Category Archives: Industrial

Erastus and Horatio Bigelow ended their involvement in the management of the Lancaster Mills Company in Clinton (producers of gingham cloth) in 1849. The new manager, Franklin Forbes, oversaw the erection of new buildings, including Mill No. 7 (Carding Mill, also labeled in 1929 as Ring Spinning), which was built between 1857 and 1870. It has a six-story tower added c. 1879-1898. Mill No. 7 is connected to Mill No. 1. The mills closed in 1931. For several decades the buildings were owned by Colonial Press and then were used by other companies. Recently, they have been renovated as condominiums, the Lofts at Lancaster Mills. (more…)

The brothers, Erastus and Horatio Bigelow, whose carpet company built the mills in Clinton discussed in my last two posts, were also founders of the Lancaster Mills Company, which produced checked gingham textiles. In the early 1840s, Erastus Bigelow had developed a power loom to mechanize the production of cotton checked cloth. In 1844, the Lancaster Mills Company was established and it soon built a complex of mill buildings at the head of the Wachusett Reservoir on a site bounded to the south and west by the Nashua River. The complex is dominated by the massive Mill No. 1 (Weaving Mill), which is only one-story high, but covers a large area. It was originally a single immense room, lighted by skylights. It was built in 1844-1849 and was expanded to the north in 1879-1898, when the current entrance, below a two-story brick tower with a pyramidal roof, was constructed. The image above depicts that later entrance. The building is notable as an early example of a large-scale industrial building designed to house a horizontal manufacturing process. In 1899, it became the first textile mill to be powered entirely by electric generators. The Lancaster Mills Company was the nation’s largest producer of gingham cloth. In later years, the Lancaster Mills buildings became part of the sprawling campus of Colonial Press. In 2011, part of the complex was renovated to become the Lofts at Lancaster Mills. (more…)

In 1837, two brothers arrived in Clinton and soon established the Clinton Company, which manufactured cotton, woolen and silk goods. Erastus Bigelow (1814-1879) was a mechanical genius and self-educated inventor who created a series of power looms that were the world’s first machines for weaving carpets. His brother, Horatio N. Bigelow (1812-1868), was the company’s business manager and a civic leader in the development of Clinton, which grew rapidly as industry expanded in town. The brothers went on to incorporate the Bigelow Carpet Company in 1854. The new company purchased the old property of the Clinton Company in 1863, which included an earlier mill (c. 1810) where the brothers had started their operations in Clinton. The company initiated a major building program, constructing new mills on the property, including the building pictured above, which has an elaborate five-story tower. It was built in 1864-1866, as a wool spinning and carpet weaving mill. (more…)