Reid's Mill Smokestack

The Reid’s Mill Smokestack consists of a brick-lined, steel-girded concrete stack with steel grating around the top. A local landmark, especially for river traffic, it is located on Old Mill Road in Gagetown.

The Reid’s Mill Smokestack is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the former Reid’s Mill. The smokestack is all that remains to mark the site of Reid’s Mill, an important employer in the Village of Gagetown for several decades. The Reid Brothers, Richard and Frank, had been lumbering in the area from 1906-1907 and, in 1919, they established a large steam powered saw mill on the banks of the Saint John River just below the Gagetown Ferry. They became the largest employer in the village and also the largest exporter in the area. There was a siding from the Valley Railway at the mill site, boxcars were loaded with lumber and then shipped to the Boston area. The Reid’s Mill was a typical saw mill of the period, with a lot of the logs being transported to the mill by water. The mill was somewhat ill-fated, being entirely burned in 1935, although the smokestack survived the blaze. It was rebuilt and then in 1941, 600 thousand board feet of lumber were destroyed by fire. Shortly after the woodland behind Gagetown was expropriated for the development of Base Gagetown in 1953, Reid’s Lumber Mill, which by this time was known as “The Gagetown Lumber Company”, went out of business and was torn down.

The smoke stack is about ninety feet tall, with square sides, approximately 6 feet per side. At the foot of the tower there is a larger rectangular structure that housed the furnace and the boiler. The stack is made of cast-in-place concrete and is lined with a creamy-orange fire brick that is said to have been imported from Scotland. The screening at the top preserves the top edge to some extent and has been the nesting site for osprey for the last eight years. Also, the tower is girded with steel bars at five foot intervals which serve to maintain its structural integrity.

Source: Queens County Heritage Archives – Gagetown Historic places file

The character-defining elements of the Reid’s Mill Smokestack include:

- tall brick-lined and steel-girded concrete tower with enlarged steel-grated top;

- visual landmark status, especially from river;

- furnace and boiler rooms remain at the base of the structure;

- osprey nest.