I have long been attracted to older cultural architecture – spaces built for creative and productive activities that are no longer used as originally intended. Some are ruins faded from use and fading from view. Others have their usefulness re-invented and given new life – occasionally more than once.
The land in the Northeast has many structures falling into ruin. At first, they may seem to be trash on the landscape. For me, at least, there is a sense of respect for ancestors and the past that rises and transforms some beyond litter. Thus transformed, the stories they have to tell begin to be seen and heard. The mostly agricultural structures, such as barns and homesteads, are seldom given a new life and purpose. They most often continue to decay and fade back into the soil. Many nineteenth century industrial revolution mills have taken another path after their original businesses have failed. They often sit vacant, gathering dust for some period of time until support builds to invest in making them occupied and useful again. In doing this, part of their history is preserved in various ways. Visiting the mills in a region is an opportunity to see and understand this process of collapse and re-birth in many of its stages. Each mill has a multitude of stories to tell and, taken together, yet another is told. If we make the tour again, ten years later, much will have changed telling still more. These narratives teach of who we are as a people, and of our culture.

The mill buildings themselves have been silent impartial witnesses to the struggles of individuals, businesses, culture, economies, the nation, and now the planet. The tale they tell is subtly obscure in what we see and feel observing them. We may despise them, respect them, preserve them, transform them and destroy them. Understanding them in all of these contexts is a worthy challenge. I find it intriguing that many of the transformations involve a change from machines using people to create things (textiles) to people using tools to create things themselves. Many later generation businesses work more in this way. Transformation to artist’s workspace, which is very common, is an apex of this where each individual creates uniquely and independently using a wide variety of tools. The present condition and usage of these old mills tells us of our resilience and our attitudes to the past and the future. I aim to convey where that stands at this particular point in space and time.

This project is to visit, photograph, research and write some of the story of all (or most) of the old Great Mills in the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord Rivers watershed where I live. This region is particularly significant in colonial America as well as in the history of the American Industrial Revolution.  A few other sites in the region will be included either for historical significance or because I just can’t resist.