Once upon a time, Westport was a mill town.
As Mary Gai notes, “All mills were the same at first. The mill stones were imported from France.
“They were simultaneously wood cutting mills and grain mills. When steam power overtook all around 1840, the mills did cider, cotton (making raw fibers into ‘belts,’ the Mill at Richmondville went into twine. Both of my parents worked there in the late 1930s, making twine. Much of that road was employees of the mill. Mills were not appreciated. They were dismantled and turned into either commercial centers or residences.”
In the case of The Mill at Richmondville, they were turned into an office building — and, now, into apartments.
There was the mill at Compo Cove, which burned twice (and is now the home straddling the Sherwood Mill Pond inlet). It’s memorialized still in the name of the “Old Mill” area.
(Photo/courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)
And, by Ford Road, there were these:
It’s misspelled on the postcard. Today, nearby, is Sipperley’s Hill Road (often misread as “Slippery Hill Road”).
=================================================
50 Years Ago This Week:
Led by former Bedford Junior High School principal Norman Flint, a group of parents, students, administrators and others did a protest walk to demonstrate the dangers for students who must walk to the Riverside Avenue building. (Today it is Saugatuck Elementary School.)
RTM candidate Charles Ziff noted: “In many areas sidewalks don’t exist and where they did, they were in very poor condition or overrun by shrubs.”
Bedford Junior High School, back in the day.
(“Friday Flashback” is one of our many weekly features. If you enjoy it — or anything else on “06880” — please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)
