The History of Strathglass Park

[Editor's Note: There is a movement afoot to restore Strathglass Park. Read about it here.]

By Jennifer Stowell- Norris

In the late nineteenth century, Hugh J. Chisholm, entrepreneur and millionaire, climbed out of a coach at Rumford Falls to view the thundering falls of the Androscoggin River. It’s what he came to see because it was the greatest useable water drop on any river in New England. Rumford Falls would eventually provide electricity to the local community and turn the biggest wheels of industry. Chisholm was not only a savvy businessman but as it would turn out, he was also talented at community planning and development. Chisholm built a colossal paper mill and a large housing development for the blue-collar workers employed by his mill. Before Chisholm built Strathglass Park homes, he studied and visited industry housing developments in both the United States and abroad. Chisholm learned from the information gathered and built his housing development in a way that would attract and retain stable, loyal employees. It is apparent that Chisholm equated loyal employees with decent housing and pleasant surroundings. He genuinely appreciated his skilled workforce and provided for the employee and their families generously. This created respect and loyalty, which prevented employee strikes under his reign.
Chisholm visited American and European industry housing before he built Strathglass Park. He discovered that American industrialists were creating “slum housing” and Europeans were involved in progressive housing efforts that were cognizant of the environment, community, and industry. “During the early decades of the twentieth century, social workers, architects, city planning experts, industrialists, and civic leaders studied and visited progressive housing developments in Europe, devoted themselves to the task of exposing the evils of slum housing, and built model housing developments as a means of raising working-class housing standards.”(2) Housing reformers convinced some American industrialists that “grateful workers…revitalized by plentiful fresh air, modern sanitation, and other amenities, would reward their philanthropic employees with loyalty, hard work, and high profits.” (3)
Housing reformers created “garden suburbs” and “garden villages” to “house industrial workers in less costly yet attractive surroundings than traditionally found.”(4) American garden cities were also known as industrial housing estates or model company towns. (5) These attached subdivisions located in or near the city were situated near the local industry as well. “What distinguished [garden villages] from other small towns and suburbs was their pattern of development and their appearance. All the buildings were new, similar in architectural expression – style and construction – and subordinate to a master plan.”(6) Chisholm’s dream was to construct a twentieth century model town, which included a residential development component. He stated, “One of the ambitions of my life is to see Rumford Falls develop into one of the model towns of New England and a place that every resident living within its borders will be justly proud of.”(7) He would provide comfortable and economical modern homes for working people.
This adventure was considered exceptional for 1901. It indicated that Chisholm, no matter how preoccupied with plans for the development of industry, could find time for projects that would benefit the people in the community. (8) “By the second decade of the twentieth century, the garden-city movement had received international attention, and planned housing estates for industrial workers were influencing suburban construction both at home and abroad.”(9) Chisholm executed steps in a master plan, which personified his natural ability at community planning and development. “The industrial town (or section dominated by a single industry) provided a laboratory for the emerging profession of urban planning.”(10) Chisholm’s Strathglass Park housing development is a unique example of company built housing and it is one of the few such examples in this country. It was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1974 for its unaltered architectural, landscaping, social/humanitarian, and urban planning significance.
The construction of Chisholm’s Oxford Paper Company brought an influx of workers into the small, remote, wilderness village of Rumford Falls. It transformed into a “boom town” almost over night and along with this sudden change came a significant problem – a housing shortage. The erection of dwelling houses has never kept pace with industrial development. Housing construction in Rumford was not able to keep up with the boundless energy behind the Chisholm industrial projects. While industrial construction in Rumford had begun in 1890, not a single home was constructed until 1892. Hence, operatives must have found it difficult to find a place to stay. With the continued industrial growth of the next decade, it would be some years before the situation would be eased. There is no real way of determining just how serious this housing shortage was. Many fine homes were eventually built in 1897 by the people who had moved to Rumford Falls, but “rents still continued to be high and in active demand.”(11)
History demonstrates in the early twentieth century that the newly risen corporate industrialist had not yet begun to be particularly concerned with the welfare or housing of their employees. Before Chisholm became actively involved in the development of housing in Rumford, the “skilled workers lived in boarding houses provided by the various local factories and the day laborers occupied sod huts and other primitive dwellings.” (12) Corporations in many boomtowns during that era coped with the housing situation by erecting company housing to provide shelter for their employees but in almost all cases, they were “flimsy, crowded wood frame buildings” and Rumford was no exception. (13) Chisholm, on the other hand, was a notable exception to this trend. Chisholm established the Rumford Realty Company for the sole purpose of constructing homes for his employees in response to the dramatic housing shortage. (14) He started with building “two large wood-framed boarding houses and a number of small wooden houses that were constructed to accommodate the construction workers who built his mill – many of whom were transients. As the mill neared completion in 1900, Chisholm realized that in order to attract the right type of workers to operate his mill, there would have to be a more suitable residential area.”(15) In an effort to attract a stable and qualified work force, he was determined to provide housing of high quality and a pleasant living environment. (16)
Chisholm’s idea of constructing homes on a large scale in Rumford was a result of this housing shortage. But, as opposed to making a profit off a commodity in such high demand, Chisholm realized that in order to attract industry, adequate housing for the laborers would be a requisite. “In order to attract workers to Rumford which was at the time a very, very small town, [it is] necessary to put up attractive buildings…there was no question that when [Chisholm] did something, he wanted to make it the best, and these buildings were erected without any profit motive.”(17) Chisholm personally witnessed poorly designed and constructed mill housing, temporary housing, and tenements in other parts of the United States and swore that he would not build poor quality buildings with small rooms. (18) Chisholm observed the negative effects of the stacked tenement approach of company housing in Manchester, New Hampshire and in Lawrence and Lowell, Massachusetts and he would have no part in the creation of an instant slum.
After more that a year’s application of thought and study from the minds of Chisholm and his associates, it was decided that the most modern homes for working people would be developed in a way that “combines comfort and economy with the middle cost of rental that is demanded by the average working man with a family.”(19) In a letter to his architect, Chisholm wrote, "We will build of brick and stone and slate, and we will provide not merely for a house, but for comfort, elegance and social gratification of those who will dwell here." (20) In the September 14, 1901 edition of the Rumford Falls Time, the following was noted in regards to Chisholm’s housing development efforts: “It is fortunate that at this time of stress for even a place to live in, this corporation does not rush ahead with the old style box tenements, huddled together, cramped and inconvenient.”(21) Even today, Strathglass Park homes are considered among the finest in Rumford and are much sought after whenever one is put up for sale – which is quite rarely.
Strathglass Park was designed and built on thirty acres of land in the center of town. Chisholm conceived the idea for a unique project; the establishment of a park-like area containing attractive red brick duplex homes surrounded by lawns with wide tree shaded streets. He devoted considerable effort and expense to this effort. Chisholm selected a convenient and desirable location across the river from the mill and laid out a roughly oval shape area intersected by four streets. It was necessary to move six existing frame buildings to clear the area for construction. (22) He retained the services of Cass H. Gilbert, a noted New York architect, who designed the buildings. “Within each style and each building, [Gilbert] designed delightfully subtle differences, thus rendering each park home an original work. The site was a beehive of activity with hundreds of people working from dawn 'til dark, sometimes even around the clock.”(23) The park was Chisholm's pride and joy, and he was on site nearly every day. Construction of the homes began in the fall of 1901 and was completed by the summer of 1902. (24) Ten months from the start of construction, the first "for rent" signs were hung. Strathglass Park was perhaps the most elegant and unique company housing project ever built in the country. People came from as far away as New York to see it. And it was constructed to house mill executives and line workers, who were the papermakers that Chisholm valued so highly. (25)

