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It really is an end of an era. Legendary investor Warren Buffett, 94, announced last week that he’s retiring at the end of this year, bringing to a close a truly remarkable financial career that started with strong Massachusetts connections. Buffett’s famous holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, got its name via one of his earliest investments, the phased purchase in the ‘60s of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., an old textiles company based in New Bedford. The mill company itself was the result of a merger in the mid-1950s between Berkshire Fine Spinning Association (see image above) in Adams, Mass., and Hathaway Manufacturing Co. in New Bedford.

Out of curiosity, I poked around the web a bit to see what remnants of the long-closed Berkshire Hathaway (the textile firm, not the Omaha-based financial firm) were still around, decades after Buffett dumped his holdings in the firm. Apparently, parts of the old Hathaway mill complex are still around in New Bedford, but its distinctive headquarters building was torn down about a  decade ago, as the WSJ reported at the time. Many of the old Berkshire mill buildings in Adams are also long gone, but the Berkshire Mill No. 1 building was converted into a mixed-use housing complex in the late ‘80s and today is on the National Register of Historic Places. … Just thought people would like to know about this local business history. It’s pretty cool stuff.

Fyi: Buffett has often described his purchase of the Berkshire Hathaway mill company as his worst investment ever. But he got a classy and proud name out of the deal, that’s for sure.

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Update – 5.5.25 — The WSJ chronicles Buffett’s greatest investment hits and misses. Berkshire Hathaway is most definitely on the list.