Mills in Scituate

After many years as a farming community, in 1806, the first mill in Scituate was the Hope Cotton Mill. Throughout the 1800’s, many mills produced cotton yarn, cotton cloth, wool cloth, lace, shoelaces, mosquito netting, and shoddy (inexpensive wool cloth made from used material.) These mills were known as textile mills. Other mills in town made spools and bobbins.

Mill workers had a very difficult life. Men, women, and even children worked in the mills. They worked from early morning until the sun set at night. They had to work six days a week! On average, men made about one dollar a day. Women made a little less than men, and children made even less per day.

The mill owner was the wealthiest person in the village. He owned the mill itself, the homes the workers rented, and he usually owned the company store. Rent to live in the mill village was about $2.00 a month. Mill workers bought what they needed at the company store. Since the mill owner paid very little in wages and mill workers had to pay him rent and buy what they needed from his store, the mill owner got lots of his money back from the workers.

Some of the mills in early Scituate were: the Hope Cotton Mill which made cotton cloth and lace, the Rockland Mill which made cotton yarn, Joslin’s Richmond Mill which made shoelaces and corset laces and the North Scituate Cotton Mill which made cotton cloth. The Richmond Mill had more than five hundred braiding machines. The North Scituate Mill could produce two million yards of their print cloth each year! These huge mills were really productive. In 1860, there were 15 cotton mills in town with 868 employees working in them.

In the 1890’s, mill production was starting to decline. As times changed, mills closed. When the reservoir was built in Scituate, many of the old mills were taken down. Today the Hope Cotton Mill is the only one that remains in town and it is an empty building. Owners may renovate the mill and use it for apartments.

Here are men, women, and children who worked in an early Scituate mill.

The Pawtuxet River powered the Hope Cotton/Lace Mill.

The river was channeled to power the mill. This was called the “mill run”.

This is what remains of the Hope Mill in 2017.

The Hope Mill was made of Nipmuc stone.

Mill Street 2017

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© 2017 Paula DiLuglio