The final project was described as a landscaped setting that contained fifty-one duplex houses providing one hundred and two dwellings surrounded by an impressive, granite stonewall and a magnificent granite gateway. (26) To enhance the attractiveness of the park and to avoid the sterile sameness found in much nineteenth and twentieth century industrial housing, Gilbert designed seven different variations, while providing basically the same interior accommodations for all. “Thirteen feature the bold geometry of the Shingle Style translated into brick, while eleven have a double ferreted roof line, nine a single Dutch gable, eight a double Dutch gable, four a gable, three a combination of gable and Dutch gable, and two a double gable. Of the fifty-one double houses built, fifty remain in good condition with the atmosphere of their original environment intact. Only one has been lost, destroyed by fire in 1971.”(27) A Boston landscape engineer, W.W. Gay, prepared the plans for the planting of trees and shrubbery for the “ornamentation of the streets and lawns of the park.”(28) “The park's overall design included; steep roofs, granite sills and lintels, turrets, over-hung gable walls, ornate facades, and sculptured balusters. These were not the result, of Gilbert's architectural whimsy, but linked directly to Chisholm's life-long grasp on his Scottish Heritage. Though not distinctly Scottish, or even British, the place has the feel and charm of an old-world walled village.”(29) Chisholm named the housing development "Strathglass Park" after the birthplace of his ancestors, "Strathglass Carries," in Scotland. The four streets all bare the names of his favorite Scotch towns, which are: Urquhart Street, Lichness Road, Erchles Street and Clachan Place. (30)

