The Union Mill Complex, (also Bischoff's Chocolate Factory), is located at the junction of Milton Avenue (

NY 50 New York State Route 50 (NY 50) is a state highway in the Capital District of New York in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 5 in Scotia. Its northern terminus is at a junction wi ...

) and Prospect Street in Ballston Spa, New York, United States. It is a complex of three late 19th-century brick buildings on a 4-acre (1.6 ha) lot, and the ruins of a dam. Originally built to harness the nearby Kayaderosseras Creek for

textile production Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not ...

, in the years of the

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

, George West converted it to

paper bag A paper bag is a bag made of paper, usually kraft paper. Paper bags can be made either with virgin or recycled fibres to meet customers' demands. Paper bags are commonly used as shopping bag, shopping carrier bags and for packaging of some co ...

production and made the center of his company. It later became a chocolate factory, and then a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...

for a local plastics concern. In 1982 it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, and is now used as a

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

complex.

Property

The property is a wedge-shaped parcel with Milton Avenue on the east, the Kayaderosseras Creek on the north and Prospect Street to the south and west. There is a slight rise on the west, and the complex is built into that. The surrounding neighborhood, downtown Ballston Spa, is mostly commercial. The Register listing includes three buildings — the George West Office Building, Union Mill and West Bag Factory — and one structure, the ruins of the former

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

that began the industrial use of the property. All three buildings are built of brick laid in common bond with pressed metal roofs. Metal is also used for many of the decorative touches, such as iron

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s, window caps,

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s and

dormer window A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

s. The mill itself is an L-shaped four-story building with two stair towers in the late Second Empire

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

, with

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

ed brickwork and

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

detailing. The original timber framing has been replaced by

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

on the lower stories. The east tower has a clock face in one dormer and a bell, cast by Jones & Co. of

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

. The bag factory is a two-and-a-half–story 3-by-16-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d building. The windows have flat-arched lintels and hammered

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

sills. The attic windows in the gable ends have been bricked over. It retains the exposed timber

rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as Beam (structure), steel beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof Roof shingle, shingles, ...

s and

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

metal monitors. Its structural system is the original timber. On its east is the George West Office Building, later converted into a

creamery A creamery or cheese factory is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has ...

. It is a five-by-three-bay two-story gabled structure with a perpendicularly attached nine-by-three-bay gabled single-story wing. On the south elevation is a -story tower with metallic

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

dormers and bracketed cornice. The mill and office building retain much of their original finishing. The former, redecorated in a Queen Anne mode by Saratoga Springs architect R.N. Brezee, features

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity t ...

, a highly decorated cashier's desk and walk-in

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosur ...

. Similarly, the bag factory has a wainscoted cashier's office with pay windows, staircase with two open flight and

varnish Varnish is a clear Transparency (optics), transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not to be confused with wood stain. It usually has a yellowish shade due to the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmente ...

newel A newel, also called a central pole or support column, is the central supporting pillar around which a helical staircase winds. It can also refer to an upright post that supports or terminates the handrail of a stair banister (the "newel post") ...

posts with turned balusters. It, too, has a walk-in vault. The owner's office overlooking Prospect Street has paneled and varnished cherry wainscoting, tiled fireplace, and

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

ed cherry window moldings. The factory has no significant decorative touches. There is no historical machinery left in it or either of the other buildings. Behind the buildings, the Blue Mill Dam on the creek was demolished in the mid-20th century. Some of its stone piers remain.

History

Early history

Development of the property began around 1830, when Hezekiah Middlebrook first dammed the creek. The Ballston Mill Company built the first

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

there in 1844. Six years later, in 1850, they added a woolen mill, the current Bag Factory. In 1878 fire destroyed the original Union Cotton Mill. The following year George West bought the property.

The George West era

George West had profited during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

when he invented the flat-bottomed paper bag, the first which could hold as much as . After the fire he bought the property and built the current structure, renaming it the Union Paper Mill. Power came from a renovated

flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to t ...

and the

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

from the cotton mill. He also enlarged the wool mill and turned it into a bag factory. Over the next six years the office building was built, intended to be a showpiece of contemporary office design. In 1882 the dam was destroyed in a flood and rebuilt. The clock tower was illuminated with electric light in 1885, followed by the whole mill the next year. The dam was breached and rebuilt in 1886 as well, only to be breached again by another flood. West enlarged the main mill building again in 1889. By this point the complex was the headquarters of a company that operated nine mills, two factories and a

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ...

in northern

Saratoga County Saratoga County is a county in the U.S. state of New York, and is the fastest-growing county in Upstate New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was enumerated at 235,509, its highest decennial count ever and a ...

. He sold his holdings to the Union Bag & Paper Company in 1899.Lost Industries of the Kaydeross Valley: A History of Manufacturing in Ballston Spa, New York; Timothy Starr, 2007.

Bischoff's chocolates

In 1918 the buildings were sold to German immigrant Frederick Bischoff. His chocolate company had outgrown its original location in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and needed new space quickly. A Philadelphia firm renovated the interiors extensively for its new use and shored up the mill with steel and reinforced concrete. All the original machinery was removed by 1920. Bischoff installed colored lights to illuminate the water falling over the dam and made other improvements to the immediate vicinity. Bischoff died in 1942. In 1945 wartime chocolate shortages forced the plant to close. The dam collapsed in 1947 and was not rebuilt.

Later history

The complex was sold at auction in 1950 and experienced a variety of owners including a knitting company and Tufflite Plastics, a local company which made plastic products, and used the mill as a

. Tufflite closed in the late 1990s. In 1997 the complex underwent extensive interior renovation and was converted into space for small retailers, professional offices, and a restaurant.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Industrial buildings completed in 1844 Industrial buildings completed in 1850 Industrial buildings completed in 1879 Industrial buildings completed in 1889 Textile mills in New York (state) Cotton mills in the United States Chocolate factories National Register of Historic Places in Saratoga County, New York 1850 establishments in New York (state)