Program Overview
Every small town has its own unique story, but here in our river valley, mills of some kind were at the start of many of those stories. Join us at the beautifully restored Lamson and Goodnow factory complex in Shelburne Falls—a mill that is part of that town’s past and future stories.
Location:
The Permaculture Place Classroom at The Mill at Shelburne Falls
49 Conway Street, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Schedule & Presenters:
9:30 - 10 am: Registration/coffee/lunch orders
10 am – 2:30 pm: Presentations & lunch
- Peggy Hart, of Bedfellow Blankets, gives old industrial looms a second life in her barn weaving cotton and wool blankets. Author of “Wool: Unraveling an American Story of Artisans and Innovation” she will tell us about early woolen mills that were weaving satinet—cloth with a cotton warp and woolen weft. Western Mass towns with satinet mills included Shelburne, Rowe, Greenfield, Cummington, Northampton, Williamstown, Pittsfield, and North Adams. Most of the mills operated before 1850 and were closed by 1860.
- While taking a short ride on Trolley Car #10 at the nearby Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, we’ll learn how “trolley fever” spread across the country in the 1890s, providing much-needed social and commercial connections for rural towns for several decades before cars and paved roads became common.
- Lunch – discussion and time to share joys and challenges as we “make and
remake” our history organizations.
- Brad Walker, owner of The Mill at Shelburne Falls, will close out the day with a brief background on the site’s unbroken 175+ years of cutlery manufacturing, even as most of the space has shifted toward independent artisans and small business owners. We’ll meet in The Permaculture Place classroom at The Mill. Kay Cafasso, Director of Sowing Solutions and Permaculture Place board member will be available to tell us about their work and the Demonstration Permaculture Forest Garden in the back of Veterans’ Field in Buckland.
OPTIONAL on your way home:
Visit the nearby Demonstration Permaculture Forest Garden and/or the Bridge of Flowers on the old trolley bridge (reopened last year after bridge repairs).