The H.P. Hood Creamery was in the Buckland Freight Yard. Here, milk from local farms arrived by wagon and trolley and was processed into bulk railroad cars for transportation to eastern cities. The milk was already separated from the cream at the farm, cream was handled on Creamery Avenue. According to some reports this plant was the second busiest creamery in New England.

The plant was built around 1918, and demolished to the foundation sometime before 1960, we think. We determined that there was not much historical value in the foundation, and we would be better served by making this photographic record of what was there and releasing the space for better uses and improving the appearance and safety of the yard. Contact the museum if you want to see higher resolution versions of these photographs for research purposes, or if you have more information to share with us. The foundation was removed and levelled in 2014.

A rough scan of the south side of the Creamery in 1929 for a Buckland sesquicentennial report

The pictures below are various views of the Creamery foundation as it looked in the 2010-2014 time frame.

Then, thanks to a large anonymous donation, we were able to hire W.R. Hillman and Sons (who also donated some time) to demolish and remove the foundation. They broke it up by dropping boulders on it with an excavator, then scooping up the debris and hauling it away.

Here is a movie (150M) of a short portion of the demolition. An eastbound autorack train distracts the excavator for a moment.

Here is another (170M) giving a little insight into how the building was made.

There was one built-in tank and a lot of piping in the foundation, for moving milk and water for washing and cooling.

All that is left now is more room for visitors to park

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14 Depot Street Shelburne Falls MA 01370        413-625-9443       trolley@sftm.org