Hudson River Paper Mill Site, New York

The historic Hudson River Paper Mill, on the Hudson at Corinth, New York, closed in 2002, and was mostly demolished a few years later. Built in 1869, this plant became the flagship facility and early headquarters for International Paper when the company was established in 1898 by the merger of 17 mills in the Northeast, including this one. The company has thrived to the present day, remaining the largest paper company in the nation for much of the past century. This was the first mill to have integrated pulp and paper production in New York, and the first wood-based newsprint mill in the state. Over the years, the company built and acquired much larger modern mills, especially in the southeastern USA, leaving these old brick mills around the Northeast obsolete. While most of the buildings on site were torn down, the dam, water treatment tanks, landfills, concrete slabs, and a former administration building remain, along with the residual contamination from 133 years of industrial production.