The Man in the Bowler Hat
An enormous shout-out to Lewis Tompkins, the man behind creating New York’s hat manufacturing capital in 1879. The Tioranda Hat Factory would be nothing without him. Instead, Danbury, Connecticut would have ruled the hat making industry with an iron fist. Tompkins gave them some competition, and a reminder that nothing should be controlled by any single, all-powerful entity.
While being an industry leader in the hat manufacturing business is not much of a claim to fame, it is still a badge of honor to wear proudly. It is like being the coolest kid amongst all of the others who don’t participate in gym class. It counts for something, right?
No Rally Cap Here
The factory itself employed over 600 residents of Beacon, most of them being Polish, Irish, or Italian immigrants. As the emergence of unions became more prevalent, more and more industry workers began to strike across the country. In 1919, the employees of Tioranda wised up and decided it was time to strike for their fair share of balanced labor policies. This happened again in 1921. Tompkins, being the blue-blooded hardworking man he was, despised unions. He would fire anyone who attempts to join. A true gem of a man.
After being sold off to Atlas Fibers Company, it operated as a textile reprocessing center for a few decades. By the ‘70s, the building sat sad and empty. Society developed more efficient ways of hat-making, leaving this enormous mill to ruin. Then in January 2017, a fire spread throughout the buildings. Not long after that fire, a few of the buildings were bulldozed, and it seems as if there have been attempts at reconstruction of the once industry tycoon. Rumors of a new condominium being built have swirled throughout the community of Beacon. Personally, I think another ExtraSpace Storage would look beautiful there.
Tioranda Wonderland
Interestingly enough, Lewis Tompkins was not the only Lewis to dabble in the hat-oriented world. Lewis Carroll created his character, the Mad Hatter, in his wildly popular book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. Behind his iconic name is scientific evidence that his character was not the only ‘mad hatter’.
At that time, hats were made with mercury in all stages of the process. Due to poor safety precautions, workers were constantly exposed to this chemical. The immense amount of exposure they dealt with caused many side effects, such as skin burns, throat irritation, shaking and drastic behavioral effects. Essentially, some went ‘mad’, and thus coining the term ‘mad as a hatter’.
Our Experience
For a mill once deemed as a ‘central hat-making factory’, there were absolutely zero hats. No snapbacks. No beanies. Not even a single fucking fedora. There were a lot of hard hats in the area, though. It was not easy to get into a building where people are actively working and walking.
My esteemed colleague was having an off day. We all have them, and while his photography will never be caught lacking, his common sense was. Moreso, it is my obligation to air out his misfortunes.
Goofed
After arriving to the mill, it quickly became apparent that there was no SD Card in the camera. For those who don’t know, one cannot take photos without an SD Card. Essentially, we were carrying a large piece of machinery as useful as a glass hammer. Luckily, we were close enough to a store that sold one.
After going through the mill and checking everything out, we hiked over to a small waterfall nearby. A few kids were walking back from smoking, and we went to our car shortly after as well. As we were driving away, these dudes are viciously honking at us. Were they warning us of a flat? Did they think we too wanted to toke? No. There were telling us stop immediately because the expensive camera was still on the top of the car.
Not all heroes wear capes. In fact, sometimes they’re high.
