A Company Town

A Company Town. . , By the 1870s, when mill expansion was essentially complete, the Harmony Mills employed 3100 people (one of out every four Cohoes residents). Many of them were immigrants, and the majority women and children. Neat rows of tenements and boarding houses were built and owned by the mill and leased to employees. Families were housed in more than 700 tenement houses, while unmarried workers often lived in one of five large boardinghouses. The Harmony Company maintained its own police force and repair crews, and provided street paving and cleaning, garbage pickup, and sanitary improvements. The company also supported the construction of schools and churches of all faiths, and founded the Harmony Union Sunday School for its workers and their families. The reliance of workers on the Harmony Company for a livelihood, housing, education, and recreation made Cohoes very much a “Company Town.”, Worker Housing 1853 , Just north of Mill #3 and south of the Cohoes Falls, in an area bordered by North Mohawk Street, School Street, Cataract Street and Front Street, is a neighborhood of modest two and three story brick tenements built by the Harmony Company. Additional housing was constructed in 1865 for twenty families. These dwellings, still used as residences, are well-preserved examples of urban worker row houses just steps away from the mill buildings., Office and Sunday School ca. 1853 , This building, located at the intersection of north Mohawk and Vliet Streets, was constructed at the time of Mill #1. The Harmony Company offices were located here on the first floor, with suites for Robert and David John Johnston, Upstairs was a large meeting hall able to accommodate 800 people. It was decorated with frescoes, pictures and maps, and contained an organ and small library for employees of the Harmony Mills. The hall was used for lectures, festivals, and public meetings of local groups such as temperance societies. Nondenominational religious services were held there every Sunday afternoon., Harmony Hill Worker Housing ca. 1865-1872 , Additional mill worker housing was provided by the Harmony Company to the west of the mill complex on several acres of farmland purchased in 1856. This area provided housing for mill workers at various economic levels, ranging from boarding houses for single millworkers to houses for mill managers and supervisors. Harmony Hill was virtually a city in itself, cut off from downtown Cohoes by a steep cliff to the south and the Erie Canal and Mohawk River to the east. The streets of Harmony Hill converge on Vliet Street, providing easy access for the residents who worked at the mills., Today , If you walk or drive up Vliet Street (at the north end of this park) you will see this worker housing on Vliet and other streets of the Harmony Hill neighborhood. The ca. 1853 housing is located to the north on and east of North Mohawk Street., [ Photo Captions: ] , - Photo of the building housing the Harmony Company office and Sunday school. A bridge over the power canal is in the foreground, , - View of Harmony Mills worker housing on North Mohawk, Cataract, and School Streets. The Cohoes Falls and hydropower plant are in the background. , - Harmony Mills worker housing on Mangam Street, on Harmony Hill , - A view of North Mohawk Street. Harmony Mill #2 is on the left; the power canal in front of the mill is the site on which you are now standing. Mill #3 is on the right.