Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room

History

The Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room is one of the oldest surviving buildings (built in 1844) of Crane & Co., one of the oldest papermaking businesses in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It is located in southwestern Dalton, on a site where paper has been manufactured since the early 19th century. The building, originally used for processing rags, has housed the Crane Museum of Papermaking since 1930, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983.

Zenas Crane began making paper in Dalton in 1801, taking full ownership of an established operation at the Rag Room site in 1822. In the mid-1840s his sons constructed the Old Stone Mill, of which the Rag Room is the only surviving portion. The Rag Room is where Crane's grandson Winthrop Murray Crane learned the business; through his efforts Crane secured a monopoly contract to provide paper for the nation's currency, which it still holds today.

The Rag Room is a gray fieldstone building with a slate roof. Its interior is a large open space that houses exhibits and artifacts of the company's history.

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