The Lawrence

The Lawrence Cement works was by far the largest cement company operating in the Binnewater area. At 5th Binnewater Lake, also known as Williams Lake, its works included 23 kilns, 8 crackers, 14 grinders, and 8 packers, with the capacity to produce more than 2,000 barrels of cement a day. At peak manufacturing around 1892, the company produced 5,500 barrels daily and about 1,000,000 barrels per year, about 1/8 of all cement manufactured in the United States at the time. The brick office building at the site later was reused during the operation of the Williams Lake Hotel as a hotel suite called the Honeymoon Cottage. North of the office building stood the company cooperage, where coopers used barrel staves to build shipping barrels. Beyond the factory buildings stood a massive stone kiln wall used for baking local dolostone extracted from nearby mines, and remnants of that wall still survive.

Rosendale, New York · United States