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Showing posts from October, 2023

Hotchkiss Brothers Factory Complex

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Photo courtesy of Loop.net The One That Got Away: A Lumber Mill, Some Idiots, and a Call I Don't Regret Some stories don't have a satisfying ending. This is one of them. And I've been carrying it around long enough that I just need to put it down somewhere. J and I drove out to Torrington on what should have been a straightforward documentation run in 2023. The target was the former Hotchkiss Brothers Lumber Mill on Water Street, sitting on the east bank of the Naugatuck River. We scoped it on the way in, circled the block, found our parking spot, and liked what we saw. Entry looked manageable. The building looked intact enough to be worth the effort. We were ready. We crossed through the Stop & Shop parking lot in the full summer heat, shoppers drifting past us with their carts, completely indifferent. We clambered over a wall, pushed through branches that swatted us in the face, and followed the sound of the Naugatuck moving over rocks somewhere below. The grass...

Chemtura

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Nestled discreetly behind an unassuming fence line, the facility stood as a quiet sentinel of bygone experiments and chemical innovation. It was a place where the unseen battles against pests and pathogens played out, away from the public's prying eyes. I remember the day I ventured there with two curious friends, a forgotten piece of the past awaiting our exploration. From the road, this place appeared like any typical business establishment, revealing no secrets. But as we rounded the back, it revealed itself, an open invitation to step into a world shrouded in history. The facility's landscape consisted of three main structures: an office building, a series of imposing greenhouses, and an enigmatic garage-like structure that eluded our access on that particular visit. That garage still stands to this day, a silent sentinel to the mysteries held within. The year 2018 marked a turning point when the greenhouses and the office building met their end, succumbing to the inexorabl...

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