On page 238 in Samuel Dole’s “Windham in the Past”, there is a picture of the woolen mill in South Windham. Just beyond it, there are several dormered tenement houses.

The many-windowed brick building on the Presumpscot River was still standing at the end of the 1900s, but the houses built by the same man who built the mill are “out of the picture” today. The eventual owner of the houses, the state of Maine, began tearing down these houses because of concerns raised about asbestos and other costs involved in maintaining them. But the mill remains, overshadowing the nearby Maine Correctional Center.

The site of the first sawmill in Windham is near where the mill stands. The old sawmill was built about 1740 and took advantage of the water power of the mighty Presumpscot River. A century after it was built, the last of the timbers of that old mill were washed downstream.

In 1866 some businessmen from Windham and Gorham bought the water-power rights on the Windham side of the River, at Mallison Falls. Here they built a small woolen mill on the site of the first sawmill. In 1867, they formed a corporation called Mallison Falls Manufacturing Company. A?lgernon L. Cole, one of the incorporators, was named superintendent of the mill.

During the Civil War, wool material was made here for military uniforms. The first year was not a success, but the company sold stock to acquire operating capital and continued to run the mill for a couple of years until they were finally forced to close. Several years later, the mill was leased to Joseph Hurst and William McQuaker and they ran it until they had a falling out, and once again, it was closed.

In the fall of 1879, Thomas Robinson came from Oxford and started up the mill. He brought in a good deal of machinery and looms and continued operations for about a year at which time he purchased the property and built a large addition to the original building. He bought modern equipment and machines, and employed about 100 people.

Robinson also built four tenement houses (two-families) for the convenience of his employees’ living arrangements, and continued to successfully run the mill until 1888 when the property was destroyed by fire.

Immediately following the fire, Robinson started building the present brick structure. In 1890, he died and the project was completed by his sons, Joseph L. and Charles, who operated the mill for a number of years, manufacturing a variety of goods.

As late as 1910, wool cloth was still being made here by a new firm, the Rindge Woolen Company. In 1916, the tax list for Windham listed the J. L. Robinson heirs as owning a homestead, three tenements and eight acres, worth $2,775 in taxes to the town. The property eventually became “home” to Rich Tool & Die among other tenants. In the late 1900s, the old brick building was being eyed by local governments as a site for possible renovation and retrofitting.