Travel Back in Time: Goodwill Shoe Company

Editor's Note: A good deal of information in this article was found in Town Historian Joanne Hulbert's book "Holliston: A Good Town." Hulbert's full history of the Mill, its construction and financing can be seen on the Holliston Mill Artists Web site.

Though it has remained a small town from its settling in 1659, Holliston is nevertheless rich in history, holding links to , the and , among other things. But perhaps the most significant and recognizable landmark in town is the former Goodwill Shoe Company.

It's now home to a host of different kinds of businesses, but the complex at 26-28 Water St. once housed one of the country's largest manufacturers of industrial boots in the 1930s.

Constructed in 1891, the four-story building was known as the "Big Shop." The 95-foot tall building required 35,000 bricks, a massive undertaking at the time.

According to "Holliston: A Good Town," a book written by Town Historian Joanne Hulbert, the first floor was designated for sole cutting, the second floor held offices, the third floor was used for stitching and the fourth floor housed the shipping department.

The project attracted several prominent Holliston businessmen with shareholders for the $22,000 endeavor, including John D. Shippee, Henry Bullard, J.H. Andrews and George M. French. The loan was provided by the Holliston Savings Bank.

With a host of skilled shoe makers looking for steady work, the town hoped to bring in a major shoe manufacturer. Holliston hit the jackpot when the I.A. Beals Shoe Company moved its operations from Brockton to Holliston. Fifty families made the 35-mile trip along with a few other single workers.

The honeymoon did not last long, however, as the high cost of doing business in Holliston forced I.A. Beals to move back to Brockton after only 18 months. The shareholders tried to recoup their losses, brokering a deal between Eaton & Stephens Mfg. Co. and the Holliston Shoe Company. But the pact fell through when Eaton began struggling financially. Eventually, after several appeals in court, any chance of a deal with Eaton was dead and the building was empty by 1898.

The complex remained unoccupied until 1906, when owner Arthur Ashley Williams moved to Holliston after a fire destroyed his factory in Cochituate. Williams was enticed by Holliston shoe manufacturer John Clancy, who wanted to leave his workers to a worthy boss once his career ended.

Williams' factory soon became one of the largest economic forces in Holliston until the 1950s, employing thousands of town residents while producing its signature invention, the steel-toed safety shoe.

Though the building has undergone a host of changes over the years, there are still many connections to the past. Notes and signatures penned by workers adorn the walls, while there are still "shoe lasts," wooden models of feet, in the basement.

Williams, the factory's owner, was lauded as a humanitarian and was awarded a medal from the National Association of Manufacturers for preventing crippling industrial accidents.

The complex has gone through a number of different owners over the last 50-plus years but is now home to the , a "vibrant community of artists and craftspeople" according to the group's website.

The complex, now called the Holliston Mill, houses Addy Photographic, Inside Out Communications, Medical Components Specialists, , Comptel Services, Competitive Centerless Grinding and .