The Woolen Mills of Antrim, N.H.
Ezra Hyde
Recently, we received a wonderful addition to our archives. Sue Robinson, granddaughter of Carl Robinson, and the great-granddaughter of Samuel Robinson gave us the original streetlamp from the corner of Main and Elm Streets. At that time, late 1800s, the Robinsons lived at the corner of North Main & Elm Streets, just across the street from the streetlamp, and it was Carl’s job to go out each evening and climb his ladder and light the wick inside the streetlamp. Along with the streetlamp, Sue also gave us the wooden ladder, and in our archives, we found a Fred Nay glass plate negative that shows the Robinson house, with a little boy standing in front, and the streetlamp on the opposite corner. All this will make a wonderful exhibit in our museum. So, after all this, I had to do a little research on the Robinsons.
I learned that Carl’s father, Samuel, had, at around that same time, been operating his Paper Box Manufactory out of the Silk Mill building on Grove St. Samuel had moved it to the Silk Mill in 1891 after operating it out of a building on Main Street since 1873. The Silk Mill was located just north of and near the current bridge on Grove Street. It had a very interesting history of businesses, after being built in 1835 by the Dunlaps, and being destroyed by fire on June 7, 1948, but that’s a story for another time. As I was reading about Samuel and his businesses and their locations, there was another name that kept popping up that I hadn’t noticed before. The name was Ezra Hyde.
Ezra Hyde, born about 1807, came to Antrim in 1840 from Winchendon, Ma. His father, also Ezra, was a friend of Historian and Reverend John M. Whiton of Antrim, and that is the reason Hyde was drawn to this town. His father would also author one of the histories for Winchendon in 1849.
Ezra, the son, would immediately go into the business of manufacturing “cassimeres and other woolens”, as reported in Whiton’s history, with Thomas Breed, in the area now known as Goodell Park on Main Street near Pleasant. In 1842, Hyde built a house for his family at what is now 10 Depot Street. At one time, the back part of the house was used as a tailor’s shop. Hyde stayed in business with Breed until about 1846 when he decided it was time to build a few more factories in town. In 1850, the building that housed Hyde and Breed’s first business burned to the ground.
In 1846, Hyde bought the building that Samuel Robinson would occupy in 1891, the Silk Mill, and began manufacturing woolens as before. He immediately built a large addition to the north end, more than doubling the building's size, and would operate here for the next 2-3 years. Also in 1846, Hyde decided to build two more factories in the downtown area.
Many of you may remember, while growing up in Antrim, that there was a canal along Main Street. It ran from the Mill Pond, under Summer Street, and paralleled Great Brook behind the buildings on the west side of Main Street, until it got to where Trends of Fashion is now, then it turned west and dropped approximately 40-50 feet over a concrete waterfall, ran under a bridge at the north end of the Goodell Company buildings and then rejoined with Great Brook again. Between this canal and Great Brook, Hyde decided to build not one, but two woolen mills.
In Cochrane’s history, the Reverend describes Hyde as a "stirring, enterprising man, and his business here was prosperous until the 'hard times' of that day compelled him to stop." But in 1846, Hyde wasn’t about to stop. He continued to build his next mill, in the area mentioned above, just south of Summer Street. This Mill, known as the “Third woolen mill”, never produced a yard of cloth. Instead, in 1847, Jonathan White & Hiram Eaton produced powder kegs until 1850. From 1850-1856 Jonathan Temple made furniture and John Hadley carded wool in this building. It was known to be a “cheap building”, and was eventually torn down in 1856. But in 1847, Hyde was at it again.
Just south of the “Third woolen mill” that he had built the year before; he was now building what became known as “Another woolen mill”. This two-story mill building was built just north of where the Goodell Company buildings are now. And like the mill building north of it, nothing was ever produced in this mill either, at least while it was standing in its current spot. You see, later in 1847 this mill was purchased by Mark Woodbury for other purposes, but before there would be any enterprises in this building, Woodbury would move it to a different location.
It seems that during this time, Hyde may have been subjected to a case of “builders' fever”. Not only was he building mills that never produced anything, but he was also turning the Union Schoolhouse (the brick house at the corner of Main and West streets) into a residence.
We have no reason to believe he ever lived here, as he continued to live in his Depot Street home until he left town. And although Hyde had difficulty making a living in the woolen business, he had a great vision that lasted long after he had left town.
On February 20, 1847, fourteen owners of mill sites on Great Brook, starting from Gregg Pond and all the way into town, joined together to buy the water privilege at the outlet of the pond. These owners also owned large tracts of land subject to flowage. Almost all the owners of the mills on Great Brook belonged to the newly formed company aptly named The Clinton and South Village Water Company. They formed the company “for the improvement and control of the water-power on the stream” and it was felt that “They have greatly enlarged the reservoir of water, probably doubling its value.” And the man with the flowing vision was Ezra Hyde, who was also one of its directors. 30 years later in 1877, The Clinton and South Village Water Company was still operating.
Ezra Hyde left Antrim in 1849 and headed to Lawrence, Ma. Shortly afterwards, he headed back to his hometown of Winchendon, Ma. where he worked in the lumber business. In 1882, while still living in Winchendon he contracted pneumonia and passed away at the age of 74. In the record of his death, he was listed as a Book Agent in Winchendon.
Union Hall
I think it was Shakespeare who said, “A store by any other name is still a store”. Well, maybe not.
