The old Sprague Electric mill on Brown Street is being demolished.
NORTH ADAMS - The former Sprague Electric Co. plant on Brown Street has slowly been disappearing over the past several months, taking with it a chunk of the city's industrial history.
•Watch the video here
The brick mill buildings are being demolished by owner Great American Financial Resources, which has no immediate plans for the property other than leaving it a vacant lot. The buildings have been empty since 2001, when Commonwealth Sprague - one of the last vestige's of the city's manufacturing titan - departed for Mexico.
The polluted three-acre site has had environmental remediation done in the mid-1980s and over the last decade or so under the state Department of Environmental Protection. Most of that work has been completed.
The structures were built in the 1870s as a textile mill; Sprague Electric took the property over before World War II and produced gas masks there. Later, the company manufactured metalized film paper for capacitors.
Part of the property was used as an industrial landfill and, from the 1950s to the 1970s, drummed wastes containing trichloroethylene, or TCE, were dumped there. A 1983 preliminary assessment filed with the federal Environmental Protection Agency reported that 55,000 gallons of acids, solvents, TCE degreaser, ceramic sludge, aluminum oxide sludge, oily solid resins, paints, fly ash, and titanium and uranium oxides were dumped in the landfill on the property.
Surface soil samples collected from the property between 1983 and 1995 indicated the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls and volatile organic compounds, all toxic materials. Contamination was found in homes on the outer edges of the property along Alton Avenue and Avon and West Main streets in the late 1990s. Great American, then known as American Annuity Group, bought and demolished 17 homes in the area. The toxic plume of groundwater seeping west from the site continues to be monitored.
Sprague Electric once operated in the Beaver Street and the Eclipse mills, now both owned by artist and developer Eric Rudd, and in the main plant on Marshall street that is now the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Hundreds of area residents worked over the years in the Brown Street plant for Sprague and its successor there, Commonwealth Sprague.
The mill will soon be history so we are inviting local residents to post their memories of it on iBerkshires - what room did you work in? How many years were you there? What was it like?
Click on the link below to post your memories of Brown Street.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
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MCLA Green Living Seminar to Explore Climate Change Perceptions in the Middle East
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' (MCLA) Green Living Seminar Series continues on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 5:30 p.m. with a presentation by Dr. Nimah Mazaheri, Professor of Political Science and Dean of Academic Affairs at Tufts University.
The presentation, titled "Faith Under Fire: How Religion Shapes Climate Concern in the Middle East," will take place in MCLA's Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation, Room 121.
The event is free and open to the public.
Mazaheri will discuss his research on how religion influences climate change perceptions across the Middle East, a region facing significant environmental challenges including extreme heat, recurring droughts, and water salinization.
Drawing from Arab Barometer surveys of 13,700 people across twelve countries, Mazaheri's research reveals unexpected patterns in how Middle Eastern populations view the climate crisis. His findings show that while Muslims tend to be less concerned about climate change compared to Christians in the region, individuals with a strong sense of religiosity across all faiths demonstrate greater concern about environmental threats. The research also uncovers a "culture war" dynamic, with religious Muslims who endorse Islamist government showing less concern than their secular counterparts.
Mazaheri's work focuses on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa, with particular emphasis on how oil wealth shapes politics and economics in the region. His research has been published in leading journals including Comparative Political Studies, World Politics, and World Development.
This semester's Green Living Seminar series explores "Nature and Spirituality," a 12-week examination of how faith, religion, and spiritual traditions shape our relationship with the natural world.
It was in the depths of the Great Depression when a group of local leaders came together to collectively raise funds to support social service agencies. click for more
The request was made by new City Councilor Lillian Zavatsky, who said it came from her own experience as an audience member at council meetings.
click for more
•Watch the video here
The brick mill buildings are being demolished by owner Great American Financial Resources, which has no immediate plans for the property other than leaving it a vacant lot. The buildings have been empty since 2001, when Commonwealth Sprague - one of the last vestige's of the city's manufacturing titan - departed for Mexico.
The polluted three-acre site has had environmental remediation done in the mid-1980s and over the last decade or so under the state Department of Environmental Protection. Most of that work has been completed.
The structures were built in the 1870s as a textile mill; Sprague Electric took the property over before World War II and produced gas masks there. Later, the company manufactured metalized film paper for capacitors.
Part of the property was used as an industrial landfill and, from the 1950s to the 1970s, drummed wastes containing trichloroethylene, or TCE, were dumped there. A 1983 preliminary assessment filed with the federal Environmental Protection Agency reported that 55,000 gallons of acids, solvents, TCE degreaser, ceramic sludge, aluminum oxide sludge, oily solid resins, paints, fly ash, and titanium and uranium oxides were dumped in the landfill on the property.
