BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
AREA FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 8O BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02116 FORM NO. 317 Town North Adams MRA Address60 Roberts Drive Historic Name Norad Mill PHOTO: (3x3" or 3x5", black & white) staple to left side of form Photo number SKETCH MAP Show property's location in relation to nearest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate all buildings between iaveatoried property and nearest intersection. Indicate north. Use: Present industrial/commercial . Original woolen mill DESCRIPTION: Main block: 1863; addition: 1895-1983 Date_(see attached sketch map) Source Insurance maps Style_Italianate industrial Architect unknown Exterior wall fabricbrick Outbuildings_See attached sketch map See attached sketch map Williamstown Quadrangle UTM Reference: 18/652440/4728820 Recorded by Betsy Friedberg Organization Massachusetts Hist. Comm.
Date July 1985 Majoralterations (with dates) two-story concrete addition, 1982 (see attached sketch map) Moved no Date N/A Approx. acreage 4,50 acres Setting This mill is located on the north side of the Hoosac Biver Across the river to the south is Braytonville, a community with a high proportion of workers' (Staple additional shet8i géze) OCT 25 1985 ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and evaliate in terms of other buildings within the commmity.) The Norad Manufacturing Company represents the oldest complete mill structure in North Adams to have survived without major external alterations of the original structure's appearance. The main mill (A), wheelhouse, and wing (B), built in 1863, are open to view from many angles and places on public roads.
Extensions were added to the west end (C) in 1898, and south wing (D) in 1895-1898, and a storehouse (E) was built next to the latter in 1904. These are small compared to the sections erected in 1863. Additions to the south wing replicate the earlier style of load-bearing walls and small window openings, HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state (continued) history and how the building relates to the development of the commmity.) The Norad Mill was built by the North Adams Woolen Company, a concern organized in 1863 and capitalized primarily by its president, Sanford Blackinton. Blackinton had been for many years the wealthiest manufacturer in town, worth a quartér of a million dollars in 1857. He made almost all his money in woolens, the trade to which he. was apprenticed as ayoung man.
In addition, he bought into andsoldoutof several cotton manufacturing companies after the Civil War, often through associates and members of his family. Blackintonhad acqui red interest in and soon contolled the 0ld Stone Mill, built nearby by F. A. Brayton & Co. in 1832. (That building survived until after 1900.) Blackinton's first woolen mill, located west of this one in the Blackinton neighborhood, had been in operation since 1821, and continued to be his other main factory. But the demand for woolen goodscreated by the Civil War encouraged him to expand production by forming a second firm, Norad. By 1863, Blackinton had access to raw materials and to markets, and had accumulated the capital necessary to undertake large-scale expansion.
He was one of the largest.subscribers to the railroad built from North Adams south to the Boston and Albany road in 1843, and he was able to utilize fully the link completed in1854 from NorthAdams to Troy. Blackinton procured his raw wool both locally and outside the immediate area. Although wool prices rose quickly after the outbfreak of the Civil War, Blackinton found a large amount of wool at lower prices in Ohio and was able to bring it in to North Adams by In adaition, Thomas C. Phelps, a sheep farmer whose herd grazed. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/Or REPERENCS (name of publicataon, authse, aace rad publisher)acrentinued) History of Berkshire County, Mass., F. W. Beers, NY, 1885. Insurance Maps of North Adams, Sanborn Insurance Company, Pelham, NY, 1888, 1908, 1914, 1929 County Atlas of Berkshire County, Mass., F. W. Beers, NY, 1876. Atlas of the Towns of Adams, North Adams, & Williamstown, D.
L. Miller, NY, 1894. North Adams and Vicinity, H. G. Rowe, North Adams, 1898. Selected Economic Papers 1881-1889, Bureau of Statistics of Labor, compiled by Carrol D. Wright, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, Mass., 1009. History of North Adams, Massachusetts, 1749-1885, Willis F. Spear, North Adams, Mass., 1885. Associated Mutual Insurance Companies, Insurance surveys of mills in North Adams. The Transcript, North Adams, Mass. American WooT Manufacture, Arthur Harrison Cole, Cambridge, Mass., 1926 10M - 7/82 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity: North Adams MRA Form No: 317 Property Name: Norad Mill Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE, continued and copy the low pitch of the roof on the original wing, though theseadditions do not display the ornate corbelled brickwork found on the 1863 cornices. The 1898 westerly addition to the main mill extens that block's three-story facades another seventy-nine feet, but uses more modern curtain-wall construction such as is typically found in other mill buildings of several stories built in North Adams around the turn of the century. Its recessed window bays contain larger window openins 1n a nonsupporting wall curtain. The bays alternate with vertical brick members reaching from ground to flat roof, giving the effect of pilasters. the hat rooe g as terten tion.
The high-peaked roof of the original (main) mill rises above the flat roof of the extension, and contains the same decorative brickwork seen in other mill buildings dating from the period during or immediately following the Civil War.. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE, continued adjacent to the mill, also was a supplier. Blackinton's productive new mill allowed him to market great quantities of woolen goods soon after the elevation of tariffs on wool during the Civil War, while competitors were still making plans for expansion. Blackinton recruited for his new company some of the most able administrators seen during the post-Civil War heyday of industry in North Adams. E. B. Penniman joined as agent for sales through New York outlets; Thomas W.Sykes became superintendant. Sykes remarned as superintendent. Penniman became treasurer and clerk, and H. G. B. Fisher of New York assumed the presidency.
