| By: | Ron Chouinard |
| Dates: | 10/25/2008 - 10/26/2008 |
| Album Info: | Berkeley/Ashton, separate Lonsdale Company mill villages in the Cumberland section of Cumberland, Rhode Island. Martin Street at milepost 9, along the Providence and Worcesters Providence mainline is the historic village of Berkeley, a typical Lonsdale Company village with its historic streets and brick apartment buildings used for housing the workers at Berkeley Mills. The imposing mill building erected by the Lonsdale Company in 1872 for their spinning and weaving operations. This mill was steam powered rather than being water powered. Today Berkeley Mills is home to various companies. Presently the Providence and Worcester has no customers in the Berkeley area. KIK Custom Products, formerly the old CCL Custom Manufacturing, or originally known as Petterson Puritan, closed at the end of September 2008. They manufactured aerosol products. Given the climate in the state of Rhode Island, its doubtful KIK will ever reopen. Other former customers include Universal Chemical, Okonite - a manufacturer of electrical cable and a large Warehouse once operated by IGA Foods. Okonite and IGA was once the site of a small grass stripe airport. Unfortunately during the plunder and destruction of the New Haven Railroad by Penn Central, the old Berkeley Station was set aflame by vandals and razed. Up at milepost 10, Ashton, the next village on the Providence main, another imposing mill with brick apartment buildings was erected by the Lonsdale Company as a spinning and weaving operation. Last occupied by Owens Corning Fiberglass, it has since been converted to condos in 2006. Ashton was home to a Owens Corning Marble plant and weaving mill in the Ashton Mill building. Check out my Lonsdale, Rhode Island album for the Lonsdale Company. 10/26/2008 |
