NEB&W Guide to Larrabee's Point, VT - Plywood Factory

Last Update: 2008-10-12

Larrabee's Point Table of Contents
Addison Branch Table of Contents
Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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• An ice house and turntable were built on the remnant of the spur that ran across Beadle's Cove.
  • [Rutland track diagram courtesy Bob Nimke.]

• In 1936, the ice house was retired.
  Sometime in the late '30's or early '40's, a plywood factory was built in Larrabee's point, apparently on the site of the turntable. The turntable was moved about 100 feet east.
  • [Valuation map, courtesy Bob Nimke. The old turntable still shows although it appears they tried to erase it. And it looks like the grade crossing was moved slightly to the west to clear the turntable.]
  • [Valuation map notes, courtesy Bob Nimke.]
  • [Satellite photo, labeled.]

The Plywood Factory

• The mill was constructed by the Fyles Brothers and sometimes referred to as the Pyles Plywood Mill of Shoreham (Larrabee's Point is in the Shoreham township.) The Fyles had already some experience with the Rice family in setting up mills scattered throughout Vermont, such as a joint venture in Bethel.
  The factory was fairly large, employing about 75 people on three shifts, and receiving tank cars of glue and other supplies as well as shipping out finished plywood. We are trying to good photos from which to model it. (Yet in 1951, the railroad abandoned the section down to Larrabee's Point, so the rail traffic must have dried up by then.)

• We understand the first section of the plywood factory was built on the foundation of the ice house. (Frankly, I think the first section WAS the ice house, which the plywood company simply modified, thus explaining why they built their plant right there and at such an angle to the main.) An adjacent section was built around 1946, taking out most of the spur (and requiring the turntable to be moved).
  • [Photo looking east, by John Gardner c. 1951. Plywood factory to the left.]
  • [Conjecture plan.]
  • [Plywood factory mockup, Photoshopped.]
  After the railroad pulled up their tracks in 1951, the plant continued until it burned c. 1961.

• In the above John Gardner photo, there is a c. '30's auto right next to the edge of the plant. During this time, the width of a typical auto was just about 6 feet wide, give or take a few inches. Using that as a scaling factor let's us figure out some of the dimensions.
  • [Scaled photo.]
  The height of the annex is (going by this scaling factor) 10 feet high. The height of the window is, say 45 inches.
  Using the same scale on the track to where the rails are about five feet wide is where they are in the same plane as the car and the edge. Extending a horizontal line shows the ground the annex sits on is three feet higher than the rails. And the edge of the annex is roughly 20 feet from the nearest rail.
  Finally, drawing in the perspective lines of the top and bottom of the windows back to the drums gives a diameter of the drum as roughly 4 ft. 3 inches, or 50-51 inches. (If the drums are significantly closer to the camera than the nearest window, the drum diameter could be less, but this sets an upper limit to how big the drums are.)

• So a revised conjectured plan has the annex wider, and also added another long shed parallel to the ice house.
  • [Revised conjecture plan.]

• Then Melanie Sembrat and I went up to Vermont and talked to Charlie Barber, who was an employee of the plant. He said, among other things, that the front annex on our concept was too wide (narrower than our widened version, narrower than our original version. He said it was much closer to the east end of the taller builder. The second annex we proposed in the back was not there at all, and certainly not with a saddle roof, thus causing a valley between the two.
  He said that on the north side were three smaller buildings, all concrete block or concrete. The first one (to the east) was a well house, and there were two boiler houses, side by side. (He said he took the boiler that the railroad had used to move the floating-bridge barge out of the way, and dragged that over to the plywood plant to use as the second boiler.)
  • [Photo c. Sept. '06 of the north side of the foundation, looking south. (The outhouse might be sitting on the location of the boiler room, but where that was in relation to everything else is still conjecture.) Alex Stroshane photo.]
  • [Contemporary photo (Nov. '07) of the foundation, looking south. There appear to be the foundations of the two boiler houses (maybe).]
  • [Contemporary photo (Nov. '07), looking a bit to the west.]
  • [Contemporary photo (Nov. '07), another view.]
  The building on stilts was not on the north. He thinks it might have been on the west side.
  He said there were two large doors at the end, one with a set of rails going in, where logs were placed on a cart and moved into the plant.
  So here is a second revision of the floor plan, based solely on what he told us.
  • [Revised (again) conjecture plan.]

• So taking what he told us and matching against what the photo clearly shows, here is the latest concept.
  • [Plywood factory mockup, re-Photoshopped. Most current concept the top image. (The rear annex, the well house, should be back much further, but then it wouldn't show in this image.)]

• We started with the Walthers model ice house, cut it down in height to two stories, and made it longer. Windows and doors were cut into the one end. The annex is being scratchbuilt.
  • [Model under construction, Sept. 30, 2008. (All the surfaces have been brushed-painted the first coat of Floquil. This is being allowed to dry - about a week - before the final coat is applied.)]
  • [In progress view, Oct. 11, 2008.]
  • [Comparison of the prototype vs. the model.]

• Coming up next, an annex on the far end, kitbashed from an Atlas lumber shed and the Walthers ice house platform!

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