30th Annual New England Conference on Industrial Archeology Hosted by the Southern New England Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology (SNEC-SIA) at Clark University, Jefferson Academic Center, Room 218, Worcester, Massachusetts Saturday, March 4, 2017 SCHEDULE 8:30-9:25 A.M. Registration 9:25-9:30 A.M. Greetings and Opening Remarks Marc N. Belanger President, SNEC-SIA 9:30-10:00 A.M. 10:05-10:35 A.M. Saving Industrial Heritage: Overview and Ideas for the Future of Industrial Archeology The Rise and Fall of the Turnpikes in New England and the Air Route to Boston Sara E. Wermiel, PhD Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts Susan Koso Topsfield, Massachusetts 10:35-10:50 A.M. 15 minute Break 10:50-11:20 A.M. 11:25-11:55 P.M. Preservation and Stabilization of The Lyons Turning Mill The Sumner Tunnel: Innovation in Tunnel Construction under Boston Harbor, 1931-34 Al Bina Quincy, Massachusetts Peter H. Stott Boston, Massachusetts 12:00-1:30 P.M. Lunch Break 1:30-2:00 P.M. 2:05-2:35 P.M. Making Places: Results of Connecticut s Historic Resource Inventory of Mills Providence s Industrial & Commercial Buildings District Wes Haynes, and Renée Tribert Hamden, Connecticut Jason Martin Providence, Rhode Island 2:35-2:50 P.M. 15 minute Break 2:50-3:20 P.M. 3:25-3:55 P.M. Classical Gas: Documenting and Interpreting Claremont, New Hampshire s 1859 Coal Illuminating Gas Plant Textiles, Carriages and Local History An Industrial Survey of Amesbury, Massachusetts Matt Kierstead Marlboro, New York John Mayer Portsmouth, New Hampshire
PAPER ABSTRACTS and BIOs Saving Industrial Heritage: Overview and Ideas for the Future of Industrial Archeology The field of industrial archeology is now about 60 years old, and the American association for the field, the Society for Industrial Archeology, turns 45 in 2016. Middle age, if you will, is a good time to take stock and think about the future, and this is what I d like to do for the field of industrial archeology in this presentation. Industrial archeology began in the 1950s in England largely in response to the loss of structures and sites from the time of the Industrial Revolution. The factories, transportation structures, and so on of the 18th and 19th centuries were not appreciated by the public. A field emerged, named industrial archeology, that was intended to foster understanding, and thus support for the preservation, of these structures and artifacts. Following the British lead, Americans interested in the history of industrialization founded the Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA) in 1971. While an early mission statement said the society promotes the study of the physical survivals of our technology and industrial past, it also mentioned as a purpose encouraging preservation of historic structures and equipment. These two goals (study and preservation) were also features of the field in Britain. Meanwhile in the U.S., the SIA also began to focus on contemporary industry, through its popular process tours. This presentation gives an overview of the history of the field of industrial archeology, covering its start in Great Britain and beginnings in the U.S. It suggests that historic preservation should be more prominent in the field going forward. SIA members can become involved in local surveys, theme studies, interpretation, and advocacy, aimed at preserving historic industrial sites. Sara E. Wermiel is an independent scholar, historic preservation consultant, and teacher. Her specialties are the history of nineteenth-century American technology, industrialization, and urbanization. She has written many articles and a book on the main subjects of her research: structural fire protection, and the development of new building materials and assemblies in the nineteenth century. She received a doctorate in urban history and history of technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Rise and Fall of the Turnpikes in New England and the Air Route to Boston As population and commerce grew at the beginning of the 19th Century, the need for better roads became essential. This fell to corporations formed to meet the need, through the development of turnpikes, paid for, it was thought, by those using the roads. This presentation will cover the machines, tools, manpower and methodology used to create the roads, using the Newburyport Turnpike as an example. Turnpikes in various areas, some successful, most not, will be discussed. The impact of the development of the railroads beginning the 1820 s will be presented. Types of vehicles used on the turnpikes as well as a brief overview of their manufacture at the time will be illustrated. Susan Koso lives in Topsfield, Massachusetts and has a background in carriage driving and its history. She has been a presenter on various carriage and competition topics for the American Driving Society and the New England Region of the Carriage Association of America. Published in The Whip (American Driving Society), Driving Digest and the Carriage Journal (Carriage Association of America). She sits on the Board of the Amesbury Carriage Museum, and is a past secretary and Honorary Board Member of the American Driving Society, Past President of the Myopia Driving Club. Registered Carriage Pleasure Driving Judge and Technical Delegate with the American Driving Society and the United States Equestrian Federation. She has a MEd, Bridgewater State University. She also teaches Carriage Driving Seminars at Touchstone Farm in Temple, NH. Preservation and Stabilization of The Lyons Turning Mill Presentation and Stabilization of the Lyons Turning Mill located on Quarry Hills Dr., West Quincy. The mill was built in 1893 by James Lyons for the production of stone products which included turned granite columns 25 to 30 feet in length and 3 to 4 foot in diameter, granite spheres up to 4 feet in diameter, monumental type work and dimensional building stone for construction. Over the years the remaining wall structure deteriorated from the top down due to the freeze thaw cycle.
