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Nothing dominates the downtown of Biddeford like the Mill.
You KNOW you're in Biddeford when you're driving along Main
street, with a 150 year old 9 story structure beside you...
its quite formidable! Built in 1850, and spanning across the
river into Saco, the Mill represented the height of textile
technology at the time. For a while, Biddeford housed
the most modern textile manufacturing facility in the country.
(more
on the mill on the timeline page)
The Smoke Stack, also made of brick more than 150 years
ago, remains the tallest structure in the city. |
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The mill is largely on Factory Island, but lines both sides of
the river along Cataract Falls, which is more of a rapids than
an actual waterfall. Some of the mill is empty, a vicitm of
cheap overseas labor. West Point, an outfit out of
Georgia, makes your Velux blankets there. A surprising
percentage, though, has been remodeled into condominiums,
stores, and small shops... its sort of the "yuppy" place to
live.
But The most amazing thing about the mill is that, except
for the 5-Story addition added on in 1900, all of the bricks
for the mill were made by two men!!! |
