The Portland Star Match Factory is a historic industrial building on West Commercial Street in Portland, Maine, United States. From 1870 to 1908, approximately 75-100 workers, mostly women, produced matches at the factory.[1]
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Company
editThe Portland Star Match Company was incorporated in 1866. The original owners sold the company in 1869. In October of that year, a fire burned at the factory's facility near Back Cove. Damage totaled $20,000 and nearly destroyed the original building.[2] The company relocated to West Commercial Street, where it built a new facility.
In 1903, the Portland Board of Trade Journal called the company "one of the most successful industries in the Forest City."[3]
References
edit- ^ "Working Women of the Old Port". Maine History Online.
- ^ "Destructive Fire: Burning of the Star Match Factory". Portland Daily Press. October 11, 1869.
- ^ Star Match Co (Volume 16 ed.). Portland Board of Trade. 1903. p. 352.