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| Idas Joseph Crepeau, North Adams, Massachusetts, August 1911. Photo by Lewis Hine |
Joseph Crapo, 47 Fruit St. Works in Eclipse Mills. Apparently 13
years old. Location: North Adams, Massachusetts, August 1911, Lewis Hine.
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| Same location, February 16, 2009, with elevated walkway, a building and trolley tracks now gone. |
When this handsome young man posed for Lewis Hine almost 100 years
ago, neither he nor anyone else in this small factory city in the Berkshires would have imagined that the Eclipse Mill would
one day become well-appointed housing for artists. In 2005, the larger of the two remaining brick buildings in the mill
complex (not visible here) along the Hoosic River was renovated into condominiums with studios and loft spaces, establishing
itself as one of the prime factors in an ongoing attempt to convert North Adams from a declining manufacturing center into
a destination for cultural tourism, and an ex-urban living environment friendly to the so-called creative class. When Joseph met up with the investigative photographer while standing on what used
to be the trolley tracks on Union Street, he was probably thinking about going home to his house across the river on Front
Street (not Fruit Street).
Idas Joseph Crepeau, Page Two
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