The Museum of Work & Culture, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2017, welcomes thousands of visitors each year who hope to learn more about those immigrants who came to the Blackstone Valley seeking work and a new life.
<i>Images courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society</i>
The Guerin Mill Complex, founded by Belgian textile manufacturers Joseph & Theophile Guerin, consisted of three mills: the Montrose Worsted (established in 1902), the Alsace Worsted (established in 1904) and The Rosemont Dyeing Company (established in 1906).
The President of the Montrose Worsted was Theophile, son of Joseph, who was President of Alsace Worsted. John G. Masson served as President of Rosemont Dyeing Company.
Upon the death of owner Frank Sayles' in 1920, the Guerin Spinning Company purchased the River Spinning Company. Theophilus Guerin, who originally set up the River Spinning Company's machinery, became President and merged the River Spinning Company with the Guerin Spinning Company. In 1925, the mill was renamed River Mill. In 1935, the Guerin Spinning Company was dissolved and the site's production was taken over by the Bell Company who operated it through the 1950s.
In 1901, Lafayette’s Mill No. 1 was completed. It would be the first of four mills that would fill the Lafayette complex in the next 20 years.
In 1935, Auguste and Louis Lepoutre, president and vice-president, respectively, died. In 1936, the heirs of the two men set about dividing the Lafayette Worsted Company holdings. The heirs of Auguste acquired Mills No. 1 and 2 and the related buildings and reorganized as the Lafayette Worsted Spinning Company while the heirs of Louis established the Argonne Worsted Company in Mill No. 3.
In September 1901, Daniel Taft retired from Taft-Peirce and Herman Hollerith purchased the company for a syndicate of Boston and New York capitalists. The syndicate retained the name of the company and Edwin Peirce remained in charge.
In 1895, Belgian textile manufacturer Joseph Guerin, who had established Guerin Spinning in Woonsocket a few years earlier, purchased an existing mill site as the location for their second Woonsocket enterprise, Philmont Worsted.
The Philmont Worsted Company Mill was a three-story, brick, industrial building located in Jenckesville, a densely-settled industrial and residential district north of downtown Woonsocket. The mill produced worsted and merino yarns.
The inspector of the State of Rhode Island filed reports on the working conditions in the Eagle Mill in 1901 and 1922. During that period working conditions improved from good to very good, but the workforce saw decreases across the board (men, women, and children). In its last years of operation, the mill began to produce rayon, as cotton was not in great demand. The strategy was not successful and in 1937 the mill was demolished by Woonsocket Civilian Conservation Corps workers.
<i>Image courtesy of the Woonsocket Historical Society</i>
In 1900, the textile firm of B.B. and R. Knight operated 22,000 spindles and 512 looms on cotton sheetings at the Clinton Mills and employed 360 operators. The Knight firm was dissolved in 1923 and the mill passed into the hands of many trustees. It continued to operate as a textile mill into the 1950s.
<i>Images courtesy of the Woonsocket Historical Society (A, B, C, & D) and the Osher Map Library (E)</i>
The Desurmont Worsted Mill was one of several Woonsocket worsted mills built by French and Belgian textile businessmen in the early twentieth century as a result of mayor Aram Pothier’s efforts to attract foreign investment to Woonsocket.
The turn of the century would not prove to be a prosperous era for the newly renamed American Wringer Company. The invention of the electric washing machine was the death knell for the wringer’s popularity. By 1940, 60% of all homes in the US were outfitted with the modern convenience.
