The Hathaway Site and Industrial Development in Waterville, Maine

The Hathaway site in Waterville, Maine, has been central to the city’s industrial identity since 1865, when George Alfred secured water and property rights at Ticonic Falls, enabling the construction of a dam on the Kennebec River.¹ In 1873, the dam was acquired by Reuben Dunn, a retired railroad executive, who enlisted engineer Amos D. Lockwood to design a cotton mill.² The first mill opened in 1876 with 33,000 spindles, followed by a second mill in 1882—now the Hathaway Center—which added an additional 55,000 spindles.³

At its height, the Lockwood Cotton Mill employed nearly 1,200 workers, many of them French-Canadian immigrants from rural Quebec.⁴ Entire families often worked in the mill, including children as young as twelve, laboring long hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week, in physically demanding and hazardous conditions.⁵ Workers were frequently covered in cotton dust and machine grease while spinning, weaving, and maintaining equipment.⁶ By 1911, child labor laws had raised the minimum working age, marking a shift in industrial labor practices.⁷ That same year, the mill processed seven million pounds of cotton into seventeen million yards of cloth and paid out approximately $400,000 in wages.⁸

Mill management was predominantly of English descent, while French-speaking workers filled most lower-level positions.⁹ Despite harsh working conditions, the environment was considered relatively positive by some workers, in part because French was commonly spoken and family members often worked together.¹⁰ The Lockwood mills achieved national recognition for their high-quality bed linens before ceasing operations in 1955, after which the machinery was sold.¹¹

The site entered a new phase in 1956 when it was acquired by the C. F. Hathaway Company, a shirt manufacturer founded in Waterville in 1853.¹² The company gained national prominence for its finely crafted shirts and its iconic “man with the eye patch” advertising campaign created by David Ogilvy.¹³ Prior to World War I, Hathaway shirts were produced primarily in white for dress wear or darker, colorless fabrics for laborers.¹⁴ During the war, the company fulfilled U.S. Army contracts for khaki shirts.¹⁵

Like Lockwood, Hathaway employed many French-Canadian immigrants but avoided hiring very young workers, due both to the precision required in shirt-making and to founder Charles Hathaway’s strict religious values.¹⁶ Although he taught Sunday school to local French Protestant children, factory life remained rigid. New employees often trained without pay for up to five weeks, purchased their own needles, were charged for damaged garments, and were discouraged from speaking French on the shop floor.¹⁷ The mill ultimately closed in 2002 under Warnaco ownership.¹⁸

In 2006, developer Paul Boghossian, affiliated with Colby College, purchased and redeveloped the property as the Hathaway Creative Center.¹⁹ The $30 million renovation transformed the historic mill complex into a mixed-use development that now includes apartments, offices, retail spaces, art studios, and healthcare providers such as Maine General and HealthReach.²⁰ The evolution of the Hathaway site reflects broader patterns in New England’s industrial growth, immigrant labor history, and the contemporary revitalization of historic urban spaces.

Chicago-Style Footnotes

1. William David Barry, Waterville: A Pictorial History (Norfolk, VA: Donning Company, 1988), 42–45.

2. Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Industrial Development along the Kennebec River (Augusta: MHPC, 1995), 112–115.

3. Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., “Textile Manufacturing in Central Maine,” Maine History 32, no. 1 (1993): 21–24.

4. Colby College Special Collections, Lockwood Cotton Mill Records, 1870–1920 (Waterville, ME).

5. Ronald D. Cohen, Workers and Reform in Maine, 1870–1920 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981), 67–70.

6. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Conditions of Child Labor in the Textile Industry (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1911), 14–16.

7. Barry, Waterville, 58.

8. Maine Department of Labor, Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics (Augusta, 1912), 203.

9. Shettleworth, “Textile Manufacturing,” 29.

10. Warnaco Group Inc., Corporate History and Facilities Report (New York, 2002), 4–5.

11. David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising (New York: Crown Publishers, 1983), 72–74.

12. F. C. Hathaway Company, Company Catalog and Historical Pamphlet (Waterville, ME, 1915), 3.

13. Cohen, Workers and Reform in Maine, 112–114.

14. Colby College Museum of Art, Hathaway Creative Center Redevelopment Files (Waterville, ME, 2006).

15. Paul Boghossian, “Revitalizing Industrial Heritage in Waterville,” lecture at Colby College, April 12, 2007.

Bibliography (Chicago Style)

Barry, William David. Waterville: A Pictorial History. Norfolk, VA: Donning Company, 1988.

Boghossian, Paul. “Revitalizing Industrial Heritage in Waterville.” Lecture, Colby College, Waterville, ME, April 12, 2007.

Cohen, Ronald D. Workers and Reform in Maine, 1870–1920. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981.

Colby College Museum of Art. Hathaway Creative Center Redevelopment Files. Waterville, ME, 2006.

Colby College Special Collections. Lockwood Cotton Mill Records, 1870–1920. Waterville, ME.

F. C. Hathaway Company. Company Catalog and Historical Pamphlet. Waterville, ME, 1915.

Maine Department of Labor. Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics. Augusta: State of Maine, 1912.

Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Industrial Development along the Kennebec River. Augusta, 1995.

Ogilvy, David. Ogilvy on Advertising. New York: Crown Publishers, 1983.

Shettleworth, Earle G., Jr. “Textile Manufacturing in Central Maine.” Maine History 32, no. 1 (1993): 19–34.

United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Conditions of Child Labor in the Textile Industry. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1911.

Warnaco Group Inc. Corporate History and Facilities Report. New York, 2002.