The Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room is one of the oldest surviving buildings of Crane & Co., one of the oldest papermaking businesses in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It is located in southwestern Dalton, on a site where paper has been manufactured since the early 19th century. The building, originally used for processing rags, has housed the Crane Museum of Papermaking since 1930, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983.Zenas Crane began making paper in Dalton in 1801, taking full ownership of an established operation at the Rag Room site in 1822. In the mid-1840s his sons constructed the Old Stone Mill, of which the Rag Room is the only surviving portion. The Rag Room is where Crane's grandson Winthrop Murray Crane learned the business; through his efforts Crane secured a monopoly contract to provide paper for the nation's currency, which it still holds today.The Rag Room is a gray fieldstone building with a slate roof. Its interior is a large open space that houses exhibits and artifacts of the company's history. It is open to the public at no charge.HistoryZenas Crane was educated in the processes of paper manufacturing in a mill owned by his brother Stephen in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts. After a stint at another paper mill in Worcester, Crane traveled west into Berkshire County in 1799, looking for potential papermaking sites. He found a highly desirable site in Dalton, but the owner, a local farmer, was unwilling to part with it. Crane instead established his business on a nearby parcel in 1801. Other papermakers followed over the next ten years, notably Henry Wiswell and David Carson, who acquired the more desirable site and established what became known as the Red Mill. Through a series of partnership and purchase transactions, Crane eventually acquired control of the Red Mill, taking full ownership in 1822.
