Cultural Resource Investigation of the Allied Textile Printing Site, Paterson NJ
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Cultural Resource Investigation of the Allied Textile Printing Site, Paterson NJ Volume 1 Factories Below the Falls: Paterson’s Allied Textile Printing Site in Historic Context DPMC #: P1047-00 September 15, 2010 Prepared for: Steven Sutkin, Director Division of Property Management and Construction LLC 33 West State Street, P.O. Box 034 Trenton, NJ 08625-0034 FACTORIES BELOW THE FALLS: PAterson’s ALLIED TEXTILE PRINTING SITE IN HISTORIC CONTEXT NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DIVISION OF PARKS AND FORESTRY Prepared for: Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects, LLC 200 Forrestal Road Princeton, NJ 08540 Prepared by: Hunter Research, Inc. 120 West State Street Trenton, NJ 08608 TranSystems One Oxford Valley, Suite 818 Langhorne, PA 19047 URS Corporation 437 High Street Burlington, NJ 08016 SEPTEMBER 2010 Paterson, to most New Yorkers, and for that matter to most Americans, may be an old story. To me it is one of the most interesting pools of life I know. There is nothing in Paterson, most people will tell you, save silk mills and five-and-ten-cent stores. It is true. Yet to me it is a beautiful city in the creative sense—a place in which to stage a great novel. These mills—have you ever seen them? They line the Passaic river and various smooth canals that branch out from it. It was no doubt the well-known waterfall and rapids of this river that originally drew manufacturers to Paterson, supplied the first mills with water, and gave the city its start. Then along came steam and all of the wonders of modern electrically-driven looms …. From the mills themselves, as one drew near, came the crash of the shuttles and the thrum of spindles, where thousands of workers were immured, weaving silk which probably they might never wear. Theodore Dreiser from A Hoosier Holiday (1916:26-27) The Employment of Machinery forms an item of great importance in the general mass of national industry. It is an artificial force brought in aid of the natural force of man; and to all the purpose of labor, is an increase of hands, an accession of strength, unencumbered by the expense of maintaining the laborer. Alexander Hamilton from Report on the Subject of Manufactures (1791) HUNTER RESEARCH Cultural Resource Investigation Historic Context Allied Textile Printing Site; Paterson, New Jersey September 2010 DPMC #P1047-00 ABSTRACT The following historic context document was prepared by Hunter Research, Inc. with contributions from TransSystems and the URS Corporation. The project team undertook this work as subconsultants to Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects, LLC, prime contractor to the State of New Jersey, Department of the Treasury, Division of Property Management and Construction, and the Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, Natural & Historic Resources Group, Historic Preservation Office. Funding was provided by the National Park Service through the Urban History Initiative. The document is one component of a broader cultural resource investigation of the ATP site that seeks to lay the groundwork for the site’s future preservation and interpretation. Related work components, for which this context provides a basis, involve an assessment of existing conditions, archaeological field investigations and the development of preservation treatment recommendations. All elements of this cultural resource study are intended to meet the stipulations of an amended Programmatic Agreement concluded in June 2002 between the National Park Service, the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office, the City of Paterson, the New Jersey Historic Trust and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation concerning the preservation status and future of the former Allied Textile Printing Site, Great Falls/Society of Useful Manufacturers National Historic Landmark District, Paterson, New Jersey. This document contains detailed historical data concerning the land use development of the Allied Textile Printing (ATP) site and more broadly places the site within an appropriate historic setting. It addresses the historical significance of the site as a whole and offers a framework within which the relative historical importance and integrity of surviving structural and archaeological remains can be evaluated. The ATP site lies within the core of several overlapping designated historic entities focused on the rich industrial history of the City of Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey: notably, the Great Falls of Paterson/Society for Useful Manufactures Historic District, as listed in the National Register of Historic Places (April 17, 1970) and the New Jersey Register of Historic Places (May 27, 1971); the Great Falls/Society of Useful Manufacturers [sic] National Historic Landmark District (established in 1976); the Great Falls State Park (established in 2004); and the recently created Paterson Great Falls National Park (designated in 2009). The Great Falls Raceway and Power System, portions of which traverse the ATP site, were also designated as a National Historic Mechanical and Civil Engineering Landmark in May of 1977. The ATP site’s historical significance is largely consonant with that of the historic district within which it lies, although it is recommended that the site’s period of significance cover the period from 1793 to 1945 (the district’s period of significance is considered to be from 1792 to 1924). Particular areas of significance for which the site is notable are: its function within the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.) waterpower system; its participation in the concentrated burst of cotton manufacture in Paterson, circa 1807- 15, and in the manufacture of duck (sail cloth) in the 1820s and 1830s; its role as Paterson’s first locus for the HUNTER RESEARCH Cultural Resource Investigation Historic Context Allied Textile Printing Site; Paterson, New Jersey September 2010 DPMC #P1047-00 Page i ABSTRACT (CONTINUED) spinning and weaving of silk; on-site manufacturers’ use of the custom and batch production system within both the textile machine tool business and the silk manufacturing industry; and its 20th-century conversion into a modern integrated silk dyeing and finishing plant. The site has many important associations with prominent figures in American history, notably several members of the Colt family (S.U.M. development and cotton and firearms manufacture), John Ryle (early silk manufacture and the city’s water supply system) and James Mayer (textile dyeing). The site has less direct, but still powerful and identifiable links with national figures such as Pierre Charles L’Enfant and Alexander Hamilton. Within the site limits are several key properties, the most important of which are the Gun Mill, the Duck Mill, the Todd Mill and Home Mill, the older sections of the dye works located along the riverbank and a late 18th-century sawmill site. Spread throughout the site are the various arteries of the S.U.M. waterpower system expressed in the form of raceways, gates and wheel pits. Eight principal historical themes have been identified at the ATP site, as follows: 1. Late 18th-Century Improvement of the ATP Site 2. Development of the S.U.M. Waterpower System and Later Power Sources 3. Management of Water Resources and the Commoditization of Water 4. Colt Family Entrepreneurialism 5. The ATP Site Manufacturers as Custom and Batch Production Specialists 6. Cotton and Wool Manufacture 7. Silk Manufacture 8. Textile Dyeing and Finishing A framework of seven analytical units has been devised to guide and focus the other upcoming work components of the broader cultural resource investigation of the ATP site, as follows: 1. Early S.U.M. Site Elements 2. S.U.M. Waterpower System 3. Mount Morris Quarry 4. Gun Mill Lot HUNTER RESEARCH Cultural Resource Investigation Historic Context Allied Textile Printing Site; Paterson, New Jersey September 2010 DPMC #P1047-00 Page ii ABSTRACT (CONTINUED) 5. Waverly and Mallory Mill Lot 6. Passaic Mill Lot 7. Todd Mill Lot A range of property types has been identified as applicable to the ATP site, most of them industrial in nature and related to the manufacture of cotton, silk and machinery, and to the power systems that were in use. These are broadly considered in terms of their potential historic integrity with regard to design, materials and association. In order to judge the significance and integrity of individual properties within the ATP site six primary questions are posited as the basis for future analysis. HUNTER RESEARCH Cultural Resource Investigation Historic Context Allied Textile Printing Site; Paterson, New Jersey September 2010 DPMC #P1047-00 Page iii TaBLE OF CONTENTS page Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................. i Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................................iii List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................................... v List of Plates ......................................................................................................................................................vii List of Tables ....................................................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................................................