Ballardvale Mills

Ballardvale Mills

204 Andover Street

The Ballardvale Mills were established when William Ballard, one of the first settlers, of Andover established a saw mill and a grist mill. Later in 1794. Timothy Ballard was granted the use of falls on the Shawsheen River to power the mill. Upon Timothy's death in 1836 John and Willam Marland, Abraham Gould, and Mark H. Newman bought the property and established the Ballardvale Manufacturing Company. In 1841 Marland imported English worsted machinery to make the first worsted wool in this country. In 1866 the mills became known as the Bradlee Mills.

The mill consisted of both brick and wooden buildings. The brick buildings were sold to the Northern Rubber Company in 1930. In 1944 this company was purchased by the Shawsheen Rubber Company.

In 1898 a fire destroyed several buildings.

See

• Andover's Former Mill Village. Andover Townsman January 4, 1996, p. 17,18. (elebrating Andover's 350th anniversary insert)

• Mills of Ballard Vale Captured Attention of Artist Sheeler (The Mill, painting by Charles Sheeler, the first artist-in-residence at the Addison Gallery at Phillips Academy.)

• Ballardvale Mills Made Award-Winning Flannels, Townsman, August 18, 2011

• The Lower Merrimack River Valley: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites R 609 Low, p.7

--Eleanor 12:34, October 7, 2006 (EDT)

--Eleanor 15:20, September 17, 2011 (EDT)

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