wire, wood, grains
There were several dams and 9 various mills #30 on Vaughan stream in Hallowell.
Brothers Charles and Benjamin Vaughan built a flour mill using water power from their stream in 1793.
Over the years the stream powered an iron works, a machine shop, lumber mill and sandpaper mill at Sheppards Point at the southern end of Hallowell.
I represented the mills on Vaughan stream by having large millwork gears next to the flowing symbolic river.
artist, Chris Cart
3 dams on the stream
In 1870 Henry Harding opened the Kennebec Wire Company #53 on Vaughan Stream. He imported huge coils of 1/4 inch wire from Boston and Portland. The wire was then run through the mill to create smaller dimension wire for use.
Benjamin Tenney, who also became Hallowell mayor, ran a Sandpaper mill on the stream.
Later Hallowell Light and Power used water power to generate electricity for the industry and houses in the area.
In the 1850s, the company of Prescott & Fuller Iron Foundry was formed on Milliken’s Crossing, in Hallowell, Maine. The founder was Mr. J.P. Flagg, and the owner was George Fuller who also owned Machinists Manufacturers.
Olympia Farrar #35 posed for the young woman at the industrial loom. The textile mill employed many children.
wire, wood, grains
Shoe factory, boots for soldiers with notes…
The 252 foot long, four story Cotton Mill #34, built in 1844, still stands in Hallowell. In its heyday of production, around 1866, the mill employed 200 textile workers making fabric for curtains, jeans, dress, coat linings, a vast range of fabrics for daily use.
In the late 1880’s the southern states that provided the raw cotton, built their own textile mills and this led to the close of Hallowell’s textile industry. The Cotton Mill was shut down in 1890.
From 1909 to 1915 the first floor was occupied by Electrophone, producing one of the world’s first electric automobile horns.
Then from 1920 to 1966 the building became a shoe factory.
One story I was told was that during World War II the shoe factory made boots and factory workers would add notes of encouragement in the boots for the soldiers.
artist, Chris Cart
In 1979 the building became The Cotton Mills Apartments when the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in participation with the Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the conversion of the mill into housing for the elderly.
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