Aerial View of Mabbett Mills – Photo courtesy of Bill Keohan
In Plymouth, next Saturday afternoon, August 7th, at 1 PM, the Antiquarian Society will live stream a history tour of the first immigrant neighborhoods in town. A town that immigrants, looking for work, were once drawn to because it was a thriving manufacturing center.
Bobbi Clark has more:
Dr. Anne Mason directs the Antiquarian Society:
“Largely, the neighborhoods are based around the industries that many of the immigrants came to Plymouth to work in.”
Many of these industries were on Plymouth’s waterfront and elsewhere in town along the waterways, like Town Brook:
“These were industries that produced all number of things: In the beginning in the 17th Century, with grist mills, and going into the 18th and 19th century producing tacks, and rivets and forging iron goods, and the largest industry in Plymouth was the Plymouth Cordage Company, founded in 1824 in what we call today North Plymouth.”
Photo Courtesy of Plymouth Antiquarian Society
Mason says the Cordage, a rope making company, really took off…
“…and, eventually became the largest manufacturer of rope in the world, employing thousands of people.”
Photo Courtesy of Plymouth Antiquarian Society
And on the waterfront another large company operated in the area now occupied by the former Isaac’s Restaurant:
“One company that was quite large on the waterfront, was the Mabbett woolen mill company—they produced all sorts of woolen textiles, and men’s clothing, men’s suits.”
Visit the Plymouth Antiquarian Society’s Facebook page for the free livestream tour on Saturday, August 7th.
