Hopewell Relics – J. G. Coleman Photography

Hopewell Relics

A towering smokestack rises above derelict masonry walls and empty window frames, all that’s left of the 19th-century Hopewell Woolen Mill.

A towering smokestack rises above derelict masonry walls and empty window frames, all that’s left of the 19th-century Hopewell Woolen Mill. Morning light accentuates the angular ruins, imparting a subtle glow to the quiet meadows within where workers once busied about nearly 180 years earlier.

But while the Hopewell mill was built in the 1830s, these portions of its architecture weren’t visible quite like this until just a few years ago. The site was further developed by the mid-1800s just in time to begin turning out Civil War uniforms. Garments seem to have been the chief product for over a century until the old mill changed direction once again in 1956 in favor of manufacturing precision tools and jet engine components.

Despite storied, industrial successes at this old mill site on Roaring Brook, the property went vacant and was purchased by the town of Glastonbury in 2007. When it was slated to become a park, most all of the more recent factory additions were razed. Only the modest masonry and smokestack from the 1830s was left in place, skillfully carved out as if the site had been abandoned generations ago.