BIDDEFORD — For more than 100 years, the making of textiles was the cornerstone of the Biddeford economy. It was in the early-to-mid 1850s when the first of the monumental brick buildings lining the Saco River and Main Street through the city center were constructed.

For decades, the mills employed hundreds of the city’s residents, until the companies began to move away beginning in the 1950s.

WestPoint Homes was the last of Biddeford’s textile companies to survive until it stopped production of the Vellux blanket and other products in 2009, putting more than 400 people out of work.

But now, at least in a small way, textiles are returning to the mills.

Quince & Company, a yarn manufacturer that was started two years ago, is relocating to Building 13 of the Pepperell Mill Campus, owned by Doug Sanford.

In addition, a new company, The Saco River Dye House, will be located alongside the yarn company. It will be situated in the same space as the former WestPoint Home dye house.

Currently, 18,000 square feet of Sanford’s more than 1 million square feet of buildings is under construction to house the companies.

Pam Allen, who was recently named one of five women in Maine to watch by Mainebiz magazine, is the owner of Quince & Company, which opened in 2010 in Portland.

“We’re skeining and twisting wool as of today,” said Allen on Monday, while walking through the Biddeford space.

Allen has joined forces with Claudia and Ken Raessler and Nicholas Burnett to open the Saco River Dye House. Allen said she hopes the company will dye its first skein of yarn in November.

Through the small world of Maine yarn and knitting aficionados, Allen and Claudia Raessler had known of each other for years, as Raessler and her husband own SuriPaco, which sells alpaca yarn and yarn products like hats and scarves.

However, it wasn’t until five months ago that they finally connected.

“My dye house had closed and I was upset,” said Allen. The owner of the dye house Allen used in Pepperell, Mass. died, and the company was going through foreclosure. She was forced to have her yarn dyed in Philadelphia, which was much more expensive.

“It was the next day, I swear,” said Allen, that Raessler called her.

“I said, what if my husband and I were thinking of starting a dye house?” Raessler recalled.

Since then, the four partners have been working practically non-stop to get the operation up and running. It was from the foreclosed Pepperell dye house that the company acquired their dye equipment. The banks were only interested in the buildings, not the equipment, said Raessler.

Along with the equipment, the partners also acquired some of that company’s customers who were located around the country, said Raessler, including the Jaegger Brothers yarn company in Springvale.

Raessler said Sanford, the property owner, has been working closely with them to build out their space.

Currently, the location is cluttered with machinery and other items. However, the two women say it has come a long way since they first saw it. At that time, the paint on the walls was peeling, and the floors were dusty and covered with old office supplies.

Still, the women knew the place had “good bones,” and it could see its potential by looking at the tidy space next to them in the same building, where the “The Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress” is on view to the public.

Allen was already familiar with the Biddeford mills, as she has her yarn spun at a company in the Lincoln Mill, and said she’s thrilled to be moving into the historic mill building.

“I’ve got goose bumps,” she said. “It’s sad not to see these buildings functioning as they were designed to.”

In order to run as efficiently as possible, the Saco River Dye Company plans to make a number of modernizations, first among them computerizing the production and order fulfillment operations.

Her company is successful, said Allen, because she sells her yarn directly to consumers over the Internet. This way she can produce a quality yarn ”“ all grown and produced in the U.S. ”“ and sell it at an affordable rate. The company grossed $422,000 in 2011 and has already surpassed that amount this year.

Her business model was in danger, however, when the Massachusetts-based dye house closed.

“Claudia has been my guardian angel,” said Allen. Without the Saco River Dye House, “my only option is dye in Philadelphia, which costs three times as much.

“I’m a small business,” she said. “Without Claudia it would have changed my business drastically.”

The women and their partners said they’re hoping that the Saco River Dye House will be as successful as Quince & Company, which has more than doubled its staff since it started from, two to 4 3/4 positions.

Saco River Dye House is gearing up and is looking for employees; those with previous mill experience are especially needed. The company is looking for a fourth boiler engineer and a textile machinery operator. In addition, the person who ran the dye operation in Pepperell will be operating the Biddeford dye house initially; an apprentice dye master is being sought.

Developers are hoping these companies are just the start of new businesses and new jobs moving into the Biddeford mills.

“We’re thrilled to have an anchor for this building and get us going,” said Molly Quaid, a spokeswomen for Pepperell Mill Campus. “They’ve been the catalyst.”

Quaid said since the yarn dye companies have committed to moving in, more businesses have expressed interest in the location.

“The future of the mills rests on attracting businesses like the Saco River Dye House and Quince & Co. which expand economic development in the area and create new jobs,” said Pepperell Mill Campus owner Sanford.

“Our history for 150 years was based around the textile industry so it’s special that these companies will carry on our community’s heritage,” he said.

As for Allen, the only problem that’s arisen because of her new ventures is that she has no time for the passion that started her in the business in the first place: Knitting.

“I really miss it,” she said.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.