The Quincy Quarry and Granite Workers Museum applied for CPA funding to stabilize the remaining wall structures to save the last vintage of Quincy's granite mystery. Over the course of two years the Museum applied for and was granted the funding to complete the first phase of stabilization. The final phase, at present, is to secure additional funding sources to continue the stabilizing with the re-pointing of the entire remaining structure. Al Bina is a retired machinist from Quincy, Massachusetts. His work career included stints at General Dynamics Corporation, Stone and Webster Engineering, and Northeastern University s Mechanical and Chemical Engineering Departments. He is the founder and president of the Quincy Quarry and Granite Workers Museum. The Sumner Tunnel: Innovation in Tunnel Construction under Boston Harbor, 1931-34 Boston's first tunnel under Boston Harbor, the Sumner Tunnel, constructed between 1931 and 1934, was only the fourth subaqueous vehicular tunnel in the United States. Its construction introduced innovations in tunnel building that reduced both cost and construction time for vehicular tunnels, ultimately playing a role in the design of similar tunnels across the country. It was the first bored tunnel to be lined with steel, greatly reducing its cost; and it was the first tunnel to employ continuous muck-handling equipment (a continuous conveyor passing through double-air locks), thereby cutting months off the time required for construction. Construction of the Sumner Tunnel was also one of the century s key influences on city of Boston. As the first major construction project in Boston designed specifically to speed the movement of motor cars, the Tunnel radically transformed Boston and the nearby communities to the north, greatly increasing the number of cars entering Boston. Construction of the tunnel led directly to calls for an elevated arterial spine to handle the new traffic, and ultimately to two additional tunnels, the William F. Callahan, Jr. Tunnel (1962) and the Ted Williams Tunnel (1995). The presentation will discuss the earliest proposals for a tunnel under Boston Harbor, the innovative technologies that made a vehicular tunnel possible, and some of the engineers and planners involved. The talk will be illustrated with both contemporary images and construction photographs from the reports of the Boston Transit Commission and contemporary engineering journals. Peter H. Stott is a founding member of the Southern New England Chapter and preservation planner with the Massachusetts Historical Commission. In 1984 he helped organize the SIA's 13th Annual Conference in Boston, for which he prepared A Guide to the Industrial Archeology of Boston Proper (MIT Press, 1984). He is also the author of Looking for Work: Industrial Archeology in Columbia County, New York (Syracuse University Press, 2007), written in 1989-1990. Following ten years with UNESCO's World Heritage Centre in Paris (1996-2006), he has also written on World Heritage subjects, his most recent work being a three-part series of essays chronicling the US involvement in the 1972 World Heritage Convention, The World Heritage Convention and the National Park Service, written at the request of the National Park Service and published in the George Wright Forum between 2011 and 2013. Making Places: Results of Connecticut s Historic Resource Inventory of Mills At the 18th Annual Meeting of the New England Industrial Archeology Conference in 2015, Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation staff introduced the Making Places program, underwritten by funding from the State Historic Preservation Office, Department of Economic and Community Development of the State of Connecticut, and the Community Investment Act of Connecticut. Making Places is a multi-pronged program addressing the preservation challenges facing Connecticut s historic industrial buildings. Since 2015, the Trust has completed documenting Connecticut s historic industrial resources, provided pilot grants to stimulate re-investment, developed public education vehicles on the importance of mills, and initiated an information clearinghouse to encourage and stimulate the reuse of neglected factory buildings. For this year s presentation, we propose to present our findings from the historic resource inventory (HRI) and how we are using it in new ways going forward.
