|
The Union Mill Complex, (also Bischoff's Chocolate Factory), is located at the junction of Milton Avenue (NY 50) and Prospect Street in Ballston Spa, New York, United States. It is a complex of three late 19th-century brick buildings on a 4-acre (1.6 ha) lot, and the ruins of a dam. Originally built to harness the nearby Kayaderosseras Creek for textile production, in the years of the Gilded Age George West converted it to paper bag production and made the center of his company. It later became a chocolate factory, and then a warehouse for a local plastics concern. In 1982 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is now used as a retail complex. ==Property== The property is a wedge-shaped parcel with Milton on the east, the creek on the north and Prospect to the south and west. There is a slight rise on the west; it is built into that. The surrounding neighborhood, downtown Ballston Spa, is mostly commercial. The Register listing includes three buildings — the George West Office Building, Union Mill and West Bag Factory — and one structure, the ruins of the former dam that began the industrial use of the property.〔 All three buildings are built of brick laid in common bond with pressed metal roofs. Metal is also used for many of the decorative touches, such as iron finials, window caps, balustrades, cornices and dormer windows. The mill itself is an L-shaped four story building with two stair towers in the late Second Empire style, with corbeled brickwork and cast iron detailing. The original timber framing has been replaced by reinforced concrete on the lower stories. The east tower has a clock face in one dormer and a bell, cast by Jones & Co. of Troy.〔 The bag factory is a two-and-a-half–story 3-by-16-bay gabled building. The windows have flat-arched lintels and hammered limestone sills. The attic windows in the gable ends have been bricked over. It retains the exposed timber rafters and Italianate metal monitors. Its structural system is the original timber.〔 On its east is the George West Office Building, later converted into a creamery. It is a five-by-three-bay two-story gabled structure with a perpendicularly attached nine-by-three-bay gabled single-story wing. On the south elevation is a two-and-a-half-story tower with metallic mansard roof dormers and bracketed cornice.〔 The mill and office building retain much of their original finishing. The former, redecorated in a Queen Anne mode by Saratoga Springs architect R.N. Brezee, features oak and cherry wainscoting, a highly decorated cashier's desk and walk-in vault. Similarly, the bag factory has a wainscoted cashier's office with pay windows, staircase with two open flight and varnished newel posts with turned balusters. It, too, has a walk-in vault. The owner's office overlooking Prospect Street has paneled and varnished cherry wainscoting, tiled fireplace, and pedimented cherry window moldings.〔 The factory has no significant decorative touches. There is no historical machinery left in it or either of the other buildings.〔 Behind the buildings, the Blue Mill Dam on the creek was demolished in the mid-20th century. Some of its stone piers remain.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Union Mill Complex」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|