Middeltown canals + paper

[Jeff]

There was some discussion over at the city discussions forum about the old canal in Middletown.  Here are some pix for a thread I never posted here, that was going to be on SW Ohio as a "paper valley"..made of of my pix plus some from the local historical society, I think...



Very similar to Dayton, this was a hydraulic race that powered water wheels and turbines for factories...here mostly paper mills.  The canal that went through town did something similar where there was a fall at a lock.

A map from 1875 showing the hydraulic race on the west side and a paper mill on the south side using the canal as a source of water power



Example of a paper mill at a lock, with the "wheel house" projecting over the headrace.



An old paper mill from the 1850s on the hydraulic canal




Today










paper money









....note the arches at the base of this paper mill. I wonder if this was built over that hydraulic canal:







canal again (tailrace)



Gritty Middletown



Whats left of the Wren Paper Company plant







Skyline shots







Paper Bag Factory



Today






Canal & Chimneys....





Today (but from the other direction)(canal is now Verity highway, I think)






The Spirit of Paper...