Stuyvesant Falls Mill District

Stuyvesant Falls Mill District covers 22 acres along Kinderhook Creek in Columbia County, New York, where the creek drops seventy feet over two falls. The district takes in both banks and includes the Waddell stone cotton mill of 1827, Van Alen brick mills added in 1845 and 1888, a brick hydroelectric plant of about 1900, and a 204-foot iron truss bridge built in 1899. Several dwellings tied to the Van Alen mill owners also remain, including the millowner's stone residence of 1847. Sites of a paper mill from 1801, an early cotton mill and the Columbia Woolen Mill survive as archaeological remains. Industry began here around 1800 and grew into a village economy built on cotton and wool textiles. The textile mills later passed through steel casting and battery manufacture before becoming a medical gas plant, and the hydroelectric station still supplies power. The district was listed as a well-preserved example of a rural water-powered mill community.