ABSTRACT
Over the past three decades, there has been a slow but steady interest in revitalizing older structures across the United States. Many of these structures, built as part of North America’s Industrial Revolution, had fallen into neglect and decay due to changing technology, shifting markets, and lack of long-term capital reinvestment. In the Northeast, some industries fell prey to relocations to many southern states, which then suffered the same fate as those industries relocated overseas. Other industries were victims of the “electronic circuit silently replac[ing] the hiss and clank of moving parts” (Niesewand 1988, p. 9). Once the drivers of the economic engine of the country, these industries declined-often in a painfully slow way-and harmed not only the economies of the cities and towns that hosted them but also the social fabric and physical character of the surrounding community.
