Harmony Mills, Mill 3, SSpellen 2

Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4 of this story.

In 1866, Harmony Mills in Cohoes, N.Y., just across the river from Troy, was about to build Mill No. 3, the largest expansion in its history. As we learned in Chapter One and Chapter Two of our story, Harmony Mills was a textile company, one that took raw cotton, spun that cotton into threads, and wove those threads into cotton fabric, the source of the city of Cohoes’ nickname as the “Spindle City.” The mill greatly added to the region’s prosperity, and population, and in its day, was the largest cotton mill in the United States, even larger than the great mills of Lowell, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire.

Harmony Mills had been founded by Peter Harmony in 1838, but he failed to make a profit, and in 1850, the mill was sold to Thomas Garner of New York City and Nathan Wild of Kinderhook. They brought on veteran weaver Robert Johnston to run the plant, and by 1866, he had turned Harmony Mills into a very successful operation. The company had not only expanded its factory buildings and capacity, it had built blocks of worker’s housing and established a community around the mill buildings, here on the banks of the mighty Mohawk River.

The Cohoes Falls, the second highest waterfall in the state, was right next door, and the power generated from the water was used to power the spinning and weaving machines. There would have been no Harmony Mills without the power of the waterfall. The Cohoes Company, the power company which owned the rights to the falls, was purchased and enlarged by Harmony Mills in 1860. By 1861, Harmony Mills owned all of the mills in Cohoes, and the power to run them. When the Civil War ended, it was time for the largest building campaign to begin. They set out to build the largest single textile mill in the country.

Ground was broker along the banks of the Mohawk River for Mill No. 3 in 1866. The more northern half was built first, and the entire structure was finished in 1872. The architect/engineer was a New Yorker named David Van Auken. When it was done, Mill No. 3 was the largest individual cotton factory in the world. It was over 1,110 feet long. The building contained 130,000 spindles and 2,700 looms. 2,500 workers toiled to produce 700,000 yards of cotton fabric per week.

During the course of construction, workers unearthed another behemoth. They found the intact skeleton of a giant mastodon, one of the large proto-elephants that once roamed North America from the Arctic to Mexico. The bones were dug up and were first exhibited in 1867 at the Geological and Agricultural Hall in Albany. They were transferred to the State Museum in Albany in 1915, which still has the skeleton on display today.

Over the years, scientists have discovered that the mastodon was a young male, who may have died of natural causes. The skeleton was discovered buried deeply in two potholes that had been worn into the bedrock by the swirling water at the end of the last Ice Age, over 11,000 years ago. He was small for his age, in part due to a missing tooth that would have made chewing difficult. Tests on the bones and tusks show that his last two winters were harsh, and food was scarce. In spite of that, the mastodon was about eight and one-half feet high at the shoulder, was about fifteen feet long, and he weighed somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 pounds.

Because of this discovery, Mill No. 3 was called “Mastodon Mill.” And why not, it was huge, and dwarfed all of the other mill buildings and everything else around. In 1873, local historian William Bean described the new factory in his book, “The City of Cohoes, Its Past and Present History, and Future Prospects: Its Great Manufactories.”

“Mill No. 3 … is the pet and pride of the Company, and is indeed a model Mill. … It comprises a large and lofty tower, surmounting and connecting two immense structures or wings, and forming one grand building 1,185 feet in length, 70-76 feet wide and five stories in height, exclusive of the towers, which are eight in number, of handsome design and finish, and all about 128 feet high, and the entire building is completed with all the massiveness and beauty that modern architecture can impart… The central tower, being ‘absolutely fire-proof,’ was used for the deposit and safe keeping of books and valuable papers, and for measuring and baling the manufactured products of the company.”

The center of the tower features a larger than life-sized statue of Thomas Garner, the owner of the company. He had just died in November of 1867, while the building was still under construction. The sculptor was prominent Boston sculptor Martin Milmore. The statue was installed in its niche in 1875. As impressive and beautiful as the building was, especially with its mansard roofed center towers, the real wonder was the turbine system in the bowels of the building that harnessed the power of the falls to run the belts that turned the gears that made the spindles and looms run. These were marvels of late 19th century technology.

The two turbines still in the basement of Mill No. 3 were the largest and most powerful turbine engines ever manufactured to supply direct power to an American manufacturing plant. They were put in place between 1871 and 1873, making them also the oldest surviving turbines still in place where they were originally installed. These things are enormous. Photographs below and a diagram of how they worked show the mechanical and engineering genius that went into them. They ran not on coal or electricity, which wasn’t even an option then, but hydraulic power.

The power of the Mohawk River was diverted into canals above and below the falls. The system of dams, gates and gatehouses, also still intact, directed the water into seven different canals which used the water six different times before it was released back into the Mohawk to join the Hudson River just above Troy. In addition to the two main turbines, there were also three other smaller turbines elsewhere in the mill.

