Excelsior Plant Site   1940-Present

  This site next to the outlet of North Creek was owned by many businesses over the years; most related to the woodworking industry.  Until the late 60's there were two separate properties.

  The first was the location of the old excelsior plant at the end of the siding and up against North Creek.  Barton Mines bought this in 1939 and shipped garnet from here.  They owned this until it was sold to the Brooklyn Improvement Co. in 1966.  They owned it until selling it in 1977 to a local contractor who continues to use the property as a residence and storage area for his equipment.

1964

Patton Collection

1970

Courtesy RPI

1980

Courtesy RPI

1997

Jon Patton Photo

  The second property was adjacent to this on the east side.  It was first developed in 1937 by the Union Fork & Hoe Co. who purchased three lots here.  By 1942 this was owned by the North Creek Handle Co. who, in 1951, shipped 8 carloads for the year on the D&H.  This was purchased by the Russell Heel Corp. in 1952.

1953

  The plant was then purchased by Kilns, Inc. of Vermont in 1959 who ran it as the North Creek Kiln Drying Co. until 1965.

1964 - The large building in the center in the above photo burned in 1960 and this photo below shows that it was not rebuilt.  The kiln drying plant is in the upper left in this photo and the buildings in the center are the old excelsior mill at this time owned by Barton Mines.

Patton Collection

  The property was sold in 1965 to Litchfield Park Corp. which ran it under the name Elliot Hardwood Co..  In 1966 they purchased the old excelsior site as well and ran their business until it sold in 1983.  In 1985 it was sold to The Contore Co. which also went under the name Torrington Industries.  This company built a concrete batch plant here in 1988 which they used until 1995.  The site of the batch plant is currently owned by Cransville Block.

The batch plant in 2009

Jon Patton Photo

The remaining building on the dry kilns property - 2009

Jon Patton Photo