The Trust s HRI updates and expands the earlier Roth survey of 200 resources, identifying over 1400 industrial sites with standing historic fabric throughout the state built prior to 1965. It spans single building facilities to sprawling complexes, from early 19th century textile and grain mills to factories designed and built in the 1960s. Known industrial archaeological sites are also included. Our presentation will highlight general and aggregate findings relative to Connecticut industries and report out our conclusions illustrated by resources included in the inventory. We will also touch on ways that information gathered is being shared to further awareness and reuse to different audiences. Wes Haynes Making Places Project Director and Circuit Rider, has extensive experience in historic preservation, including tenures at the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Preservation League of New York State, New Jersey Historic Trust, and in private practice. He has an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a BA in Historical Geography from Clark. Renée Tribert has been Making Places Project Manager since September 2014, after sixteen years spent in environmental consulting. She has an MS in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and has been curator/collections manager at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House and the New Britain Museum of American Art. Providence s Industrial & Commercial Buildings District This talk will discuss Providence s Industrial & Commercial Buildings District, a non-contiguous, thematic local historic district created in 2004. There are approximately 250 buildings/complexes in the district. The talk will focus on the creation of the district, incentives used, regulation and regulatory review involved and where the district stands today. Jason Martin has worked for the last 15 years as the Preservation Planner for the City of Providence. He is a native Rhode Islander, having grown up in Providence. He has degrees in Art History and History from Rhode Island College, and a M.S. in Historic Preservation from the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Classical Gas: Documenting and Interpreting Claremont, New Hampshire s 1859 Coal Illuminating Gas Plant In 2015, Milestone Heritage Consulting (Milestone) partnered with VHB, Inc. to document and interpret the 1859 Claremont Gas Light Co. illuminating gas plant in Claremont, New Hampshire. The Claremont Gas Works, established in collaboration with the adjacent Mondanock Mills, provided illuminating, and later, heating gas to downtown Claremont s industries, homes and businesses for 89 years. Gas-making technology followed general industry trends, beginning with coal gas made in retorts and later blended with oil for greater illuminance, and ended with the carbureted water gas process. Gas was stored in a series of gas holder tanks that evolved in function and size as storage capacity increased. Claremont s coal-based gas production was replaced with natural gas in 1948. Gas making left a heavily-contaminated site, including the original 1859 Retort House and Gasholder House, and 1905 Gas Generator House. The Gas Works was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as part of the greater Monadnock Mills National Register Historic District. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency became involved in site cleanup in 2013, and the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources stipulated that EPA mitigate cleanup impacts to the historic site through State-Level documentation using Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) methodology. VHB retained Milestone to conduct HAER-level, large-format, black-and-white film architectural view camera documentation, and to research and write the description, technological context and significance sections of the documentation narrative. Milestone s consultation with international historic gasworks experts revealed that the center column-guided gas storage bell in Claremont s 1859 Gasholder House was the last known survivor of its kind in the world. Milestone also developed the content for on-site public history interpretive panels including a cross-section of the unique gasholder mechanism. The panels are to be installed in a circular plaza designed to reflect and interpret the gasholder house and its unique mechanism. Matt Kierstead is sole owner/proprietor of Milestone Heritage Consulting, a New York-registered small business providing professional cultural resource survey, documentation, and interpretation services for historic engineering, industrial and transportation resources for clients including government agencies, private developers and the heritage tourism industry. He has been involved in historical preservation, industrial history and worked professionally in cultural
resource management (CRM) for twenty years. His focus areas include the history and technology of bridges, mining and quarrying, metallurgy, power generation, and rail transportation. Matt is a member and past president of the Southern New England Chapter, SIA Textiles, Carriages and Local History An Industrial Survey of Amesbury, Massachusetts What is the potential of industrial history? How can a survey of historical resources lead to a new vision for a local museum? This is a case study about the work of a small group of volunteers who are conducting an industrial survey of Amesbury, Massachusetts. This project began in March, 2016 with a simple goal to update a walking tour of the Amesbury Millyard. Led by John Mayer, the newly-hired executive director of the Amesbury Carriage Museum, the project has evolved into a much bigger initiative that is influencing plans for the development of a local history museum. John will provide an introduction to the Amesbury Carriage Museum, describe the organization of the volunteer group, and explain how their efforts and the information they have found has directly influenced plans for the museum. The industrial history of Amesbury began along the banks of the Powow River. As early as 1640, local residents used the flow of the river to power mills that sawed lumber for homes and ships. Over time, local residents built gristmills, iron works, nail factories, and cotton and woolen mills that grew in scale and complexity. These industrial activities contributed to an environment that supported the growth of the carriage industry in the 1800s. It is a rich and surprising history that has never been fully discovered. Building programs around this project has supported the development of the Carriage Museum. The survey is ongoing and the future of the museum is bright. The challenge is to build a stable financial base. Will industrial history provide the power? Stay tuned. John will use images of historic maps and photographs to illustrate his talk. John Mayer is the Executive Director of the Amesbury Carriage Museum. He began his work for the museum in March 2016 and is responsible for leading the organization towards the goal of establishing a headquarters with space for exhibits, programs and collections. John has worked for over 30 years in the museum field with expertise in non-profit administration, exhibit development, curatorial practice, care of artifact collections, and preservation of historic structures. He is a graduate of the Hagley Program at the University of Delaware with a Master s Degree in History and a Certificate in Museum Studies. In addition, he has a Bachelor s Degree in Fine Arts from the California College of Arts and Crafts. He has served as museum curator at Maine Historical Society, curator at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, and director and curator of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association.
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