Thomas Gustave Plant (1859–1941) was born in Bath, ME, the son of
French-Canadian
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fr ...
immigrants, who made his fortune manufacturing shoes under the
Queen Quality Shoes label. His largest shoe factory, the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory (1896-1976) stood a
the corner of Centre and Bickford streetsin
Jamaica Plain
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...
(a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts). Marketing materials from the factory proclaimed it to be the largest shoe factory in the world.
[Tom Plant: The Making of a Franco-American Entrepreneur, 1859-1941 (Studies in Entrepreneurship), by Barry Hatfield Rodrigue, Garland Publishing (1994), .]
The factory boasted numerous innovations and amenities for its workers, including an adjacent park at the corner of Centre and Walden streets. The park was designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and completed in 1913.
[Olmsted Archives]
Job Number 03792, Thomas G. Plant Company, Roxbury, Massachusetts (09 Grounds of Commercial & Industrial Buildings). He also started a nursery and kindergarten on site, for the children of his workers.
Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory Operated Nursery from Boston Daily Globe on June 23, 1918
Plant used his fortune to build Lucknow (now known as
Castle in the Clouds), an estate on a mountain overlooking
Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee () is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, located in the Lakes Region at the foothills of the White Mountains. It is approximately long (northwest-southeast) and from wide (northeast-southwest), covering & ...
in
Moultonborough,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, where he lived with his second wife. Plant lost a considerable amount of his wealth investing in Russian bonds and in Cuban sugar, and then went into bankruptcy following the collapse of the stock exchange in 1929. His creditors allowed him to live in his home even as they dissolved his estate. Nearly the entire estate and its grounds have been repurchased by a preservation trust, and is now known as the
Castle in the Clouds, a tourist attraction.
The factory changed hands several times in the 20th century, and by the 1970s was used as artist workspaces. It burned in 1976 in a dramatic fire,
[''The Shoe Factory’s Demise: Jamaica Plain’s Most Unforgettable Fire,'' by Walter H. Marx, Jamaica Plain Gazette: Jamaica Plain, MA. August 9, 1991.] the burned-out hulk becoming known locally as "the ruins." The site was redeveloped in the 1990s as a strip mall and supermarket.
The Plant Home
In 1917, Thomas Plant built The Plant Home, an assisted living home, in
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 8,766 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County, which includes one city and 10 towns. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its ...
. His reasons for doing so have become the vision of the home.
"This home is founded on my sincere belief that those who have lived honest, industrious lives and are without means or friends to care for them, have earned the right to be cared for. Only through the labor and expenditures of others is it possible..."
Mr. Plant endowed the home with 3,300 shares of his shoe company, equating to $400,000 at the time. The home sits on the banks of the
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river within the U.S. state of Maine. It ri ...
in Bath and provides private apartments and assisted living care to low-income elders.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plant, Thomas Gustave
1859 births
1941 deaths
People from Moultonborough, New Hampshire
American people of French-Canadian descent
People from Bath, Maine