Chisholm ensured that the quality of the construction was the best that it could be. He retained a number of skilled contractors for the various aspects of the project: the brickwork, plastering, painting, paperhanging, carpentry, and roofing. “Hollow walls improved insulation and multi-colored slate roofs provided expensive but permanent and maintenance-free protection.”(31) Local rough stones, blasted and dug from cellar holes, were used for the foundations. Bricks, eventually totaling five million, were made from clay alongside banks of Otter Creek in East Bethel and transported seventeen miles to the building site by ox cart. The journey included at least one river crossing by ferry. The rainbow slate roof arrived by train from Pennsylvania; granite came from New Hampshire; concrete steps, headers and balustrades were sand-cast on site. Lumber for the houses were produced at local sawmills. (32) The brick and slate not only offered lifetime protection but it added to the beauty and attractiveness of the homes. “Gilbert created distinctive exteriors from the current styles of domestic architecture and planned what must rank among the most generous interior in the history of American mill workers’ housing.” (33)

On June 14th, 1902, the Rumford Falls Times local newspaper read:
“…after considerable time and much care and study, these buildings and the park itself have been designed as the very latest and best of modern model homes. They are built of brick with hollow walls, insuring dryness and warmth, and the roofs are of slate. The cellars extend under the entire house and will be cemented throughout and contain a large warm-air furnace and laundry tubs. Every outside door will be entered through a vestibule, keeping out the cold winds in winter. On the first floor will be a large living room, closets, kitchen, dining and pantry. Some of these will have a separate dining room, and some of the houses will have the bathroom downstairs, some of them upstairs. The plumbing will be complete throughout the house with hot and cold water. There will be a range in every kitchen and a hot water tank. On the second floor some of the houses will have three large sleeping rooms and some of them four, and all of them have large light attics where two or more rooms can be furnished if needed. The entire first floor will be furnished with hardwood floors for using rugs instead of carpets, which is the general practice now being regarded by all people as more healthful, as well as more economical. It will not be necessary to buy a carpet for the entire floor; the rugs can be shaken and aired as often as necessary. The houses are to be well lighted with electricity. The houses have been designed for homes and for living in with a minimum of housework. One purpose of them has been to have a few larger rooms instead of many small ones, and in many of these houses the living rooms will be about 18 square feet. Less furniture is required too for furnishing such houses, and all the furniture you have can be used. There will be no room so small, when you get a table in the middle of it, but what the entire family can gather around the table, and no space is wasted in cold halls and stairways. These houses, we understand, may not rent for a less amount then other houses, but both inside and as to their surroundings they will be far superior to any other homes in the place. The rental will be fixed not on a basis of profitable investment, but they are built to require a minimum of repairs, and are to be furnished for a rental that will barely cover maintenance. (34)

This full-page spread featuring the magnificent interior design of Strathglass Park housing is note worthy for those times. The interior accommodations offered to the residents of this housing development were far superior then what was usually offered by industry.

