A few of these photos deserve an explanation. I was walking by a wall in Torrington, Connecticut, and stopped to zip up my coat. That's when I noticed the weird stuff on the wall. So I went home and brought back my camera. My daughter was in the process of moving, and this is all … [Read more...]

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Carm's, in Chester, Massachusetts, which closed in 2014, had been serving breakfast and lunch more than 50 years. It was a combination restaurant and gas station. You could fill up two ways. The incredibly beautiful old restaurant in Huntington had a glittering old-fashioned … [Read more...]

Cities have their own special curiosities: alleys, functional doo-dads on buildings, forlorn scenes in downtrodden neighborhoods, and in one case here, a person sitting on a stoop. The utilities in the two bottom photos, common gadgets on buildings in all cities and towns, … [Read more...]

The Harmony Mills complex was one of the largest mills in the United States, but most of the space is now either vacant or occupied by small companies and a retail outlet. … [Read more...]

In 2006, my wife and I drove into Delhi, New York, while taking a "trip back in time" to Oneonta, where we met 40 years ago while attending college. Delhi, a small town with a rich agricultural history, is about 20 miles south of Oneonta. My wife spotted an interesting item in … [Read more...]

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Springfield, Vermont is a town of about 9,000 people. It's just a few miles off Route 91, and was built along the Black River. Up until recently, it was well known for its machine tool and telescope industries. Springfield has been struggling to improve its economy, with mixed … [Read more...]

The village of Bellows Falls is part of the town of Rockingham. It's bordered on the east by a canal, then the railroad tracks, then the Connecticut River, and finally a high mountain. The trains go through a small tunnel right under the main drag. The tiny downtown is as lovely … [Read more...]

The Northampton State Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts, was considered almost a utopian solution to mental health treatment in the middle of the 19th century. In the 1980s, with the quality of care declining rapidly, and the movement to mainstream mentally ill persons into … [Read more...]

Haydenville is a tiny village along the Mill River, in the town of Williamsburg, just northwest of Northampton, Massachusetts. In the mid-1800s, many factories were built here, and reservoirs were placed upstream to store water sufficient to power the mills in the summer. In … [Read more...]

There are several mill outlet stores in Ware, and one day while my wife was shopping, I took a walk around with my camera. This is what I discovered. I was back again five years later, and I couldn't resist taking a few more photos while my wife was shopping. The … [Read more...]

Turners Falls is another little gem of a mill town. It's actually a village in the town of Montague. When I was taking pictures of the International Paper mill along the canal, I was told to leave by a security guard. I convinced him to give me five more minutes. He asked why I … [Read more...]

I drive to North Adams from Florence, Massachusetts at least once a week. I nearly always take Route 9, west to Windsor, make a right on Route 8A, then a left four miles later on Route 116. Several miles west on 116, I make a right on Stewart White Road, which crosses through the … [Read more...]