The Brick Kingdom
The Crystal Lake Falls Historic District covers several blocks of Barton village, located at northwest corner of Crystal Lake. It extends roughly along Water Street from Church to Main Street, along Main from Water to Duck Pond Road, and along West Street from Cemetery Road to Main Street. The latter areas is known colloquially as the "Brick Kingdom", and runs roughly parallel to Willoughby Brook, the outflow from Crystal Lake, which drops about 90 feet (27 m) in a series of falls. The earliest documented industrial activity on the falls began in the 1790s, with Asa Kimball starting a sawmill in 1798 and a gristmill in 1807 on the upper falls. [2] During the 19th century, factories clustered along Water Street, with a variety of manufacturing activities. Businesses located here manufactured piano works, furniture, ladies cotton lingerie and baseball bats. These mostly closed by the 1940s, with the last leaving in 1952. [3] The mills employed about 300 workers. [4]
Mills and other local industrial activities included the following: [5]
- Heyward Chair Company 1860–1890
- Charles Ufford Carriage Maker [6] 1868 – circa 1892
- Barton Woolen Mill (carding wool, buying and selling wool) 1875–1926. One of the last carding mills in the country.
- J.W. Murkland – manufactured machinery, operated a foundry, produced plows, bobbin and spool machinery, etc. 1876–1941
- Peerless Manufacturing Company 1892–1924. employed 100 women and a few men to produce ladies and children's underwear.
- Barton Wood Heel and Lumber Company. Using the Peerless plant, 1924–1938.
- Butter tub factory 1893–1916. Employed up to 60 men. A 1916 fire put these men out of work and had a considerable effect on the community, when these unemployed people moved out with their families. Many were Catholic and their departure had a particularly detrimental effect on the local church for many years. [5]
- Percival Manufacturing Company 1889–1905
- Pillsbury and Baldwin Company 1906–1911. Manufactured toilet tanks and seats. Employed up to 40 men
- Wessell, Nickel and Gross 1919–1941. Manufactured piano actions. [7] Employed up to 42 men.
- Barton Wood Products Company 1943. Used former Wessel, Nickel and Gross plant. Employed 50. Burned on New Year's Eve.
- Progressive Furniture Company 1944–1952.Repaired Barton Wood Products building. Manufactured wooden chairs. 1944–1952. Employed 30 people.
- Table factory circa 1903–1933. Made tables and bookcases.
- Tower brothers. Grist mill. circa 1880 – circa 1906
- Barron Wedgewood Horseshoe 1908–1920. Manufactured a specialized horseshoe that would prevent snow buildup.
- Commercial Ice Harvesting 1870–1947+
- Granite Quarries 1888 – circa 1935
Orleans County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,393. Its county seat is the city of Newport. The county was created in 1792 and organized in 1799. As in the rest of New England, few governmental powers have been granted to the county. The county is an expedient way of grouping and distributing state-controlled governmental services.
Claremont is the only city in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 12,949 at the 2020 census.
Orleans is a village in the northwestern corner of Barton, Orleans County, Vermont, United States. With a population of 788 at the 2020 census, it is the largest village in the county.
Rockingham is a Town in Windham County, on the southeastern Vermont border in the United States, along the Connecticut River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,832. Rockingham includes the incorporated villages of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River, as well as a large rural area west of Interstate 91.
Barton is a village located near the center of the town of Barton, in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 690 at the 2020 census.
Barton is a town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,872 at the 2020 census. The town includes two incorporated villages, Barton and Orleans. Approximately a quarter of the town's population lives in each of the villages, and approximately half lives outside the villages. Only four other towns in the state contain two incorporated villages.
The Burden Iron Works was an iron works and industrial complex on the Hudson River and Wynantskill Creek in Troy, New York. It once housed the Burden Water Wheel, the most powerful vertical water wheel in history. It is widely believed that George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris wheel, had occasion to observe the wheel while a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The iron works site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an archaeological site in 1977. The Burden Ironworks Office Building was previously listed in 1972.
The American Precision Museum is located in the renovated 1846 Robbins & Lawrence factory on South Main Street in Windsor, Vermont. The building is said to be the first U.S. factory at which precision interchangeable parts were made, giving birth to the precision machine tool industry. In recognition of this history, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966. In 1987, the building was recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as an International Heritage Site, and the collection was recognized as an International Heritage Collection. For each of these designations, the armory was considered a site where pivotal events occurred in the history of American industry, as well as a place that lends itself to comprehensive interpretation of that history.
Lake Willoughby is a lake in the town of Westmore in Orleans County in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, United States.
Crystal Lake is near the village of Barton in Orleans County, Vermont. It is a glacial lake 3 by 1 mile and 100 feet (30 m) deep in places. Route 5 runs along the lake's western shore. Crystal Lake is in the northeast section of the state of Vermont. The lake is owned by the state and managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Crystal Lake State Park is a day-use state park and historic site in Barton, Vermont, United States. It is located at 96 Bellwater Avenue, off Willoughby Lake Road just east of the village, at the northwestern end of 763-acre (309 ha) Crystal Lake. It features a sandy beach with swimming area, and a bath house built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). A cottage is available for rental. The park was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 30, 2005, for its association with the CCC.
The Wappingers Falls Historic District is in the center of that village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is a 90-acre area roughly centered along South Avenue and West Main Street, NY 9D and Wappinger Creek. It includes Mesier Park in the center of the village and many adjacent residential neighborhoods, roughly bounded by Elm, Park, Walker, Market and McKinley streets.
The Hoosick Falls Historic District is located in the downtown section of the village of that name in New York, United States. It is an eight-acre (3.2-ha) area concentrated along Church, Classic and John streets south of the Hoosick River.
The Winooski Falls Mill District is located along the Winooski River in the cities of Winooski and Burlington, Vermont, in the United States of America. It encompasses a major industrial area that developed around two sets of falls on the river in the 19th century.
The Nashua Manufacturing Company Historic District in Nashua, New Hampshire, is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1987. It encompasses an area just west of downtown Nashua, roughly located along the southern bank of the Nashua River, bordered on the west side by Mine Falls Park, on the south side by the Nashua River canal, up to Ledge Street, and from the east side by Factory, Pine and Water streets, up to the Main Street bridge.
The Cocheco Mills comprise a historic mill complex in the heart of Dover, New Hampshire. The mills occupy a bend in the Cochecho River that has been site of cotton textile manufacturing since at least 1823, when the Dover Manufacturing Company supplanted earlier sawmills and gristmills. The present mill buildings were built between the 1880s and the early 20th century, and were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
The Robertson Paper Company Complex was a historic industrial facility on Island Street in Bellows Falls, Vermont. It consisted of a collection of mostly-interconnected factory and related buildings, built between c. 1890 and c. 1960 by various paper-related companies. It was occupied and enlarged by the Robertson Paper Company between 1907 and its failure in 1987, at which time it was the longest-lived paper company in the state. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. It was demolished in 2018-19 as a Brownfields Economic Revitalization Alliance (BERA) project, with federal, state, and local funding.
The Jericho Village Historic District encompasses the historic industrial and commercial center of the village of Jericho, Vermont. Stretched along Vermont Route 15 south of Browns River, which powered the village's industries for many years, the village center includes a well-preserved array of 19th and early 20th-century buildings. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The Willard Manufacturing Company Building is a historic factory building at 25 Stowell Street in the city of St. Albans, Vermont. Built in 1896, the building saw industrial uses continuously until 2006, retaining many original early period features. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
