Beaver Mill, part of the old Hoosac Cotton Mill (one of the earliest mills in North Adams), traces its history back to 1851, when Harvey Arnold, his brother Oliver, and friend Nathanial Blinn erected the three stone floors on the southern end of the building for textile manufacturing. As the textile industry in the Berkshires grew, the mill complex also grew. By the turn of the 20th century, Beaver Mill was humming, with four full floors and over 130,000 square feet of interior space.
Hoosac Mill Corporation purchased the mill in 1911, but, faced with the region’s looming manufacturing decline, sold it to Sprague Electric (based in Quincy, Mass.) in 1929 for $200,000. Sprague Electric quickly outgrew the Beaver Mill, eventually taking over the nearby Eclipse Mill and converting what is now MASS MoCA into its primary campus. By World War II, Sprague employed 4,000 workers in a town of just 22,000. “In some original floor areas, indentations where workers once stood for hours at machines can still be felt—quiet testaments to nearly a century of shifting production lines,” the website notes.
The mill was eventually broken up and sold, as the town of North Adams entered a deep recession while the rest of the state enjoyed an economic boom. Watching the population drop to 13,000, many assumed the mill buildings would all be demolished. Instead, the Beaver Mill and Eclipse Mill were donated to a nonprofit economic development group, given electrical and heating upgrades, and repurposed for military textile manufacturing. After only a few years, corruption scandals led the owners to flee town, leaving the mills vacant again.
The final tower of the Delftree Mill portion of the old mill complex, which had been in a state of disrepair and deemed a safety hazard for a long time, was razed last year. Fortunately, the two other structures have long since been lovingly restored, thanks to sculptor Eric Rudd and his wife, Barbara—a tribute both to North Adams’ history as a booming mill town and to the creativity and innovation that characterize the Berkshire arts community. Rudd recognized the creative potential of the building and the advantages of being near other established art museums.
Eric Rudd—a well-known sculptor/mixed media artist from Washington, D.C., who has exhibited for over 60 years in museum and private collections in the United States (including The Smithsonian), Europe, and Asia—first came to the Berkshires in 1987 through an act of fate (or divine intervention?). “GE offered me 4,000 pounds of premium pellets and use of their $1 million polycarbonate blow-molding equipment at their Pittsfield R&D site that summer,” Rudd recalls. “While I was up here, I learned about the 130,000 square-foot mill and saw nothing but possibilities. As an artist, I was used to having crazy ideas and figuring out how to build them.” Returning in 1988, he learned of a vacant mill in Adams in dire need of a new owner. The nonprofit that owned the property encouraged him to take a look at the nearby Beaver Mill instead.
“At the time, the Beaver Mill was in dire condition: Kids were throwing rocks through its 400 windows—comprising over 10,000 panes—sprinkler systems malfunctioned from neglect, and abandoned textile materials were stacked head-high on many floors,” Rudd recalls. “The building had just four tenants, and the town’s Main Street was a ghost town, with only 30 percent occupancy.” Needing space for his sculptural installations, he recognized the building’s creative potential.
In 1990, he and his wife renovated a portion of the mill into a massive loft apartment/studio, moved their family there, and continued to renovate the other sections. With an overabundance of space and few viable commercial tenants, they founded the Contemporary Artists Center (CAC), an artist residency program. “For a decade, the CAC hosted over 100 artists each summer, offering expansive studio spaces, exhibitions, and opportunities to engage with museum and gallery professionals,” Rudd notes. The center also featured five galleries, hosting 15 summer shows annually, as well as the “Downtown Installations” program, filling up to 37 storefronts with art.
Today, under the Barbara and Eric Rudd Art Foundation, they maintain one of the largest individual studios in the country (including 50,000 square feet of art, a Sculpture Garden, Artifacts Gallery, White Cave, Studio Gallery, Pyramid Reliefs, and Sculpture Space), in addition to 40 other studios housing working artists. “Every nook of the vast ‘red elephant’—a nickname for mill structures—is now creatively occupied,” the website notes.
The success of the Beaver Mill inspired the couple to purchase the nearby vacant Eclipse Mill (243 Union Street) and convert it into 40 large live-work lofts between 2002 and 2006. One of the bigger problems Rudd faced in renovating the old mill was making it ADA compliant—a challenge the previous owners estimated would cost $950,000 to resolve. “The building had two parking lots, one of which had a loading dock and ramp. What was originally the back of the building is now the front,” he explains. “We solved the problem for $6,000 and gained a bigger parking lot in the process!”
The spaces are now home to a vibrant community of locally and internationally known artists—including painters and potters, jewelers and sculptors, printmakers and photographers, dancers, puppeteers, writers, and musicians. The gallery regularly hosts art shows and openings, open studios, and live performances. By spring 2026, they anticipate opening the Historic Beaver Mill Inn, which will feature 12 contemporary rooms, a shared kitchen, and a community space.
“All along, I’ve been dedicated to revitalizing the city’s arts and cultural life through artistic practice and community development,” Rudd says. “We were trendsetters, both in terms of drawing artists from around the country to North Adams and showing other developers there was value in these old mills.”
Editor’s note: Eclipse and Beaver are just two of several historic mills in and around Berkshire County that have been rescued and repurposed into thriving creative spaces. They house workshops, studios, restaurants, and retail outlets for artists, writers, and craftspeople. We will have more about these lively and interesting spaces in the upcoming fall/winter issue of our print magazine Out & About with The Berkshire Edge, which will be in distribution throughout Berkshire County and beyond starting November 5. A digital version of the magazine will be posted on The Edge shortly thereafter.
