Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company
IndustryTextile
Rail transport
PredecessorAmoskeag Cotton & Woolen Manufacturing Company
Founded1810; 214 years ago (1810)
FounderBenjamin Prichard
Defunct1935; 89 years ago (1935)
FateDeclared bankruptcy
SuccessorAmoskeag Company
Headquarters,
ProductsDenim, locomotives
Number of employees
17,000 [1]
DivisionsAmoskeag Locomotive Works

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was a textile manufacturer which founded Manchester, New Hampshire, United States. From modest beginnings it grew throughout the 19th century into the largest cotton textile plant in the world.[1] At its peak, Amoskeag had 17,000 employees and around 30 buildings.[1]

In the early 20th century, changing economic and social conditions occurred as the New England textile industry shifted to the Southern U.S., and the business went bankrupt in 1935. Many decades later, the original mills were refurbished and renovated, and now house offices, restaurants, software companies, college branches, art studios, apartments and a museum.[1]

The Amoskeag millyard complex was considered "one of the most remarkable manifestations of our urban and industrial culture by New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable in her December 22, 1968 article Manchester, NH: Lessons in Urbicide. "The excellence of the complex has made it an acknowledged monument of American industrial history and urban design."[2]

  1. ^ a b c d Shields, Keith (May 23, 2012). "New Hampshire's Immigration Story - Come to Amoskeag!". NH Public Radio. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  2. ^ Huxtable, Ada Louise. "Manchester, N.H.: Lessons in Urbicide". conservationtech.com. New York Times. Retrieved 30 June 2023.