Manchester Historical Society

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Visit our Tour Destination: Connecticut page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Front view of the former Cheney Brothers Machine Shop, now
the Manchester History Center.
Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society.

ManchesterHistorical Society

175 Pine Street

Manchester, CT

Website:  Manchester Historical Society

  

The Treasure:  Now serving as the Manchester History Center, the Cheney Brothers Machine Shop originally provided a whopping 40,000 square feet of work space for the country’s most successful silk manufacturer.

Accessibility:  The Manchester Historical Society has adapted the historic Cheney Brothers Machine Shop to serve as its Manchester History Center, which houses the Society’s administrative offices, special exhibitions, and space for lectures and special events. The building is open by appointment and for the special events.

Background:  Silk goods were regarded as expensive luxuries in the centuries prior to the 19th century. They signaled great wealth. But with the European invention of the Jacquard loom in 1801, silk entered into the mainstream. No longer only a painstaking handcraft, silk weaving became a mechanized industry. Naturally, entrepreneurial-minded Americans took notice. 

Historical photo of the Cheney Brothers
Machine Shop showing the spinning
operation.  Photo courtesy of the
Manchester Historical Society.

Ward, Ralph, Rush, and Frank Cheney established a silk manufacturing business in Manchesterin 1838. Each of the brothers brought talents to the enterprise, with Ward Cheney serving as their astute business head. He methodically grew the business, keeping an eye on Europe so he could quickly adapt the latest in silk manufacturing technologies. But not everything was borrowed from abroad—Frank Cheney had a talent for tinkering that resulted in useful efficiencies and the company lucked into hiring budding inventor Christopher Spencer as a 14-year-old apprentice in 1847. Spencer invented an automatic silk-winding machine before leaving the silk mills to design the Spencer repeating rifle, a favorite weapon of the Union Army during the Civil War.

Historical photo of the Cheney Brothers
Machine Shop.  The man is winding yarn
onto bobbins.  Photo courtesy of the
Manchester Historical Society.

After the Civil War, Cheney Brothers experienced rapid growth as a business, employing hundreds of local Manchester residents and building large mills to keep up with the demand for silk fabrics. The Cheney family developed a reputation for being thoughtful and generous employers. Very civic minded, they built homes for their workers, along with churches, schools, and firehouses. They offered their employees insurance, medical care, and retirement benefits.

America’s silk industry continued to flourish during the first two decades of the 20th century but then hit a rapid decline. Synthetic fibers like rayon and nylon began to offer a cheaper alternative to silk. Other blows to the industry came with the Great Depression and the increased availability of imported silks. By the 1930s, the Cheney Brothers business was struggling to remain solvent, only partially recovering with a turn to the production of nylon parachutes during World War II. In 1955, the Cheney family sold the Cheney Brothers Silk Manufacturing Company and then watched as their Manchestermills were closed down and sold off.

Replacing the old roof during the restoration of the Cheney Brothers
Machine Shop.  Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society.

A rooftop ventilator, before restoration.
Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society.

The same rooftop ventilator, after restoration.
Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society.

Notes from the Editor:  The Manchester Historical Society bought the Cheney Brothers Machine Shop—the largest of their mill buildings—in 1999. Save America’s Treasures funding was used to replace the old roof and uncover the skylights. Equally ambitious, the Historical Society embarked on a “No Pane, No Gain Window Restoration Drive” to replace the windows and to repair the panes and window openings.

Recently, two historic Jacquard looms—equivalent to the looms that would have been used by the Cheney Brothers at the peak of their operation—were donated to the Manchester Historical Society by local benefactors. This equipment will be used as the centerpiece of a new exhibit that will tell the story of the Cheney Brothers mills and the textile industry that once flourished in New England.

A historic Jacquard loom in the new loom exhibit area.
Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society.

Window restoration underway at the Manchester History Center.
Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society.

Other Recommended Sites:  While the Save America’s Treasures site is the Manchester History Center, the Manchester Historical Society has more to offer a little further down the road… The Old Manchester Museum is the home of the Society’s main exhibition areas, their archives, and a small museum store. And for more in-depth background on the Cheney brothers themselves, the Cheney Homestead is open for very limited hours—usually the second Sunday of each month.

The textile industry that flourished in Manchesterwas important throughout New England. The American Textile History Museumis located in Lowell, Massachusetts and features an encyclopedic collection of historic textile artifacts. Also in Lowell, the National Park Service manages Lowell National Historic Park which celebrates the area’s 19th century water-powered textile mills.

The roof replacement project supported in part by a Save America's Treasures
grant.  Photo courtesy of the Manchester Historical Society.

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© 2012 Lee and Terry Price