By the mid 1890s, the Norad Mill was producing fancy cassimeres worth half a million dollars annually, equal to the sales of the largest firm in North Adams, the Arnold he msde orae Terger Ehan gd tercint orare o en l is in tre twice the size of the average woolen mills in Massachusetts, which were the largest in the nation. The woolen-production industry at the turn of the century was becoming more centralized as the small mills dropped out. The Norad Mill became associated with an aggregate of mills in Connecticut, where the average size of woolen mills was rising faster after th turn of the century than in any other major wool-producing state, ranking near the leading state, Massachusetts.
These associated mills followed a course different from those that grew to mammoth size in order to achieve economies of scale; like its Connecticut colleague, the Hockanum Company, Norad survived on a moderate scale by diversifying its product and combining medium- and fine-grade products in order to maximize waste of its variety of raw materials. By the mid 1920s, only 150 operatives worked at Norad, producing cotton as well as woolen blankets. In 1900 and 1925, power was still 10 percent water, with steam auxiliary. (continued) Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity : North Adams MRA Form No: 317 Property Name : Norad Mill Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE, continued Woolen manufacture continued to be Norad's primary effort, and continued under several names (Middlebrook Mills after September 1939, and Blackinton Mills, Inc., after August 1943) until shortly after World War II. The mill was sold to the Norad Realty Corporation in July 1947. William B. Roberts bought the plant on February10, 1954, and established the Excelsior Printing Company there. In 1964, Crane Paper Company bought him out but retained the firm's nameCrane has since then printed manufacturing specification sheets, college catalogues, and paperbacks, amended social stationery, and served all of Crane's eastern outlets for stationery from Excelsior Printing Company. Robert and Thomas Cramer bought most of the wing and its extensions in October 1971 for sales and storage by their Central Radio and Appliance Company.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION The Norad Mill, North Adams' most intact and oldest mill complex, retains integrity of setting, design, location, materials, workmanship, and association with the city's primary 19th century industry--wool production--and its major industrialist--Sanford Blackinton. It thus fulfils Criteria A, B, and C of the National Register of Historic Places. Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity: North Adams MRA Property Name : Norad Mill Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. APPENDIX A Sketch Map, Norad Mill (not drawn to scale) For No: 317 F ROBERTS DRIVE B RIVER STATE ROAD (MASS. RTE. 2) HOOSAC KEY A. 1863 B. 1895 C. 1898 D. 1904 E. 1965/NC F. 1980/NC G.
1983/NC Staple to Inventory form at bottom NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Item number OMB NO. 1024-0018 Expires 10-31-87 ecelved Mln8s date entered Page 27z Multiple Resource Area Thematie Group Name State North Adams MRA Bershire County, MASSACHUSETTS Nomination/Type of Review 11. Hathaway Tenement 12. Johnson School 13. Johnson Manufacturing Company 14. Norad Mill 15. Sherman, William B., Farm 16. Sykes "Hoüse 17. Wells House 18. Phelps House 19. 20. Babered 1n tlie National Register Entered in the Natlonal Register fKeeper Attest f Keeper Date/Signature AuluByuo 120/05 Auevabyan10/25/85 Attest fKeeper Entered Ix National Regisber AulmuByu 10/25/20 Entered in the National Register Attest fKeeper Attest /Keeper AeenurBgan 4/256.
Entered im the National Register AuonByu10/2% Attest fReeper AulmesBgu210/25/0s Irtared in tha Tational Regieter Attest 8Keeper delunBzan10/25/05 Ertered in the Netional Register Attest 5. Rumen Keeper Attest Keeper Attest Keeper Attest WASO Form - 177 ("'R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET 85003417 Norad Mill (North Adams MRA) Bershire County MASSACHUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: Reviewer's comments: - sample Lrequest 2 1985 Working No.- Fed. Reg.
Date:<2/3/8 Date Due: 10/10/85 - 10/ 07/85 Action: LACCEPT- 10-25-8 Entered in the -RETURN Nattonal Jogleter REJECT - Federal Agency: -appeal -NR decision Recom./Criteria Reviewer - Discipline Date _ see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: _technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? yes no 7. Description Condition excellent good fair deteriorated ruins unexposed Check one J unaltered Jaltered Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use Check one -original site -moved date_ 8.
Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Builder/Architect summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundarydescription and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: _national state local State Historic Preservation Officer signature date title 13.
Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to _ Signed - Date - Phone: - Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet ZADIO TENTER CENTRAL RADIO EXCELSIOR dMI NORAD Mill (ExcelsiorPrinting) Roberts Drive North Adams, Mass. Photo by R. Reed, 1981. Negative at NAHC NORAD Mill [Excelsior Printing] 60 Roberts Drive North Adams, Mass. North side. Photo by R.Reed, 1981 Negative at NAHC