Demolition begins Wednesday on the former Lafayette Worsted Mill building, more recently known as the Scrubble building. Call photo/Ernest A. Brown

By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET –— The Lafayette Worsted mills have held the corner of Hamlet and Florence avenues for almost 100 years, but no longer.

The former “Scrubble” building nearest Florence Drive is under attack by a large demolition crane that has already torn away the five-story back wall of the brick, wood-beam and steel structure.
The destruction, a sad end to a once dominant feature of the city’s textile industry heritage, is also signaling the rebirth of the former ACS Industries property as the site of the city’s new middle schools.
“Well, it’s good to see we’re into the project visibly,” Joel D. Mathews, city director of planning and development, said of the ongoing demolition work Thursday.
Gilbane Building Co., the $80-million project’s construction manager, started the demolition work after completing shut-off jobs in a web of old underground utility lines serving the former mill buildings. The city acquired the ACS properties under a deal in which the industrial company will pay $2 million toward cleanup of land off Florence left vacant by two mill fires there in recent years.
The work site has been fenced and staffed with 24-hour security in preparation for demolition by A.A. Building and Wrecking of Coventry. The demolition subcontractor also completed the removal of hazardous materials, such as a window caulking material found to contain low levels of asbestos, prior to winning its demolition permit from the city this week.
 The start of demolition on the Scrubble building comes as the city closes in on the purchase of the last Hamlet property needed for the school project, the former Miller Electric Building now owned by the Procaccianti Group of Providence, for $975,000, according to Mathews. Procaccianti is a major hotel and commercial property developer and operator nationwide, running the Westin Hotel in Providence along with several other properties in that city.
Woonsocket officials have been in negotiations with James Procaccianti’s company over the acquisition of the still occupied five-story mill at 150 Hamlet Ave. In so doing, city leaders hope to avoid the legal costs and unforeseen expense of a land taking for public school use.
The agreed upon purchase price is $50,000 more than the city budgeted for the Miller acquisition while planning for the school, but far less than the $4 million value the owner had projected for the property, according to Mathews.
An appraisal commissioned by the city valued the Miller building at $935,000, Mathews said.
As part of its agreement with the city, the Procaccianti Group will be donating two small historic structures, the guardhouse and old office building, for use as outbuildings to the new middle schools. The larger of the two will be used as an alternative school site, the other as an office for the middle school’s media and technology services.
Procaccianti will be eligible to apply for historic tax credits relative to the donation, according to Mathews.
The City Council is expected to consider an ordinance approving the Miller building purchase at its next regular meeting.
The Miller Electric building is now home to Cool Air Creations, a city-based screen-art clothing manufacturer, and Procaccianti’s hotel equipment storage operation. Cool Air Creations is expected to relocate to a new home in Smithfield; the purchase agreement allows the company to remain in the Miller building through September, according to Mathews.
The Miller property will be used as open space in the school complex. Mathews said it need not be demolished immediately for construction to go forward.
The mills remaining at the Lafayette complex — the Scrubble building, the large building next to it, and the former Consolidated Auto Print mill the city owns on the far side of Villa Novan Street — all sit within the footprint of the new schools and must come down as soon as possible, according to Mathews.
“We have had some discussions with the contractor and are hoping to have a second crane come to the site to make up some of the time we have lost,” he said. The demolition work is expect to take four weeks, but other phases of the project could be stepped up if it can be finished sooner.
The demolition effort does not involve the former French Worsted mills on the opposite side of Hamlet. That property is being evaluated as the potential site of a mixed use housing and commercial complex.
At the Scubble building site on Thursday, the crane grabbed at large yellow pine roof and floor beams, dragging them out in a process that will allow the valuable old timbers to be recycled.
The crane bucket also grabbed at sections of the mill’s brick walls, sending large chunks of masonry falling to the ground as an A.A. employee kept the dust down by spraying the area with a fire hose.
A man watching the scene from his car with several other spectators said it appeared the crew was making short work of the old mill. While declining to be identified, he recalled working as a teenager at the old Consolidated Auto Printing plant, also heading to rubble.
“It was a nice place,” he said of the closed company. “We made draperies there.”
As for the new schools planned for the area, the man seemed uncertain as to whether they would fit in at the old mill property. “Too congested,” he said, as another pile of bricks thudded to the ground.