The Pejepscot Paper Company mill building is a historic paper mill located off U.S. 201 in

Topsham, Maine Topsham () is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,560 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. The town is home to the annual Topsh ...

, on the banks of the

Androscoggin River The Androscoggin River ( Abenaki: ''Aləssíkαntekʷ'') is a river in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire, in northern New England. It is U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ...

, adjacent from

Brunswick Falls Brunswick Falls, also known as Pejepscot Falls, is an ancient section of the Androscoggin River, bordering the towns of Brunswick and Topsham, Maine. First occupied by Paleoindians and the Wabanaki Native Americans, the falls were a plentif ...

and the

Frank J. Wood Bridge The Frank J. Wood Bridge (known locally as The Green Bridge) is a Span (engineering), three span, Truss bridge#Roadbed types, through truss bridge crossing over the Androscoggin River between the towns of Topsham, Maine, Topsham and Brunswick, ...

. Built in 1868, the building is one of the oldest surviving paper mills in the state of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

. The mill was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on September 17, 1974, and is now a mixed-use commercial property, housing the Sea Dog Brewing Company.

Design

The Pejepscot Paper Company mill building is a historic paper mill that stands on a point projecting southward into the

, just east of the

carrying

U.S. Route 201 U.S. Route 201 (US 201) is part of the nationwide system of United States Numbered Highways. It runs for entirely within the state of Maine and is a spur route of U.S. Route 1. Its southern terminus is in Brunswick at US 1 and Maine State Rou ...

between Topsham and

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

. It is a large three storey brick building, with a

gambrel roof A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, ...

and a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

. The short end facing the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

is eight bays wide, each bay consisting of a recessed panel housing

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mat ...

s set in

segmental arch A segmental arch is a type of arch with a circular arc of less than 180 degrees. It is sometimes also called a scheme arch. The segmental arch is one of the strongest arches because it is able to resist thrust. To prevent failure, a segmental ar ...

openings and topped by decorative arches. Near the center of the building, a five-story square

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

rises to a shallow-pitch pyramidal roof. The building is long, and wide.

History

From to , three different mills have operated in the Pejepscot Paper Company mill building. Currently it is used as office and

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

space. The mill was built in the year and is an instance of Maine's 19th century

wood pulp Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...

mills. It was under the management of Sanford A. Perkins for the Topsham Paper Company, and Samuel R. Jackson was the president of the

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

. The Topsham Paper Company utilized

grinders Grinder may refer to: Machinery *Various types of grinding machine, used in a machining operation to refine the surface of materials *Food grinders **Blade grinder, includes food processors, blenders, electric coffee and spice grinders, etc. **Co ...

from the machine shop of the

Bath Iron Works Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics. It is the fifth-largest ...

and grew rapidly from when they started out in the basement of a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

run by Charles D. Brown and E. B. Dentstm. The success of this early venture caused Brown and Denison to branch out with other mills. Overexpansion and trouble with

investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

culminated in the company going out of business. The Topsham Paper Company was purchased at

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

by W.H.&A.W. Parsons on September 16, 1874, for . The following year, February 19, 1875, W.H.&A.W. Parsons was incorporated into the Bowdoin Paper Manufacturing Company, with a capital not to exceed . The mill contained, at that time, one

Fourdrinier machine A paper machine (or paper-making machine) is an industrial machine which is used in the pulp and paper industry to create paper in large quantities at high speed. Modern paper-making machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Mach ...

, four roll engines, one patent Jordan engine, one rotary, and two tub bleachers. In the Pejepscot Paper Company bought the mill and doubled the equipment. The mill then contained two Fourdrinier machines, nine roll engines, two patent engines, two rotary and two tub bleachers. by the company was producing of paper daily. The company fitted a machine shop, with wood and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

working machinery necessary for the mill repairs, and for the manufacture of any new machinery needed in the business. They employed forty-five males and thirty females, manufacturing

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

and wood

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

. By , when the company closed its doors, they had only 13 employees. By this time the building was used as a paper finishing facility where paper rolls were converted into sheets for

construction paper Construction paper, also known as sugar paper, is coloured cardstock paper. The texture is slightly rough, and the surface is unfinished. Due to the source material, mainly wood pulp, small particles are visible on the paper's surface. It is used f ...

, art paper and paper for business forms. From to the Hearst Company used the mill to store paper, but from 1986 until 1998 the building was vacant. In 1998 the Fore River Company out of

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

bought the building, renovated it for office space, and leased the old mill to the Sea Dog Brewing Company, who in turn, added a patio overlooking the Androscoggin River. On September 17, 1974, the Pejepscot Paper Company was listed in the

References

{{National Register of Historic Places, state=collapsed Italianate architecture in Maine Industrial buildings completed in 1868 Buildings and structures in Topsham, Maine Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine National Register of Historic Places in Sagadahoc County, Maine Pulp and paper mills in the United States 1868 establishments in Maine Pulp and paper industry in Maine Pejepscot, Maine

Design

History

See also

References