Whitin Machine Works - Whitinsville: A Company Town

Whitinsville: A Company Town

In 1831, Paul Whitin's third son John Crane Whitin designed and had patented a new cotton picker machine that outperformed others in the previous mills. This was to be first of other successive inventions that would establish the Whitin Machine Works as a great textile machinery company.

In 1847, the Whitins built "The Shop," which consisted of a new textile production area that was four times larger than the brick mill. It contained machine shops, foundries, and other specialized structures.

As the family textile businesses expanded, so did the village of Whitinsville. More housing was provided by the company for new workers on North Main St. and on other side streets as Irish workers poured into the labor pool that same year (1847). Just seven years prior, John C. Whitin had developed the first of stately mansions, which had occupied land where the Whitin Gymnasium now stands. During this time also, Paul Whitin Jr. had married Sarah Chapin and built a new Italian-styled home, along with his brother in 1856.

Life in the village revolved around "the shop," providing the means and the opportunity for successive generations of mostly Europeans to immigrate. The Whitin's built the entire village to support their expanding business operations. In all the company would erect 1,000 buildings (2200 units) to house their growing workforce. The work was hard and often dangerous. There were recorded incidents where workers lost their lives working in the shop foundry or the machine shop. But working and living in Whitinsville was much better than the average mill town. "The company" provided amenities unheard of in neighboring villages; such as heating coal at company cost, free snowplowing, landscaping and property maintenance. The Whitin's allowed any employee who heated their homes with wood access to their properties to cut down as many trees as needed, free of charge. The company constructed the first reservoir, creating meadow pond, (west of Main St.) which was the first system that pumped water directly into village homes. A typical sight on weekends would be the villager's sailing and fishing on the pond using equipment rented from the company provided facility. Through the 1860s the work schedule was 11 hours (7am-6pm) per day and 6 days per week. And yet, there was a long-standing tradition of allowing up to 4 unpaid personal days off per month. It is well known, for instance, that during slow times in the shop, John C. would hire idle employees to work on his property, farms, or, as in 1879, build the Town Hall as a memorial to his late father and mother. As the fortunes of the company grew, so would its generosity to the town. Many public buildings still in use today were built with Whitin funds and then donated to the town; the Whitin Community Center being a prime example.

The Whitin family continued to hold the Whitin Machine Works privately until 1946. By 1948, the company was operating at peak capacity, employing 5,615 men and women. Its products were sold worldwide. However, the business declined over the next two decades. In 1966, Whitin Machine Works was sold to White Consolidated Industries. The plant would struggle along for another decade, when in 1976 the doors were closed and the gears finally stopped churning.