It was 1846 and Hyde was building mills that would actually never mill anything. At that time, Woodbury, son of Esq. Mark Woodbury, and his wife, Emily, lived on Main Street, where Andras Lazar now lives, and ran his store just up the street, currently Rick & Diane’s.
Now 1847, Woodbury, being an enterprising young man, purchased from Hyde what was known as “Another Woolen Mill”, as it was the 4th woolen mill on the Great Brook. This 4th mill was located at the bottom of the hill, on the west side of the canal, but east of Great Brook, behind where Trends of Fashion is now. The canal is gone, but it ran parallel to Main Street, beginning at Summer Street, behind Edmunds Store to Trends of Fashion and then down the hill to the Goodell Company.
Woodbury felt that this two-story building would be better suited for another location. So, he moved it up the hill, across the canal and placed it where the current town parking lot is now on Main Street, across from the library. This new building would extend over the canal in the rear and its new name would be Union Hall.
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Union Hall would house several businesses on the first floor, and apartments on the second floor. Before the Baptist Church was built in 1871, the Baptists met in Union Hall among other places. Many others had businesses in Union Hall including the Antrim Home News, Balch Shoes, Robinson’s Paper Boxes and Lindley Wyman’s Bakery. It would remain the Union Hall for many more years, but in October of 1874, Woodbury passed away and the building was bought by David H. Goodell.
Goodell changed the name to the Goodell Block and in 1876 added a third floor with a French (mansard) roof to the building. Shortly thereafter, the newly organized Odd Fellows moved into the building and would occupy the 2nd and 3rd floors for the next 17 years, before purchasing the building that now houses Edmunds' Hardware.
In 1882, a new business would move into the south end of the building and occupy that space for the next 69 years. The Antrim Reporter covered the news of Antrim and other nearby towns. It was the anchor of the block until 1951. In 1892, Goodell offered two rooms in the Goodell Block to house the books for a new free library. In 1905, an extension was added to the building to give Goodwin’s Store some more space.
In 1907, Wellington E. Wright, decided to open a hotel in the Goodell Block because his lease at the Antrim Tavern (Maplehurst Inn), was going to run out at the end of May. Unfortunately, on June 8, 1907, Wright passed away of apoplexy after opening his hotel which lasted only 3 short weeks.
In January of 1915, Goodell passed away, but the building remained known as the Goodell Block. In 1916, Christie Heath opened a Grocery Store in the building and at some point, between 1922 and 1930, George Barrett bought the building, and it became known as the Barrett Block.
Around 1927, Charles F. Butterfield opened Butterfield’s Store. His son Ben ran the store, after his father’s death in 1933, until about 1951. In 1933, Edmund Dearborn and Ralph Rupert opened the D & R Restaurant and Howard “Peanut” Humphrey, Jr. opened Humphrey’s Variety Store in 1950 which lasted until 1952.
But in 1955 a new business would take over the building, one that would last for almost two decades. This business had a soda fountain, grocery and... well, I’ll let Ray Sweeney tell the story. Cue the piano...
"There's a place on Main Street here in town where the Hepcats go to meet.
It's down beside Phil’s Barbershop and the sign outside says 'Eat'.
There's a soda fountain, grocery, a jukebox and much more.
You can be a Hepcat too, bop down to Proctor's Store!"
This song was written by Ray Sweeney for his Big Broadcast and also one of his Pop Cycles shows that he produced in the 1980s. The song talks about Proctor’s Store that was owned by Harold “Bub” Proctor until 1972. The song says it all; it was a grocery store and had a soda fountain in the back with stools and booths behind them and a jukebox to play all your favorite tunes. I can remember sitting on a stool eating a burger and drinking a coke when I was just a kid. If my mother needed another pack of cigarettes, Larks, she would just write me a note and they’d sell me a pack without batting an eye. Boy, how times have changed!
Charlie Jackson bought the building in 1972 and opened Jackson’s Store in the same space where Proctor’s Store had been. In 1982, Roger Croteau bought the building and opened Roger’s Country Store and during that time, Marlene Bennett and her daughter Tammy, operated a hair salon on the north end of the building. In 1990, Roger’s Country Store closed, and the Antrim Village Store opened in its place. At some point, a new section was added to the south end of the building which currently houses Trends of Fashion.
There were many more businesses that came and went during its 164 years, but in August of 2009 the building was sold again, and the 6 apartments upstairs were going to be renovated. They were to be completed by the end of February 2010. But just before 6:00 pm on Monday, February 8, 2010, the building that had originally been built as a mill, burst into flames on the third floor. The fire department was dispatched, and surrounding towns were called to help, but it was all in vain. The third floor burned into the second floor which in turn fell into the first and the building could not be saved. Trends of Fashion was destroyed in the fire but was able to reopen in the new south addition. There was talk of the building being rebuilt, but it seems to have been cheaper to “pave paradise and put up a parking lot”, at least according to Joni Mitchell.
Though Shakespeare may not have actually philosophized about stores, this building, from its beginning as Hyde's Mill to its final day as a local landmark, was indeed much more than just a store. For 164 years, it served as the heart of Antrim's Main Street, housing everything from a Baptist congregation to a newspaper office, from Proctor's beloved soda fountain to countless local businesses that kept the community thriving. While today's parking lot may serve a practical purpose, the memories of Union Hall, the Goodell Block, and later the Barrett Block live on in the stories of those who remember sitting on those soda fountain stools or flipping through 45s on the jukebox. Some buildings, it seems, become more than just buildings, they become chapters in a town's ongoing story.
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