrial building at 37 Walnut Street in the Wellesley Lower Falls village of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The 2+12-story granite mill building was built c. 1853 by the firm of Reuben Ware and William Clark, manufacturers of papermaking machinery. The building is distinctive for its use of stone, a relatively uncommon construction material in this area. The Lower Falls area of Wellesley and Newton developed as a papermaking center in the 18th century, and began transitioning from handmade methods to machine methods producing rolls of paper in the 1830s. Ware and Clark were at the forefront of this transition, establishing a machine shop in 1832 where the manufactured equipment for this new process. This building was built for them in 1853, and continued under Eaton and Moulton and other owners until papermaking declined. The building now houses commercial office space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cranesville Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Cranesville Historic District is a historic district in Dalton, Massachusetts, centered on the business and residential properties associated with the papermaker Crane and Company. The district, centered on Main Street west of the town civic center, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glendale Power House</span> United States historic place

The Glendale Power House is a historic power station on the Housatonic River, just off Massachusetts Route 183 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The 1905 power house, built for the Monument Mills, was one of the first places in the United States where electricity was generated for the purpose of providing power to an industrial facility. The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The facility has been rehabilitated and converted into modernized hydroelectric power generation plant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norad Mill</span> United States historic place

The Norad Mill is a historic mill located in Braytonville, North Adams, Massachusetts. It is the oldest mill complex in North Adams that has not had its exterior significantly altered, making visible much of its Italianate styling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rising Paper Mill</span> United States historic place

The Rising Paper Mill is a historic factory at 295 Park Street North, in the Housatonic village of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Built in 1873 for H.D. Cone, it is one of the best-preserved examples of period mill architecture in Berkshire County. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. In 2008, the facility was purchased by Hazen Paper, which announced plans to manufacture multi-ply laminated paper for packaging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of paper</span> Historical origin of the papermaking process

Paper is a thin nonwoven material traditionally made from a combination of milled plant and textile fibres. The first paper-like plant-based writing sheet was papyrus in Egypt, but the first true papermaking process was documented in China during the Eastern Han period, traditionally attributed to the court official Cai Lun. This plant-puree conglomerate produced by pulp mills and paper mills was used for writing, drawing, and money. During the 8th century, Chinese paper making spread to the Islamic world, replacing papyrus. By the 11th century, papermaking was brought to Europe, where it replaced animal-skin-based parchment and wood panels. By the 13th century, papermaking was refined with paper mills using waterwheels in Spain. Later improvements to the papermaking process came in 19th century Europe with the invention of wood-based papers.

Crane Building may refer to the following buildings in the United States:

The History of Papermaking in New York had its beginnings in the late 18th century, at a time when linen and cotton rags were the primary source of fibers in the manufacturing process. By 1850 there were more than 106 paper mills in New York, more than in any other state. A landmark in the history of papermaking in the United States was the installation of the first Fourdrinier machine in the country at a mill in Saugerties, New York, in 1827. Papermaking from ground-wood pulp began in New York in 1869, with the establishment of the Hudson River Pulp & Paper Company in Corinth and also with the work of Illustrious Remington and his sons in Watertown. The innovation and success of the Remingtons spurred further development of the industry in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of papermaking in Massachusetts</span>

This article addresses the history of papermaking in Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitch–Hoose House</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The Fitch–Hoose House is a single-family house at 6 Gulf Road in Dalton, Massachusetts. The wood-frame house was built in 1846, and is a representative of housing of the African American community in Dalton in the 19th century. Now owned by the town and restored, the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. H. & A. B. Tower</span>

Doing business as D. H. & A. B. Tower, brothers David Horatio Tower and Ashley Bemis Tower were internationally known American architects, civil and mechanical engineers based in Holyoke, Massachusetts, who designed mills and factories in the United States from Maine to California as well as abroad, including in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, India, China, Japan, and Australia. By the time of its dissolution, the firm was described by one contemporary account as "the largest firm of paper mill architects in the country at that time"; its files reportedly contained more than 8,000 architectural plans for sites, mill machinery, and waterpower improvements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Writing Paper Company</span>

The American Writing Paper Company was an American pulp and paper producing company trust, primarily manufacturing printing and writing paper. Incorporated in New Jersey in 1899 and representing the merging of 23 rag paper mills, the company held its general offices in Holyoke, Massachusetts which was also the location of 13 of these mills. At its peak output American Writing Paper produced 75% of all fine papers in the United States; contemporary accounts describe it as the largest producer of fine papers in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holyoke Machine Company</span> American machinery company

The Holyoke Machine Company was an American manufacturer of industrial machinery, best known for its work in paper manufacturing equipment and water turbines. The company, formed in 1863, was founded by Nathan H. Whitten, T.C. Page, T. B. Flanders, Richard Pattee, and S. S. Chase, after the Holyoke Water Power Company's machine shop had been sold off. Stephen Holman, the company's treasurer, president, and largest shareholder during different times in its first decade, is credited as its founder, though the nature of his early involvement is not well documented. Holman would purchase the company's foundry works in Worcester in April 1873, a second manufacturing branch which remained open for several decades.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "NHL nomination for Crane Paper Company". National Park Service. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Toomey and Quinn, p. 610
  4. 1 2 Valente, p. 121
  5. Valente, p. 122
  6. Valente, p. 123
  7. Johnson, Claudia Durst (2006). Labor and Workplace Issues in Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN   978-0-313-33286-9.
  8. Valente, p. 129
  9. 1 2 3 "NRHP nomination for Cranesville Historic District". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  10. Valente, pp. 129–130
  11. "Crane Museum of Papermaking". Crane & Co. Retrieved June 12, 2013.[ dead link ]
  12. "Crane Museum" . Retrieved January 17, 2024. The museum's original location has closed. The reopening and all museum events will be announced here. For more information, contact the museum.

Sources