Forest Paper Company
Predecessor | Yarmouth Paper Company |
---|---|
Founded | 1874 |
Founder | Samuel D. Warren George W. Hammond |
Defunct | 1923 |
Fate | Closed |
Headquarters | , United States |
Products | Soda pulp |
Number of employees | 275 |
Forest Paper Company was a
History
Located at the
Beginning with a single wooden building, the facility expanded to ten buildings covering as many acres, including a span over the river to Factory Island. The main access road to it was an extended version of today's Mill Street, off Main Street. Two bridges to it were also constructed.
In 1909, it was the largest such mill in the world, employing 275 people, including superintendent
Changes in papermaking after World War I made the mill less profitable, and it began to decline. Its workers unionized in August 1916 and went on strike the following month. Many never returned.[6]
The mill closed in 1923, when import restrictions on pulp were lifted and Swedish pulp became a cheaper option.
The mill burned in 1931, leaving charred remains on the site until the development of the park in the early 1980s. In 1971, the Marine Corps Reserve tore down the old factory, before a Navy demolition team used fourteen cases of dynamite to raze the remains. Most of the remaining debris was crushed and used as fill for the park but several remnants of the building are still visible today.[7]
Visual timeline
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Forest Paper Company (left) and George W. Hammond's Camp Hammond (right)
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Looking northwest to Elm Street
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Remnants of mill foundations at the Third Falls
See also
References
- ^ Chamber of Commerce Journal of Maine, Volume 13 (1901), p. 15
- ^ "Royal River and the Mills" – Yarmouth Historical Society
- ^ a b c "Yarmouth: Leader in Soda Pulp" – Maine Memory
- ^ "Sappi North America formally dropping the S.D. Warren Co. name" - Portland Press Herald, September 5, 2018
- ^ "Forest Paper Company at Third Falls" Archived 2022-02-11 at the Wayback Machine – Yarmouth Historical Society via Vamonde.com
- ^ Yarmouth Historic Context Statement, page 5 Archived 2022-11-01 at the Wayback Machine – Town of Yarmouth
- ^ Images of America: Yarmouth, Hall, Alan M., Arcadia (2002)