Goodwin Baker Building

By Willa

1900

In 1900 richmond was a up and coming town, many new businesses were starting up and more people were visiting the town because of the train. The underwear factory, built in 1900 ², was one of the steps towards modernizing the town ². The residents raised several thousand dollars to entice J.S. Baker of Peekskill, N.Y and I.H. Goodwin of New York City who also owned the Brandon VT underwear factory to help establish the Richmond Underwear Factory ².

As the building was built the Burlington free press reported on the progress sayings things like “The wall of the new factory is completed and work has commenced on the framework.”

On July 9th, 1900 the machines started running ¹ and they officially started producing women's and children's undergarments. They recruited single young women to run the machines and payed them 1.25 to 1.75 and hour ². Most of the women came from New York but many also came from surrounding towns and Richmond itself ¹.

The hotel in Richmond at the time, the Bellevue, fixed up their rooms and added a fresh coat of paint on the outside since they expected more visitors to Richmond¹.

After six months the underwear factory was producing 4000 garments a day ¹! All the garments a mix of hand and machine sewing. They developed apartments, boarding houses and a tennis court for their workers ² and There is no proof that the women were forced to go to church on Sundays, like many factory women of the time.

The factory and boarding houses were the first to receive electricity in the town ², for many of the women it was their first time having electric lights and using a sewing machine. By 1904 the underwear factory was employing 160 workers¹ which was small compared to the Lowell mills who produced fabric and employed around 8,000 girls.

1920

In 1924 the company was renamed and given to Roland and Edith Layfield , ² most likely because Edith was Baker's daughter. It is not known weather Baker died and the business was passed on or if The Betty Ann underwear company took over for Goodwin and Baker. They made much fancier underwear and blouses for ladies that were sold to wholesale dealers and many department stores in New York City because of the fine quality of the undergarments. ² There was many factories in Rutland at the time and Roland also owned a shirt factory there, ² along with the underwear factory. With both wages combined we can imagine they lived a life of luxury.

1940

In 1946 the building was put up for sale and was bought by the Cellucord Corporation^,1 who made paper backings for rugs. Now days we use foam or plastic to keep dirt and dust from getting on the back of a rug. Back then it was commonly known that good rugs had paper backings to keep them clean. The company catered to the “big three” in the rug business at the time, Bigelow Stanford, Alexander Smith and the Mohawk rug company .¹ Which would mean that many nice houses had Cellucord backed rugs in their house.

At the height of employment over 300 people worked at the Cellucord corporation, ² nearly two times how many people worked in the building when it as a underwear factory.

In 1953 the corporation stopped making paper rug backings but left their machines in the building until 1955 when they resumed .² Then in 1961 the Cellucord corporation moved to Winooski but continued to use the building to test if the material they used worked for sandbags but after awhile the stopped using the building and the building stood empty for a few years.

1970- Today

In 1971 the building was bought by the Fuelair company, they sold automotive fuel saving devices. ² Part of the building was used as a laboratory and the other a furniture woodshop. In 1984 the building was purchased by M.C.H. associates .¹ Inside the building there was Sikora auto parts and north country wholesale distributors. The north country wholesale distributors supplied 1100 retail stores in northern New England. They sold outdoor and industrial clothing, footwear, hunting, fishing, and camping equipment. In 1993 the Goodwin baker building was listed on the national register of historic places. ² Today both businesses mentioned earlier are not there but the building does hold a few others like HMC and the Rainforest Alliance. I hope you have enjoyed reading this website and have learned a few more things about the town of Richmond and its past.

Drawing of Goodwin Baker Building by Willa.

#1: Richmond Historical Society. "Underwear Factory." American town magazine,http://www.townmagazine.com/rhsvt/richmond-underwear-factory/.

#2: Marsh,Earline. "A Richmond Tapestry." Champlain Valley Telecom, http://www.wcvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/1998-history-cvt.pdf.

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