Brown's Mill: Inside CT's Abandoned Paper Factory on the Salmon River

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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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Mullen Iron Works: The Decay of a Historic New York Foundry


 




On paper, 275 Bay Road should have been an easy sell. Warren County put the 1.09-acre parcel on the market through a public tax auction, hired a professional firm, and set what seemed like a modest floor price. In reality, the numbers told a very different story.


The Board of Supervisors brought in Auctions International Inc. to handle the sale, setting a minimum bid of 68,700 dollars. The auction company would collect a 6 percent fee from the winning bidder. If the county turned down all offers, it would still owe the firm a flat $2,000 fee for its work.


The property itself had been vacant for years. The building that once stood there was demolished in early spring of 2021 after decades of decline. Before that, the state Department of Environmental Conservation had taken a hard look at the site. Inspectors found only small quantities of trimethylbenzene, a colorless liquid with a sharp odor that is used to produce dyes, pharmaceuticals, and antioxidants, as well as a solvent in industrial processes. No cleanup was required. The agency signed off on the site and documented those findings in a letter dated December 3, 2018.


Even with a cleared lot and a clean bill of health from regulators, the market response was dismal. The county received a single bid at the tax sale: $18,000. That figure did not come close to covering what was owed or what had already been spent. Back taxes on the property totaled about $344,000. On top of that, Warren County had invested roughly $141,000 to demolish the old building and perform limited environmental work.


Locally, the site was known as the Mullen property. For years, it had operated as a foundry and machine shop under owner J. David Mullen. Taxes have not been paid on the parcel since 1995. Mullen died in 2013, and control of the site passed to his estate, but the unpaid tax bill and industrial legacy remained. By the time the county tried to move the property through auction, it was wrestling with a familiar problem in post-industrial communities: how to find a future for land that carries a heavy financial and historical burden.


Today, the lot at 275 Bay Road sits empty, a concrete patch of ground between the Warren County Bikeway and the Becton Dickinson medical device plant. Queensbury officials are still living with the financial fallout of their decision to demolish the long-vacant building and fund partial environmental cleanup, a move that has so far produced only a fraction of a return through the tax auction.


County auction records list the winning bidder as “nyinvest.” Behind that name is Hina Asad of Niskayuna, who is affiliated with Broadway Realty in New York City. If the Board of Supervisors signs off on the sale, Asad will take control of a cleared but complicated site, along with the expectations of a town eager to see something useful rise from it.


Any future development carries a familiar risk for former industrial land. Once digging begins, crews could uncover contamination that did not show up in the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s earlier assessment. If that happens, the quiet lot on Bay Road may once again move to the center of a debate over who pays, who profits, and how much a community is willing to invest in its own troubled past.


If you, or anyone you know, used to work at Mullen Iron Works (or in any buildings formerly on this site), please comment! I’d love to hear your story.







Source(s): 




1. McKinley, M. (2024, May 22). Former Mullen Iron Works property in Queensbury headed to auction. The Post Star. https://www.poststar.com/news/local/former-mullen-iron-works-property-in-queensbury-headed-to-auction/article_368c2ae6-518b-5f85-be22-ddd716c638c5.html

2. DeDe, C. (2021, November 19). County tax sale nets just $18,000 for Mullen site but other parcels bring $980,000. Glens Falls Chronicle. https://www.glensfallschronicle.com/county-tax-sale-nets-just-18000-for-mullen-site-but-other-parcels-bring-980000/

3. Goot, M. (2020, November 30). Mullen building set for wrecking ball by end of the year. The Post Star. https://www.poststar.com/news/local/mullen-building-set-for-wrecking-ball-by-end-of-the-year/article_aa3dc120-af3e-5eb7-ba37-554203c0e88a.html

🏗️ More NY Heavy Industry & Infrastructure

Location: 275 Bay Rd, Queensbury, NY 12804, USA

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