|
Haunted Mill Store
Settled upon approximately six acres of land and sitting
directly next to an elementary school on Elm Street in Farmington, is an abandoned textile mill. Both students and teachers
have reported sighting strange, ghostly faces in the windows of the old brick factory as well as hearing the sounds of cows
lowing, even though the bovine beasts have been absent from the lands since the early 1800s.
The History
The place was named The Mill Store and was owned and operated
by a very old company, Chas. W. House & Sons, Inc. The factory opened in 1867 and specialized in the manufacture
of fine woolens and felt fabrics. They were particularly involved in the recreational field later on as they produced
some of the world's highest quality felt billiard covers. According to historical records, the mill employed up to one
hundred people and was in business in this Farmington location for one hundred and thirty-seven years before closing in January
of 2004. They then moved the business to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where they still operate today. While the Rhode
Island website http://www.chaswhouse.com/aboutus.htm touts their wares and claims that they moved after being taken over by the Brickle Group in 2003, Creepy
Connecticut has come upon evidence that the mill may have been shut down for an entirely different reason.
This is taken from a news release from the Department of
Environmental Protection in Connecticut in 1998:
"CWH Co., Farmington -- Known also
as Chas. W. House
& Sons, Inc., a
manufacturer of textiles entered into a
Consent Order to address
dieldrin contamination to soil,
ground and surface
water at the property, which is in the
area of the Farmington
River. House will conduct a
phased site investigation
to characterize the extent and
degree of contamination
and develop a plan for remedia-
tion; they will develop
a plan for the facility's tailrace
which will include
sampling, remedial alternatives and a
schedule for submitting
remedial alternatives. The
consent order was developed
with assistance from the
Office of the Attorney
General."
According to the particulars, this and other like firms
were fined up to three million dollars in fines for contamination. One wonders if the company just picked up and left
so quickly because of further fines.
|
| The Front Gates |
|
| The Mill Store sign covered in brush |
|
| The sign above the mill |
|
| One of the many out-buildings |
|
| A greenhouse? |
|
| Another out-building |
|
| The smokestack |
The Investigation
This extraordinarily well-preserved building is both immense and impressive.
There are multiple floors, as well as a basement level, and if not careful, one can become easily lost within its labyrinthine
construction. Populated with break rooms, bathrooms, offices, machinery bays, mechanics bays, chemistry labs, electronic
technician labs, cargo elevators, storage facilities and even an airplane hangarlike building, this factory was quite an adventure.
We entered a customs-like scale room with a caged quarantine area and an incline ramp with rollers that ran down into the
basement. The room was inundated with hundreds of catfood cans and boxes, as well as paper plates.
|
| How many cats were here? |
|
| The ramp to the cellar |
It appeared that someone was feeding cats for a very long
time inside the building until authorities cleared out both the animals and the person(s) responsible for the mass feedings.
As we wound our way through room after room, bay after bay, and floor
after floor of old-world craftsmanship mixed with new-world technology, it occurred to GHOST
members that the place appeared as if one day, three years ago, every person employed at the mill just hung up their aprons
and left, never to return. We were not to realize until after our research that this is precisely what happened.
There are still uniforms hanging in lockers, typewriters on desks and books on shelves. When we entered the chemist's
lab, we were inundated with a foul chemical odor which became increasingly more irritating to the eyes and throat as we ventured
farther into the lab. It was at that point that we spotted a flask of white powder broken upon the floor. Was
this the chemical dieldrin mentioned in the DEP's news release? Nothing else seemed to have been touched. The
immense floor-to-ceiling autoclave was quite impressive as well.
At one point, we turned a corner and heard off in the far distance,
the distinct sound of a door squeaking slowly on hinges. We froze and listened but heard nothing else. Understand
that this huge monstrosity of a building had been, prior to the squeaking hinge, completely and utterly devoid of noise, so
this new sound was understandably disturbing. Creepy Connecticut
was assured by officials that we would be the only people in the building at that time. Intrigued and somewhat
unnerved, GHOST members pressed on, working our way through the maze toward where we thought we
had heard the noise. We did not find any doors on hinges in the area except one and that was tested (slowly and quickly
closing and opening) to no avail. All other doors were pulley doors with heavy chains and cables. The sound we
heard was absolutely not one of those. Perhaps there was a stray cat still on the premises somewhere that had opened
a cabinet door or some random desk or piece of furniture. It would have been quite possible as the place was so huge,
we could easily have missed a whole series of rooms. This was the one and only occurrence while we were there.
|
| A mechanic's bay |
|
| The airplane hangar |
|
| Whose uniform was this? |
|
| The chemist's lab: notice the broken flask on the floor |
|
| The giant autoclave: used for sterilizing implements |
|
| The neverending bays: more white powder! |
|
| Go to the light! |
|
| The dying basins in the basement |
Conclusion
We're not sure why students and teachers have reported hearing cows
. . . we heard none. We are pretty sure that the ghostly faces they saw in the windows may have either been the person(s) feeding the cats, or a white-faced cat itself (the latter being more
likely as the description included the word "ghostly"). The customs room was where we found the catfood cans and boxes
and this room was actually located farthest away from the side of the mill that faced the school; however, there are multiple
portals and corridors leading to that side of the building, so the possibility still exists that the faces seen in the windows
were those of the cats or their handler(s). We had nothing on video, photos, audio, or EMF, although a small EMF fluctuation
occurred outside the facility in the main lot, but nothing of great significance.
|
| The outside facing the school |
|
| More of the outside |
|
| The loading dock |
What's Next?
The land appears to be undergoing a state auction so we
assume that the building and all its contents will be put to the bulldozer sometime in the future . . . one hundred and thirty-seven
years of history plowed beneath the earth. Sigh.
GOOSEBUMP FACTOR: 30
Barry A. A. Dillinger
November 7th, 2005
|
