The Main Street Cooperage Building was originally built in 1861 by John McKanna as a Cooperage (read a short article about cooperages here).  Throughout its first decades it was the home of a barrel-producing factory. This concern was owned and operated by the John McKanna family. We believe that the facility was operated as a cooperage for the next 40 years at which point, it has been reported, it was damaged by a fire. Though no official record of this event is available, the assertion is substantiated by the blackened roof joists that are visible from the second floor. The cooperage barrel factory never seems to have reopened for business.  

The building may have next been home to a glass-producing business.  Around this time the McKanna family entered a partnership with the Feeney family in the glass business.  Glass making was a prominent enterprise of the day in this region. There are no records as to the length of time such a business would have been in operation on this site or, in fact, whether or not such a business occupied the space at all.  It is our belief that if it were used for such a purpose the operation would have also occupied the property next door (now owned by Richard Coscia) which was owned by the McKannas and on whose south-facing wall can still be discerned the faded names of Feeney and McKanna as part of an advertisement for their glass business.

The next known use of the building is as a car dealership which had occupied, as had the glass concern, both the Cooperage building and the Coscia Building.  This business was in operation until the 1970’s. Since that time and until the Cooperage began the most recent renovations in 2010, the building had been used largely as a storage facility and laid vacant and unattended until its purchase in 2008.  As a result, it had deteriorated badly and was prime for demolition. 

The community-minded founders of The Cooperage Project nonprofit organization purchased the building in 2009 with no running water and a dirt floor. Renovations began in 2010 of what would become the newest version of The Cooperage — home to The Cooperage Project! 

Because of vision and incredible generosity of our founders, and through grants and donations from our community, The Cooperage Project has been able to breathe new life into the historic Cooperage building. It is an honor to invite the community through our doors for programming – and we hope to continue to do so for years to come!