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The old brick walls of Brown's Mill still rise above the Salmon River like a stubborn memory. Trees push through cracked floors. Rusted metal hangs from the ceilings. Broken plaster and splintered wood cover the ground inside what remains of the once-busy paper mill. Yet even after decades of abandonment, parts of the machinery still stand. Two hydro turbines sit silent beside the river, and a massive steam engine remains planted inside the ruins, a reminder of the years when the mill pulsed with noise, heat, and labor. Locals still call it Brown's Mill, though its official name was the Brown Brothers Paper Mill. For generations, the factory sat along the western bank of the Salmon River beside Comstock Bridge Road, shaping both the economy and identity of the Colchester (East Hampton) community in eastern Connecticut. Today, only two of the seven mill buildings survive: the main structure and the northern building, both rebuilt during a modernization effort in 1929. From P...
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Factory H Boiler House Demolition (International Silver Company)
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All these years I never thought Factory H's former power plant and boiler housewould still be standing. Well, unfortunately, the sweeping and cleaning up of blighted properties around Connecticut towns and cities by Governor Ned Lamont are torpedoing ahead with gusto.
Underground fuel storage pit.
Vacant medical facility across the brook.
I remember quite fondly taking my first baby steps in exploring uncharted Connecticut territory as a New York native. Researching and looking up depressed economic cities and towns, taking a deep dive around bodies of water, rivers, and brooks, and finding locations like no tomorrow. As I saw one after another, I realized the locale of Meriden was chock-full. Those beginning days were filled with anxiety and wondering what stuff I would find in these abandoned buildings across the state.
The boiler house is to the left with a smokestack very prominent in this undated aerial. Factory H is in the foreground.
I scoped out the property over Google Maps and drove my way up to meet up with a fellow local who up to this day we still explore around the state with feverish devotion. Entering the property was relatively easy along the quiet residential street. The former powerhouse for International Silver Company’s Factory H plant(William Rogers Mfg. Co.) was clean by today's urbex standards. Relatively little graffiti and the telltale signs of a drinking hangout spot for local young kids. The roof was long gone and the brick and mortar was an equally strong match for the torching summer weather and bone-chilling wintry mix. The asbestos-laden boiler was prominent and massive compared to the space. At the time I did not know there were two underground fuel storage tanks. Nothing inside on the ground floor pointed to any input/output storage pipes from below. There was also the powerhouse smokestack that was demolished during the clean-up of Factory H on Cooper Street in 2012. The power/boiler house and the 70,000 sq feet medical arts facility were all that remained that year. (The facility is privately owned.)
I cannot locate my old archived set of this place but if I do I sure will post/update in a lost photo series.
Now the sun sets on the last remaining work around the site as the storage area is set to be filled in with sand and graded for the future park trail space and flood control measures.
To see now that it is gone and reminisce on those early days and years when I took those initial steps into a hobby I continue to enjoy to this very day. It will always hold a special place in my heart when I first started branching out across state lines.
Sources:
1. Gagne, Michael, “Next phase of Meriden flood control plan includes demolition of vacant buildings”, January 26, 2023, MyRecordJournal
2. "PHOTOS: Looking back at International Silver's Factory H building in Meriden", July 24, 2018, MyRecordJournal
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