The Chicopee Mill and Village Historic District is a planned industrial town dating from 1927. The industrial complex is dominated by the historic mill, and enormous one-story rectangular structure, 954 f by 236 f , that occupies five acres. The building is constructed of brick and trimmed with white terra-cotta. The roof line along the southeast side is detailed with brackets, and a terra-cotta string course runs around the building forming a continuous window sill. Along the mill’s southeast length are six prominent entrance towers which extend out from the building and are approached by brick stairs. The towers and the building’s north corners are detailed with a broad flat band of terra cot ta above.: the windows, and: crenelatedlparapets capped with terra– cotta coping. The entrance towers house bathroons and changing rooms for the workers. The mill was originally lighted by large steel sash windows (now bricked in in most places) and two monitors that run the length of the roof. On the inside the mill is one huge space with walls of white enamelled tile. The ceiling is supported by massive twenty-eight foot yellow pine timbers. A basement (originally a cloth storage room) is located beneath the south end of the building, and large tunnels that originally carried steam pipes and electric wiring extend under the remainder of the building. Additional historic structures associated with the mill complex and similarly but more modestly detailed include the office/machine shop (still with its original windows) to the southeast of the mill, a warehouse and a power house located at the mill.’s south end, and a water tower at the mill’s north corner. Four non-historic industrial buildings dating from the 1950s to the 1980s are also situated close to the original buildings. The mil complex backs onto the Southern Railroad tracks which form the northwestern boundary of the district. Stretching out to the south of the mill is a wide sweep of grassed hillside which slopes gently down from the mill to Highway 23.
By Robert Elzey
