View Manchester Historical Society in a larger map
Visit our Tour Destination: Connecticut page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.
Front view of the former Cheney Brothers Machine Shop, now the Manchester History Center. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
Website: Manchester Historical Society
The Treasure: Now
serving as the Manchester
History Center ,
the Cheney Brothers Machine Shop originally provided a whopping 40,000 square feet of work
space for the country’s most successful silk manufacturer.
Accessibility: The Manchester Historical Society has adapted
the historic Cheney Brothers Machine Shop to serve as its Manchester History
Center , which houses the
Society’s administrative offices, special exhibitions, and space for lectures
and special events. The building is open by appointment and for the special
events.
Background: Silk
goods were regarded as expensive luxuries in the centuries prior to the 19th century. They signaled great wealth. But with the European invention of the
Jacquard loom in 1801, silk entered into the mainstream. No longer only a
painstaking handcraft, silk weaving became a mechanized industry. Naturally,
entrepreneurial-minded Americans took notice.
Historical photo of the Cheney Brothers Machine Shop showing the spinning operation. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
Ward, Ralph, Rush, and Frank Cheney established a silk
manufacturing business in Manchester
in 1838. Each of the brothers brought talents to the enterprise, with Ward
Cheney serving as their astute business head. He methodically grew the
business, keeping an eye on Europe so he could
quickly adapt the latest in silk manufacturing technologies. But not everything
was borrowed from abroad—Frank Cheney had a talent for tinkering that resulted
in useful efficiencies and the company lucked into hiring budding inventor
Christopher Spencer as a 14-year-old apprentice in 1847. Spencer invented an automatic silk-winding machine before leaving the silk
mills to design the Spencer repeating rifle, a favorite weapon of the Union
Army during the Civil War.
Historical photo of the Cheney Brothers Machine Shop. The man is winding yarn onto bobbins. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
After the Civil War, Cheney Brothers experienced rapid
growth as a business, employing hundreds of local Manchester residents and building large mills
to keep up with the demand for silk fabrics. The Cheney family developed a
reputation for being thoughtful and generous employers. Very civic minded, they
built homes for their workers, along with churches, schools, and firehouses.
They offered their employees insurance, medical care, and retirement benefits.
Replacing the old roof during the restoration of the Cheney Brothers Machine Shop. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
A rooftop ventilator, before restoration. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
The same rooftop ventilator, after restoration. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
Notes from the
Editor: The Manchester Historical Society bought the Cheney
Brothers Machine Shop—the largest of their mill buildings—in 1999. Save America’s Treasures funding was
used to replace the old roof and uncover the skylights. Equally ambitious, the
Historical Society embarked on a “No Pane, No Gain Window Restoration Drive ” to
replace the windows and to repair the panes and window openings.
Recently, two historic Jacquard looms—equivalent to the
looms that would have been used by the Cheney Brothers at the peak of their
operation—were donated to the Manchester Historical Society by local
benefactors. This equipment will be used as the centerpiece of a new exhibit
that will tell the story of the Cheney Brothers mills and the textile industry
that once flourished in New England .
A historic Jacquard loom in the new loom exhibit area. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
Window restoration underway at the Manchester History Center. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
Other Recommended
Sites: While the Save
America’s Treasures site is the Manchester History
Center , the Manchester Historical Society has more to offer a little further down the road… The Old Manchester
Museum is the home of the
Society’s main exhibition areas, their archives, and a small museum store. And
for more in-depth background on the Cheney brothers themselves, the Cheney
Homestead is open for very limited hours—usually the second Sunday of each
month.
The textile industry that flourished in Manchester
was important throughout New England . The
American Textile History Museum
is located in Lowell , Massachusetts and features an encyclopedic
collection of historic textile artifacts. Also in Lowell ,
the National Park Service manages Lowell National Historic Park which celebrates the
area’s 19th century water-powered textile mills.
The roof replacement project supported in part by a Save America's Treasures grant. Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society. |
Tour America's History Itinerary
Monday’s destination: Mark Twain House
© 2012 Lee and Terry Price
No comments:
Post a Comment