Though devastated by the flood of 1955, the four Finkelstein brothers, (hand-in-hand with their skilled and dedicated workforce), refused to quit. Jacob Finkelstein & Sons secured a large recovery loan from First National Bank ($600,000) and was back producing within 3 weeks. They paid all suppliers immediately, restored the physical building, and began the construction of two additional 27,000 sq. ft. warehouses. By 1968, the firm had grown in the rankings to be listed as the 7th largest men’s outerwear manufacturer in America.

In 1865, Dexter Ballou & Co. sold the Harrison Mill complex to the Lippitt Woolen Company. The Ballous & Lippitts had been associated for several years as the owners of the Social Mill.

In 1864, the Woonsocket Rubber Company was incorporated by Simeon S. Cook, Lyman Cook and Joseph Banigan. The Cooks were important local industrialists who had interests in the Woonsocket Machine and Press Company and the Bailey Wringer Company. Banigan was an Irish immigrant who learned the rubber business at the Goodyear India Rubber Company in Boston.

Together, the men purchased a three story rubble-stone building on this site that had been constructed ten years earlier as a steam powered sash manufacturing mill.

In 1960 the mill was divided into many sections. Verdun Manufacturing Company, Inc., Spinning Division, Roth Harry Textile Mill Supplies, American Copper Sponge Company, Inc., ACS Industrial Division, New England Pile Fabrics, Inc. and Consolidated Print Works all operated in the space. By 1990 American Copper Sponge (ACS) and Consolidated Auto Screen were the only two remaining businesses. 

<i>Images courtesy of the Harris Public Library</i>

The Woonsocket Falls Mill Company, as well as the Timme Company, operated the mill until 1958. The following year, Ned’s Discount Store purchased the property.

In the mid-1960s, the building was ravaged by fire and was vacant by 1967. The mill was demolished in June 1969.

<i>Images courtesy of the Library of Congress</i>

After the end of the Second World War, Alice remained open and produced rubber goods. Its most famous product during this period was Keds sneakers. Unfortunately, business was not able to be sustained and the mill closed in 1969, ending the long history of rubber production in Woonsocket.

In 1974, Tech Industries purchased the property and refitted the mill to produce plastic caps and jars used mostly for cosmetic companies, such as Avon. The company, later known as Portola Tech, operated from the Alice Mill until 2009 when it moved its business to Cumberland.

The River Spinning Company was incorporated in 1891 by Frank Sayles, who owned a number of textile mills in Rhode Island. The building was designed by C. R. Makepeace Company and was completed in 1894. Theophilus Guerin, whose family owned a successful textile enterprise in Belgium that would later expand to Woonsocket, traveled to Rhode Island to set up machinery for the River Spinning Company. The new machineary would manufacture woolen and merino yarns based on the French System.

One year after the building had been completed the building was nearly destroyed by fire.

In 1889, the Woonsocket Rubber Company constructed the Alice Mill on Fairmount Street to meet expanding production needs. Named for the mother of Joseph Banigan (one of the company's founders), the mill was built of brick on a granite base. Two stair towers projected from an immense four story structure with a total floor space of 12 acres, making it the largest rubber mill in with world.

In 1883, the Social Manufacturing Company constructed the Nourse Mill on Clinton Street to meet the needs of its ever expanding production. The wide-bay mill was built of brick with slow-burning construction. It contained 40,000 spindles, 540 looms and employed 380 people.

The mill was named in honor of Charles Nourse, longtime superintendent & then president of the Social Mill. Nourse would die from injuries sustained when a fire broke out in the mill’s offices just three years later.

<i>Image courtesy of the Woonsocket Historical Society</i>

In 1852, the Social Manufacturing Company was incorporated with Oren Ballou as President, Henry Lippitt as Treasurer, and Charles Nourse as Superintendent. Nourse served as superintendent for 35 years. Under his direction, the mill grew from 17,000 spindles to 125,000 spindles. He eventually secured an interest in the company and served as its President.