The Site consists of one parcel totaling 2.58 acres of developed land improved with an approximately 64,000 square foot warehouse building originally constructed in 1890. The Site building is used for storage and occasional vehicle/equipment maintenance. Access to the Site is via Mill Road to the east and Pearl Street to the west. The remainder of the Site is asphalt parking, bordered by vegetated area on the northern edge of the Site/southern bank of the Sugar River.
By 1884, the eastern portion of the Site was developed with a machine shop, foundry, and associated supporting infrastructure (pattern house, pump house, boiler house, storage, coal shed) owned and operated by the Sullivan Machine Company (Sullivan). Sullivan specialized in manufacturing specialized mining, drilling, and milling equipment such as coal cutters, air compressors, channelers, hammer drills, and hoists. From the 1880s through approximately 1922 (end of World War I), many additions and improvements were made to the initial 1884 machine shop. Operations expanded and building space was added to the west, which included larger erecting and machine shops. In 1905, a 160-foot iron bridge was constructed spanning the Sugar River to connect the Site building to new buildings on the northern riverbank. The older portion of the Site building on the east side of the Site stood several stories high, while the newer machine/erecting shops to the west consisted of one ground-level floor and a mezzanine.
From approximately 1925 through 1977, the Site building remained much the same, continuing use for machine manufacturing, although ownership had switched to Joy Manufacturing Company, which had worked closely with Sullivan up to that point. A fire in the 1980s destroyed a majority of the oldest eastern portion of the Site building, which was replaced by gravel parking area by the late 1980s. This marked the end of most intensive machine manufacturing in the Site building and southern adjoining building, which transitioned to various commercial and industrial uses including storage, metal fabrication, marble sales, publishing, and metal/fiberglass storage tank manufacturing through the 1990s and early 2000s. In the early 2000s, an 18,000-gallon propane tank exploded on the eastern portion of the Site (exterior). The Site building is currently in disrepair and largely vacant and unused excepting occasional personal use for automotive maintenance and storage.
The Site building is documented to have been operated for erecting, welding, and machine manufacturing from at least 1884 to 1977. This industry involved heavy-duty machinery and procedures requiring the use of hazardous substances and petroleum products (HSPP), which also may have contained volatiles. In Credere's experience, historic mill practices often involved the improper handling and disposal of HSPP. Prior environmental reports from nearby/adjoining properties and another building associated/operated by the same companies (Sullivan Machinery and Joy Manufacturing Forge at 46 Main Street) document former contamination to soil and groundwater with heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including chlorinated solvents, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and general urban fill characteristics (brick, coal, ash, glass, clinker). Similarly, a fire at the Site in the late 1980s likely resulted in contaminated soil in the eastern portion of the Site. Although specific releases were not observed during the Site reconnaissance and no historical releases have been documented at the Site, there is a possibility that the machinery and materials remaining at the Site obscured view of staining and/or historical releases have gone undocumented.