Location: 55 West Railroad Avenue, Garnerville

Owner: Garnerville Holding Company

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This multi-use site is open to the public.

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The Garner Arts & Industrial Center has evolved from a nineteenth-century textile mill into a mixed-use complex that today is home to light industry, wholesale distributors, and artists and artisans. As a visual and performing arts venue, it continues to delight and amaze its patrons with the quality and diversity of its programs and offerings.

 

The earliest known activity on the property consisted of a grist mill built on the creek by Cornelius Osborn circa 1760. Between 1828 and 1831, the Scotsman John Glass acquired the site and established a calico print works. After Glass was killed in a steamboat accident in 1831, his property was sold to William Cowdrey, who in turn sold it to the James and Thomas Garner and Charles Welles in 1838. Welles retired shortly thereafter, and the firm came to be known as Garner & Company.

 

With holdings throughout New York and Penn-sylvania, Garner & Company dominated the U.S. textile industry between 1837 and 1909. Rockland Print Works, incorporated in 1853, was part of this massive textile enterprise, which at one time produced enough fabric to dress every woman in America. It also provided thousands of jobs for local residents. Most of the mill buildings were constructed between 1871 and 1910; in addition, the company built some sixty houses for its largely Welsh, English, and Scottish immigrant workers, along with a Methodist Episcopal church, a fire station, and other amenities that formed the basis of the hamlet of Garnerville.

 

After a brief closure during the Depression, the complex reopened in 1938 as the Haverstraw Industrial Terminal, one of the first industrial cooperatives in the United States. It was owned and operated by investors of the Garnerville Holding Company and provided free space to industrial tenants to create employment and stimulate the local economy. In addition to textile companies, it was home to metal salvaging and manufacturing businesses that provided hundreds of jobs into the 1970s.

 

In the 1990s, the Garnerville Holding Company began expanding the tenant base to include artists and artisan studios. In 2011, the Garner Arts Center (formerly GAGA) suffered devastation from Hurricane Irene. Floodwater and debris from Minisceongo Creek swirling through the complex seriously damaged the Main Gallery and many studios. Since then, restoration has been under way.

 

With assistance from the Preservation League of New York State, the complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. The Garnerville Arts & Industrial Center is currently under the direction of Robin Rosenberg, a granddaughter Louis Rosenberg, a co-founder of the Garnerville Holding Company. A glance at the business directory today shows a wide range of tenants, from architects to yoga practitioners and even the new Industrial Arts brewery.

 

The Garner Arts & Industrial Center is steeped in history with a fascinating past—and is looking forward to an even more exciting future.