Story Archives of 'mills'

The recent mill closings in New Hampshire’s North Country have re-focused attention on the state’s long and difficult transition to a post-industrial economy.

As towns like Groveton and Berlin struggle to adapt, millworkers – many of them immigrants or the children of immigrants - face the end of a way of life they have known for generations.

This weekend, nationally-known storyteller Jay O’Callahan brings to a Portsmouth theatre a tale that should resonate in those mill towns.

NHPR Correspondent Kevin Gardner has this preview.

We examine the culture surrounding Amoskeag Mill. The manufacturing center was largely a model of Manchester, England's mills, but soon after the first bricks were laid in the 1830's, the resources and labor practices developed very differently. We'll compare the lives of mill people in New England -- and northwest England, and look at how their differences reflect on today's manufacturing culture. Our guests include Sandra LeBeau, independent scholar, and adjunct associate professor of European and American History at Colby Sawyer College, and Russ Thibeault, president of Applied Economic Research. Thibeault grew up in Manchester, both his parents worked at the mill; his company has done studies on mill site's feasibility as a mixed use location at the end of the 20th century.

Los Lobos brought Latin American music into the U.S. mainstream decades before anyone had heard of Marc Anthony or Ricky Martin. The band from East L.A. released their first full-length album to critical acclaim back in 1984, and a few years later they topped the charts with their rendition of Ritchie Valens' La Bamba. They've been going strong ever since, and this weekend they'll bring their mix of rock 'n' roll and Mexican folk music to the Lebanon Opera House. Also on the show we hear a vintage interview Shay Zeller did with Marylou Ashooh Lazos about the history of baseball in New Hampshire. Ashooh Lazos is the curator of the Manchester Millyard Museum.

In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, the New England economy was powered by the mills. And those mills were mostly powered by women. Though most of these women have been forgotten, some of their stories are told in The Bells of New England, by William Moran. For 25 years, William was a writer, editor and producer at CBS News- working with Walter Cronkite and Charles Kuralt. He joins John to talk about the women of the mills and their struggle for fare wages and safe working conditions. Find out more at St. Martin's Press

Whether you�re inside Manchester, or simply passing by along I-293, it is impossible not to notice the great mill buildings.
Even today, when more than 40% of them have disappeared, they dominate the cityscape as few complexes do in the old northeastern industrial towns.
The impact of the Amoskeag mills on the lives and fortunes of the people has been central to Manchester�s story for well over 150 years.
Yet the buildings themselves tell a continuing story as well.
Humanities reporter Kevin Gardner brings us the first installment of our weeklong series Manchester in Focus.