Chisholm provided generously to the residents of Strathglass Park, who were only required to pay nine dollars a month for rent. The Oxford Paper Company provided many services including snow shoveling, grass mowing, painting, papering, rubbish removal, and taking care of all of the repairs. This ensured that the park always looked good. Coal was delivered and dumped in the coal bins at the companies cost. Electricity was generated by the Rumford Falls Power Company, which Chisholm also owned, and was provided at a cost of one dollar per month. This continued for the next forty-six years until the Rumford Reality Company ended its activities in 1948. The paper market gradually declined and it was no longer financially feasible to maintain the park. The houses were put up for sale and the park residents were given first offer to buy the houses at a very attractive price of $3,400 to $3,900. (35) Despite the paper market decline, Chisholm and his son continued to treat their employees well and their employees continued to remain loyal. There were no “employment strikes” in the history of the Oxford Paper Company under the Chisholm regime.

The Strathglass Park housing development was a successful endeavor on the part of Hugh Chisholm, not only in the short run but also in the long run. This project was highly significant in industrial America’s effort to house its workforce and prevent labor disputes. Chisholm not only studied the issue of labor housing in America during those times but he also visited various workforce housing developments in both American industrial cities and abroad. Chisholm learned that building quality housing in a planned environment would lead to contentment. After one hundred years, Strathglass Park housing is still in good shape and still providing homes for the citizens of Rumford.

Chisholm was aware of the situation that arose for George Pullman, who was president of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Pullman, Illinois. Pullman attempted to build a model industrial town but sought complete control over his workers. He constructed and owned over “fourteen hundred dwelling units – brick row houses of uniform size for the skilled mechanics and a few detached houses for the managers’ families – but all were rented at a profit…he also owned eighteen hundred ramshackle tenement apartments where the unskilled manual laborers lived.” (36) Uniform facades were characteristic of every industrial town. “Speculative builders used only one prototype for economic reasons; planners imposed limits on architectural variations for ideological reasons, contending that a limited number of styles yielded order and economy. Many company towns required that residents use the same materials for their facades and even the same colors of paint or varnish. To the industrialists, the uniformity of the residential environment was a symbol of modern industrial order: a balance between comfort for the residents and control for the employer. Control over workers and the visible expression of efficiency were two principal goals of company housing in industrial towns.” (37) Pullman was criticized for exhibiting “feudalistic” control and his model town was branded as a “slave pen” because he took advantage of the special plight of the laborers. “Then in 1894, in the wake of a nationwide depression, the vision of the paternalistic control and profitable philanthropy fell apart. Pullman workers called a strike to retaliate against Pullman’s cutbacks in wages, the exorbitant rents he charged (which he did not lower), and his dictatorial control.” (38) It was the most violent labor strike in the history of America.

After considering the lamentable end at Pullman, Chisholm saw that there are certain limitations for model towns, which prevent their ever reaching the goal sought for by philosophers and philanthropists. Chisholm commented that, “there is a point that shall be taken into consideration in the manufacturing growth of the town. Make the surroundings of the workmen pleasing. If this is done, they will be better satisfied to keep their positions, will take more interest in the town’s success, and make better citizens.” (39) Unlike Pullman, it was not Chisholm’s intentions to build housing as an attempt to control his employees. Instead, he was interested in making paper, making money, and investing in the welfare of his employees and their families, which would in turn prevent labor disputes and strikes. An article in the Portland Sunday Times of May 17, 1903, states that: “It has always been the aim of the Rumford Falls Power Company that there should be nothing savoring of the paternal in the management of their business or in whatever they should do for the up-building of the town and this same idea was carried out in the plan made for the building and management of the Strathglass Park. None of the employees in any of the mills is required to live in any of the company houses. They are as free and unrestricted as to where they should live now and how they should live as are the farmers in the small towns about.” (40)
Chisholm also learned from personally witnessing labor housing projects in Lowell, Massachusetts, and in Manchester, New Hampshire. These projects were unsuccessful because a stigma quickly attached to the dwellings. The “do-as-little-as-you-like” approach that characterized most company towns was coming under heavy criticism for many reasons. Housing reformers “predicted that the family relations, political views, and work efficiency of all the residents would suffer as a consequence of environmental problems.” (41) In addition, Chisholm felt that his employees were too good for tenement housing. He commented, “With the growth of the city it gradually came to be a sort of reproach with a man well able to live elsewhere that he retained a corporation tenement and the men best able to do so began to refuse the offered tenements, and to find homes for themselves, pleading generally better air, or a place for children to play, etc. rather than the true reason which was that they felt themselves too good to live in a corporation house.” (42)

