Pejepscot Paper Company

About this property

The Pejepscot Paper Company mill building is a historic paper mill located off U.S. 201 in Topsham, Maine, on the banks of the Androscoggin River, adjacent from Brunswick Falls and the Frank J. Wood Bridge. Built in 1868, the building is one of the oldest surviving paper mills in the state of Maine. The mill was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1974, and is now a mixed-use commercial property, housing the Sea Dog Brewing Company. The Pejepscot Paper Company mill building is a historic paper mill that stands on a point projecting southward into the Androscoggin River, just east of the Frank J. Wood Bridge carrying U.S. Route 201 between Topsham and Brunswick, Maine. It is a large three storey brick building, with a gambrel roof and a granite foundation. The short end facing the river is eight bays wide, each bay consisting of a recessed panel housing windows set in segmental arch openings and topped by decorative arches. Near the center of the building, a five-story square tower rises to a shallow-pitch pyramidal roof. The building is 250 feet (76 m) long, and 65 feet (20 m) wide. From 1868 (1868) to 1985 (1985), three different mills have operated in the Pejepscot Paper Company mill building. Currently it is used as office and retail space. The mill was built in the year 1868 and is an instance of Maine's 19th century wood pulp 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. The Topsham Paper Company utilized grinders from the machine shop of the Bath Iron Works and grew rapidly from when they started out in the basement of a sawmill run by Charles D. Brown and E. B. Denisom. The success of this early venture caused Brown and Denison to branch out with other mills. Overexpansion and trouble with investors culminated in the company going out of business. The Topsham Paper Company was purchased at auction by W.H.&A.W. Parsons on September 16, 1874, for US$80,000. 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 US$150,000. The mill contained, at that time, one Fourdrinier machine, four roll engines, one patent Jordan engine, one rotary, and two tub bleachers. In 1887 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 1878 the company was producing 5 short tons (4.5 t) of paper daily. The company fitted a machine shop, with wood and iron 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 and wood newspaper.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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