Union Mill Complex
Encyclopedia
The Union Mill Complex, formerly Bischoff's Chocolate Factory, is located at the junction of Milton Avenue (NY 50
) and Prospect Street in Ballston Spa
, New York, United States. It is a complex of three late 19th-century brick buildings on a 4-acre (1.6 ha) lot
, and the ruins of a dam.
Originally built to harness the nearby Kayaderosseras Creek for textile production
, in the years of the Gilded Age
George West
converted it to paper bag
production and made the center of his company. It later became a chocolate factory, and then a warehouse
for a local plastics concern. In 1982 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
, and is now used as a retail
complex.
that began the industrial use of the property.
All three buildings are built of brick laid in common bond
with pressed metal roofs. Metal is also used for many of the decorative touches
, such as iron finial
s, window caps, balustrades, cornice
s and dormer windows.
The mill itself is an L-shaped four story building with two stair towers in the late Second Empire style
, with corbel
ed brickwork and cast iron
detailing. The original timber framing
has been replaced by reinforced concrete
on the lower stories. The east tower has a clock face in one dormer and a 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) bell, cast by Jones & Co. of Troy
.
The bag factory is a two-and-a-half–story 3-by-16-bay
gable
d building. The windows have flat-arched lintels and hammered limestone
sills. The attic windows in the gable ends have been bricked over. It retains the exposed timber rafter
s and Italianate
metal monitors. Its structural system is the original timber.
On its east is the George West Office Building, later converted into a creamery
. It is a five-by-three-bay two-story gabled structure with a perpendicularly-attached nine-by-three-bay gabled single-story wing. On the south elevation is a two-and-a-half-story tower with metallic mansard roof
dormers and bracketed
cornice.
The mill and office building retain much of their original finishing. The former, redecorated in a Queen Anne
mode by Saratoga Springs architect R.N. Brezee, features oak
and cherry
wainscoting, a highly decorated cashier's desk and walk-in vault
. Similarly, the bag factory has a wainscoted cashier's office with pay windows, staircase with two open flight and varnish
ed newel
posts with turned balusters. It, too, has a walk-in vault. The owner's office overlooking Prospect Street has paneled and varnished cherry wainscoting, tiled fireplace, and pediment
ed cherry window moldings
.
The factory has no significant decorative touches. There is no historical machinery left in it or either of the other buildings.
Behind the buildings, the Blue Mill Dam on the creek was demolished in the mid-20th century. Some of its stone piers remain.
there in 1844. Six years later, in 1850, they added a woolen mill, the current Bag Factory.
In 1878 fire destroyed the original Union Cotton Mill. The following year George West
, who had profited during the Civil War
when he invented the flat-bottomed paper bag, the first which could hold as much as 50 pounds (22.7 kg), bought the property and built the current structure, renaming it the Union Paper Mill. Power came from a renovated flume
and the turbine
from the cotton mill. He also enlarged the wool mill and turned it into a bag factory. Brezee's office space in the building was meant to be a showpiece of contemporary office design.
Over the next six years the office building was built. In 1882 the dam was destroyed in a flood and rebuilt. The clock tower was illuminatd with electric light in 1885, followed by the whole mill the next year. The dam was breached and rebuilt in 1886 as well, only to be breached again by another flood.
West enlarged the main mill building again in 1889. By this point the complex was the headquarters of a company that operated nine mills, two factories and a pulp mill
in northern Saratoga County
. He sold his holdings to the Union Bag & Paper Company in 1899.
Twenty years later, the company itself sold the buildings to German immigrant
Frederick Bischoff. His chocolate company had outgrown its original location in Brooklyn and needed new space quickly. A Philadelphia firm renovated the interiors extensively for its new use and shored up the mill with steel and reinforced concrete. All the original machinery was removed by 1920.
Bischoff installed colored lights to illuminate the water falling over the dam, and made other improvements to the immediate vicinity. The dam collapsed in 1947 and was not rebuilt; three years later, after Bischoff died, the family sold the factory to a knitting company, which in turn sold it to Tufflite Plastics, a local company which made plastic moldings for florists to use in displays, and used the mill as a warehouse
. When Tufflite closed in the late 1990s, the vacant building was eventually converted into space for small retailers.
New York State Route 50
New York State Route 50 is a state highway in the Capital District of New York in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 5 in Scotia...
) and Prospect Street in Ballston Spa
Ballston Spa, New York
Ballston Spa is a village in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,556 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saratoga County. The village is named after Rev. Eliphalet Ball, a Congregationalist clergyman and an early settler. The village lies on the border of two...
, New York, United States. It is a complex of three late 19th-century brick buildings on a 4-acre (1.6 ha) lot
Lot (real estate)
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner. A lot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property in other countries...
, and the ruins of a dam.
Originally built to harness the nearby Kayaderosseras Creek for textile production
Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution changed the nature of work and society. Opinion varies as to the exact date, but it is estimated that the First Industrial Revolution took place between 1750 and 1850, and the second phase or Second Industrial Revolution between 1860 and 1900. The three key drivers in...
, in the years of the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
George West
George West
George West was a U.S. Representative from New York. Born in Bradninch, England, West attended the common schools. West immigrated to the United States in February 1849 and settled at Ballston Spa, New York...
converted it to paper bag
Paper bag
A paper bag or paper sack is a preformed container made of paper, usually with an opening on one side. It can be one layer of paper or multiple layers of paper and other flexible materials. A bag is used for packaging and/or carrying items....
production and made the center of his company. It later became a chocolate factory, and then a warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
for a local plastics concern. In 1982 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, and is now used as a retail
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
complex.
