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Mills and Changing Cities

York Manufacturing Company Workers, Saco, ca. 1900

York Manufacturing Company Workers, Saco, ca. 1900

Item 23044 info
Dyer Library/Saco Museum

Textile manufacturing was a vibrant industry in Biddeford and Saco for over 100 years.

In the 1950s many of the mills closed; only Pepperell remained open.

Around the same time the local textile machine manufacturers had closed and relocated to South Carolina.

In 2009 WestPoint Home, a division of Pepperell shut its doors and ended over 175 years of textile manufacturing in the Biddeford and Saco area.

Many of the mill buildings still stand and are being given new life as condominiums, restaurants and artist studios.