In the middle of October, 2006, the Grade Seven students at Brewer Middle School took a field trip to a building that they had seen from a distance for most of their lives, but had never visited up close. The tour guides were various city officials and the future developers of the old paper mill. It was raining quite hard and the students were poorly equipped with flashlight, which added to the overall effect of the visit. What follows are the essays, as written, by roughly half of the students. The essays are presented as written by the students, hoping to preserve their turns of phrase, their usages and their idiosyncrasies as writers.

Ambureen Rana
The seventh graders entered the darkened building that had sat on South Brewer St. for over one hundred years.  This building is the Eastern Fine Paper Mill.  The mill had shut down two years ago and now is planning its refurbish.  As we walked through the door we saw many directions in which we could of head in.  The group followed the leaders of the tour in order to stay safe.  Many people had brought flashlights in order to see since the mill hadn't had any electricity or lighting.  The people that had toured us had many things to tell about the history of the fascinating mill.

There had been creaky doors and quiet, empty halls that had been occupied with the shadows of the workers that had once been there.  I could hear water pouring and pounding on to the floor through massive gaps in the ceiling.  There had also been holes in which there had once been machines that had aided the workers in paper making.  It had seemed like a tornado had ripped through the room due to the piles of debris covering the ground.  Over 360,000 square feet to be exact.  

But the things that truly come to my mind when I think about this abandoned mill are many questions.  Questions like who were the people that had worked here?  As the tour lead on we had stopped at this truly amazing red door with the carved names of the former workers.  I had so many thoughts in my mind about how they could use this door as a display to the mill, in memory of the workers.

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