Property
The property is a wedge-shaped parcel with Milton on the east, the creek on the north and Prospect to the south and west. There is a slight rise on the west; it is built into that. The surrounding neighborhood, downtown Ballston Spa, is mostly commercial. The Register listing includes three buildings — the George West Office Building, Union Mill and West Bag Factory — and one structure, the ruins of the former damImpoundment
Impoundment is the election of a President of the United States not to spend money that has been appropriated by the U.S. Congress. The precedent for presidential impoundment was first set by Thomas Jefferson in 1801. The power was available to all presidents up to and including Richard Nixon, and...
that began the industrial use of the property.
All three buildings are built of brick laid in common bond
Brickwork
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...
with pressed metal roofs. Metal is also used for many of the decorative touches
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
, such as iron finial
Finial
The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
s, window caps, balustrades, cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
s and dormer windows.
The mill itself is an L-shaped four story building with two stair towers in the late Second Empire style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
, with corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ed brickwork and cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
detailing. The original timber framing
Framing (construction)
Framing, in construction known as light-frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping...
has been replaced by reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
on the lower stories. The east tower has a clock face in one dormer and a 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) bell, cast by Jones & Co. of Troy
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
.
The bag factory is a two-and-a-half–story 3-by-16-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d building. The windows have flat-arched lintels and hammered limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
sills. The attic windows in the gable ends have been bricked over. It retains the exposed timber rafter
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members , that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.-Design:...
s and Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
metal monitors. Its structural system is the original timber.
On its east is the George West Office Building, later converted into a creamery
Creamery
In a dairy, the creamery is the location of cream processing. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream returned to the skimmed milk....
. It is a five-by-three-bay two-story gabled structure with a perpendicularly-attached nine-by-three-bay gabled single-story wing. On the south elevation is a two-and-a-half-story tower with metallic mansard roof
Mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
dormers and bracketed
Bracket (architecture)
A bracket is an architectural member made of wood, stone, or metal that overhangs a wall to support or carry weight. It may also support a statue, the spring of an arch, a beam, or a shelf. Brackets are often in the form of scrolls, and can be carved, cast, or molded. They can be entirely...
cornice.
The mill and office building retain much of their original finishing. The former, redecorated in a Queen Anne
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
mode by Saratoga Springs architect R.N. Brezee, features oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
and cherry
Black Cherry
Prunus serotina, commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a woody plant species belonging to the genus Prunus...
wainscoting, a highly decorated cashier's desk and walk-in vault
Bank vault
A bank vault is a secure space where money, valuables, records, and documents can be stored. It is intended to protect their contents from theft, unauthorized use, fire, natural disasters, and other threats, just like a safe...
. Similarly, the bag factory has a wainscoted cashier's office with pay windows, staircase with two open flight and varnish
Varnish
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss...
ed newel
Newel
A newel, also called a central pole, is an upright post that supports the handrail of a stair banister. In stairs having straight flights it is the principal post at the foot of the staircase, but it can also be used for the intermediate posts on landings and at the top of a staircase...
posts with turned balusters. It, too, has a walk-in vault. The owner's office overlooking Prospect Street has paneled and varnished cherry wainscoting, tiled fireplace, and pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
ed cherry window moldings
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
.
The factory has no significant decorative touches. There is no historical machinery left in it or either of the other buildings.
Behind the buildings, the Blue Mill Dam on the creek was demolished in the mid-20th century. Some of its stone piers remain.
History
Development of the property began around 1830, when Hezekiah Middlebrook first dammed the creek. The Ballston Mill Company built the first cotton millCotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
there in 1844. Six years later, in 1850, they added a woolen mill, the current Bag Factory.
In 1878 fire destroyed the original Union Cotton Mill. The following year George West
George West
George West was a U.S. Representative from New York. Born in Bradninch, England, West attended the common schools. West immigrated to the United States in February 1849 and settled at Ballston Spa, New York...
, who had profited during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
when he invented the flat-bottomed paper bag, the first which could hold as much as 50 pounds (22.7 kg), bought the property and built the current structure, renaming it the Union Paper Mill. Power came from a renovated flume
Flume
A flume is an open artificial water channel, in the form of a gravity chute, that leads water from a diversion dam or weir completely aside a natural flow. Often, the flume is an elevated box structure that follows the natural contours of the land. These have been extensively used in hydraulic...
and the turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
from the cotton mill. He also enlarged the wool mill and turned it into a bag factory. Brezee's office space in the building was meant to be a showpiece of contemporary office design.
Over the next six years the office building was built. In 1882 the dam was destroyed in a flood and rebuilt. The clock tower was illuminatd with electric light in 1885, followed by the whole mill the next year. The dam was breached and rebuilt in 1886 as well, only to be breached again by another flood.
West enlarged the main mill building again in 1889. By this point the complex was the headquarters of a company that operated nine mills, two factories and a pulp mill
Pulp mill
A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fibre source into a thick fibre board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical or fully chemical methods...
in northern Saratoga County
Saratoga County, New York
Saratoga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 219,607. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is Ballston Spa...
. He sold his holdings to the Union Bag & Paper Company in 1899.
Twenty years later, the company itself sold the buildings to German immigrant
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
Frederick Bischoff. His chocolate company had outgrown its original location in Brooklyn and needed new space quickly. A Philadelphia firm renovated the interiors extensively for its new use and shored up the mill with steel and reinforced concrete. All the original machinery was removed by 1920.
Bischoff installed colored lights to illuminate the water falling over the dam, and made other improvements to the immediate vicinity. The dam collapsed in 1947 and was not rebuilt; three years later, after Bischoff died, the family sold the factory to a knitting company, which in turn sold it to Tufflite Plastics, a local company which made plastic moldings for florists to use in displays, and used the mill as a warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
. When Tufflite closed in the late 1990s, the vacant building was eventually converted into space for small retailers.