There were a few concurrent examples of successful planning in America. The design of Chisholm’s Strathglass Park housing development had features similar to the successful examples of labor housing found in American industrial cities. Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, site of the Apollo Iron and Steel Company, perpetuated the belief that men and women in a “clean, healthy, beautiful town,” consisting of curvilinear streets, small parks, and pleasant, detached cottages, would become model citizens and contented workers. The N.O. Nelson Company, a producer of plumbing equipment in Leclaire, Illinois, provided housing, social, recreational, and educational facilities to counter unrest among employees. (43) Chisholm provided social, recreational, and educational facilities, as well, when he conceived, founded, and built the Mechanic’s Institute in 1911. The Mechanic’s Institute was a unique institution that provided a recreational and educational center for the people of the community. In 1906, Chisholm commented on Rumford’s future and stated, “…its leaders should realize the importance of conservative growth and careful investment, and they should not forget that the town’s growth and prosperity cannot be permanent unless the children and young people, who will soon be leaders in the community, are given every advantage, which those who live in older communities enjoy. The library should be built up, means of healthy recreation afforded and safe places of evening amusement furnished for the young people of the town.” (44) The Mechanic’s Institute was four stories high, 125 feet long and 80 feet deep. “It contained a spacious lounging room, a ladies parlor, card room, writing room, lecture room, classrooms, a fully equipped gymnasium, a billiard room, a library and reading room, a meeting room for the Board of Governors, and five bowling alleys in the basement.” (45) In 1911, it was one of the most modern recreational and educational centers in the State of Maine.

Industry housing failures and the successes of model towns were well publicized. Chisholm not only researched and studied the issues but he was also in a position to plan the lay out of the lots and streets in Rumford; he had purchased all of the farm and forestland around the falls that showed development potential. The development of Strathglass Park rental properties was one of Chisholm’s first big undertakings after the completion of his paper mill. “Managers reasoned that a stable work force would be more loyal and less likely to go out on strike, and would save the firm the expense of training new employees. Good housing would increase the proportions of married men, who were considered more stable and less volatile than roving single males. Advertisements for skilled workers stressed the benefits for a man’s wife and children in a model town with company-built housing. In exchange, the family would be dependent on the company for an improved way of life. Dependency was considered stronger if the company retained ownership of the houses, renting them below going private market rates” (46) Chisholm also exhibited the belief that improving the worker’s health was another goal of model-town planning. “Sanitary houses meant fewer days lost due to illness. Improved plumbing figured prominently in all descriptions of the towns, even if the facilities were only outhouses.” (47) Strathglass Park homes were designed to include all the modern improvements necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keep housework at a minimum.

Chisholm’s Strathglass Park provided quality housing for the blue-collar workers employed by his mill. His considerable housing efforts and expense were duly noticed and appreciated. To what degree the Strathglass Park housing development was inspired by what is called “industrial paternalism” is difficult to say. “Even if a company provided housing for only one-third or one-half of its workers, the enterprise was enormous compared to nineteenth century standards. American industrialists insisted that the new industrial planning did not represent philanthropic schemes but rather sound business investments. Planners claimed that workmen in model towns would be between 25-33 percent more efficient on the job. Professional town planners and sociologists were meant to complement scientific management experts inside the factory to help increase production. Every feature in such a town is designed to have some constructive influence for specifically benefiting the workman for his work, and he gets nothing he does not pay for thus eliminating the element of paternalism.” (48) Chisholm’s employees were loyal, grateful, and well paid and because of his devotion to his employees, he retained a stable and qualified workforce for years to come. The Town of Rumford still looks back at Chisholm’s efforts and regards him as a true hero. Undoubtedly, Chisholm practically accomplished all that he could accomplish at Rumford Falls.