Water, running under tremendous pressure, poured through 8 foot diameter pipes, dropping three feet into the turbine. Gigantic gears turned 12 foot pulleys that spun two-foot wide leather belts that radiated through the building, the largest one 200 feet long, stretching to the fifth floor. There were five miles of shafts and 13 miles of belting that powered the 2,700 looms and130, 000 spindles in Mill No. 3. That doesn’t include the canals and power diverted to the other three mills and their thousands of spindles and looms.

In addition to the water power running the equipment, the complex was heated by a coal fired, steam powered boiler system in a separate building. This power station, with three tremendous boilers, piped steam heat to all of the mill buildings in the complex. In addition, all of the mill buildings were supplied with gas lighting, in another complex system of pipes that treaded throughout the complex. Harmony Mills, especially Mill No. 3, is certainly architecturally impressive, but the infrastructure and power systems that made the whole thing work, were state of the art, technological wonders. It’s no wonder that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers deemed Mill No. 3 to be worthy of designation as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. This designation was bestowed in 1975.

In 1872, the same year that Mill No. 3 was being enlarged to its present size, Harmony Mills purchased the Van Benthuysen Paper Mill just down the road on North Mohawk Street. It was renovated to resemble Mill No. 3, with an extra story on top, with a mansard roof, and the now signature Harmony Mills mansard roofed tower added to the front. It was renamed Mill No. 4, and was used to make cotton bags for shipping the fabric goods.

This building is the first one you see, if you approach the factory from downtown Cohoes, along North Mohawk St, and is a beautiful factory building, and quite impressive, until you go up the street further and see its mother, Mill No. 3. Then there’s the rest of the assembled complex, which includes not only the five mill buildings, but offices, picking houses, the power plant, and the plant housing and community buildings. Above the plant, on Harmony Hill, are blocks and blocks of more company housing, bringing the total number of multi-family tenement houses, dormitories and single family houses to over 700 units housing over 6,000 people; men, women and children. GMAP

So who were the workers who made this whole thing work? What was it like to work at Harmony Mills? Were they well paid? Worked to death? What was management like? Was this a happy company town, or a miserable plantation? And what happened to Harmony Mills in the 20th century? Could all of this have been lost to history and urban renewal? The conclusion of the story of Harmony Mills, next time.

(Photo: S.Spellen)

The Cohoes mastodon, dumped in a room before installation in museum. pre-1911. nysm.org
The Cohoes mastodon, dumped in a room before installation in museum. pre-1911. nysm.org
Cohoes mastodon at the Museum of New York, in Albany. Photo: wlibc.blogspot
Cohoes mastodon at the Museum of New York, in Albany. Photo: wlibc.blogspot
Center of Mill No. 3. Photo: S.Spellen
Center of Mill No. 3. Photo: S.Spellen
Statue of Robert Garner, mill owner. Mill No. 3. Photo: S.Spellen
Statue of Robert Garner, mill owner. Mill No. 3. Photo: S.Spellen
Mill No. 3. Photo: S.Spellen
Mill No. 3. Photo: S.Spellen
Gatehouse on canal. Harmony Mills. Pre-1915 photo: Library of Congress
Gatehouse on canal. Harmony Mills. Pre-1915 photo: Library of Congress
One of the two giant turbines that powered Mill No. 3 Ilustration: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
One of the two giant turbines that powered Mill No. 3 Ilustration: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Turbine. Photo: 1969 HAER report, Library of Congress
Turbine. Photo: 1969 HAER report, Library of Congress
Twin turbines. Photo: 1969 HAER report, Library of Congress
Twin turbines. Photo: 1969 HAER report, Library of Congress
How it worked. Turbine driven belt system. Harmony Mill No. 3. Illustration from 1969 HAER report, Library of Congress
How it worked. Turbine driven belt system. Harmony Mill No. 3. Illustration from 1969 HAER report, Library of Congress
Canal intake system, Mill No. 2, Harmony Mills. Photo: 1969 HAER study, Library of Congress
Canal intake system, Mill No. 2, Harmony Mills. Photo: 1969 HAER study, Library of Congress

What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. I grew up in Albany and remember when the old run down mills were an eyesore of Cohoes. After a dozen years out of the area, I am back and a resident living in Mill 3! Each apartment has soaring 16-18′ ceilings held up by their cast Iron columns and the original wood flooring from nearly 150 years ago. Every day I walk across the floors and see the marks where machinery used to be and am awed by the history that has walked in this space. The huge turbine of mill 1 was left in place and kept exposed by the builders of the lofts. It is an amazing historical and architectural feature on the property. I hope that the writer took the opportunity to stop in to the leasing office to have a tour and climb the winding stairways that thousands of workers traversed a hundred years ago.