Brownfields Redevelopment Project, Post Mills, Vermont

By Collin Ackerman of Encore Redevelopment, June 2010

Throughout the last century and a half, the mill perched on the edge of the Ompompanoosic River at the corner of Barker Road and Route 113, had been a landmark of the Post Mills community.  This site has hosted a number of different wood manufacturing activities since William Marston and Thomas Chubb purchased it in the late 1860's.  Chubb and Marston first used the mill to produce pitchfork and rake handles.  Two years later, Chubb bought the facility and produced high quality bamboo fishing rods.  For a time during the late 1800's it was the largest fishing rod manufacturer in the country, employing 50 people from the community.

During Chubb's period of ownership, the building was destroyed several times by fire and once by flood.  After a fire in 1891, Chubb sold the company and property to Montague City Rod Company which constructed the building that occupied the site until its recent deconstruction.  Montague operated the mill until 1933.  It sat idle from 1933 until 1938 when Walter Malmquist, the grandfather of the current owner, purchased the property and produced bobbins for thread and later rough-cut dimensional wood blanks used in furniture manufacturing.  This operation ceased in the late 1990's and the mill has sat idle since. 

Years of industrial use had left the building and property with several environmental issues, resulting in its placement on the State of Vermont Hazardous Sites List.  Encore Redevelopment was retained by the current owner of the mill site to coordinate the removal of the mill structure with the intent of redevelopment in the future.  This required diligent planning and strict adherence to historic preservation standards and environment regulations.  Encore worked with the owner to assemble a team to best address the site’s numerous complex issues.  Sue Jamele compiled historic preservation documentation. Catamount Environmental performed asbestos abatement activities, with the help of ATC Associates as a project monitor.  Environmental Products and Services tested and removed a variety of containers of hazardous and potentially hazardous materials.  Local contractor George Tallman was responsible for salvage activities and Crown Point Excavation spearheaded the demolition effort.

Before this project began, Encore and Mr. Malmquist agreed that a primary goal of the effort would be to keep the maximum possible amount of material out of the landfill.  Many of the wood beams were thought to be reusable and the salvage contractor inquired about local interest in the recovered materials.  The salvage contractor was able to find users for building materials including beams, trusses, brackets, boards, doors, and almost all scrap steel.  He was able to sell much of the sawmill machinery to a local logging operation.  This deconstruction effort yielded the prevention of an estimated 10 tons of material needing to be disposed of in a landfill.  In turn, this saved money on trucking and landfill tipping fees and benefitted the community at large as well.  Subsequently, most of the materials will be reused locally.