Strathglass Park housing was an innovative and philanthropic community planning and development attempt by the private market to remedy the housing shortages during those times. Chisholm wanted employees who were dedicated to his paper mill and he theorized that providing quality housing and community services would help him attain his business goals. Chisholm also built the Fire Station, Town Hall, Public Library, Public Parks, Public Schools, etc. One hundred years later, the good condition of all these structures attests to the attention to detail and quality of construction. Unfortunately, Rumford’s one-industry dependent local economy was negatively affected by a gradual decline in the paper market industry, job losses, business closures, pollution issues, real estate values, and a decrease in total population. The town as a whole is considered a blighted community and the nostalgic Strathglass Park is “an island of dignity in an otherwise unimpressive mill community.” Under new management, Chisholm’s paper mill continues to operate and Strathglass Park homes still provide affordable housing, home ownership opportunity, and a sense of community. Strathglass Park is an excellent example of today’s popular clustered housing developments promoted by the community planning and development experts who support the affordable housing agenda. The long-standing success of the paper mill and Strathglass Park housing is evidence that Chilsolm’s approach to community planning and development efforts was exceptional.







Notes

1. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 7.
2. Bauman, John, Roger Biles, and Kristin Szylvian, “The Roots of Federal Housing Policy,” From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, 2000, 19.
3. Bauman, John, “Introduction,” From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, 2000, 10.
4. Garner, John, “The Garden City and Planned Industrial Suburbs,” From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, 2000, 44.
5. Garner, John, “The Garden City and Planned Industrial Suburbs,” From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, 2000, 43.
6. Garner, John, “The Garden City and Planned Industrial Suburbs,” From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, 2000, 43.
7. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 39.
8. Leane, John, “Community Developments,” A History of Rumford, Maine, 1774-1972, 1972, 53.
9. Garner, John, “The Garden City and Planned Industrial Suburbs,” From Tenements to the Taylor Homes, 2000, 43.
10. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 180.
11. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 43-45.
12. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 6.
13. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 6.
14. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 46.
15. Roberts, Lorraine, Strathglass Park, Rumford, Maine, 1902-1974, 1974, 2.
16. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 6.
17. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 46.
18. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
19. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 47.
20. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
21. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 47-48.
22. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 6-7.
23. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
24. Roberts, Lorraine, Strathglass Park, Rumford, Maine, 1902-1974, 1974, 4.
25. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
26. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
27. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 2.
28. Roberts, Lorraine, Strathglass Park, Rumford, Maine, 1902-1974, 1974, 4.
29. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
30. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
31. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 7.
32. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/chisholm.htm.
33. Shettleworth, Earle and Frank Beard, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, 1974, 2.
34. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 49.
35. http://valnet.mtvalleyhs.sad43.k12.me.us/MVHS/History%20Page/Amanda/strathglass.htm.
36. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 183.
37. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 191-192.
38. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 183
39. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 55.
40. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 51-52.
41. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 181.
42. McKenna, Peter, “My Dream is to Construct a Model Town,” Hugh J. Chisholms Magic Town, 1882-1912, 48.
43. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 183-184.
44. Leane, John, “Community Developments,” A History of Rumford, Maine, 1774-1972, 1972, 53.
45. Leane, John, “Community Developments,” A History of Rumford, Maine, 1774-1972, 1972, 54.
46. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 184-185.
47. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 185.
48. Wright, Gwendolyn, “Welfare Capitalism and the Company Town,” Building the Dream, 1981, 182.