A New London Story

The purchase of another building by the Dover Museum got me interested in doing a little digging to see what I could find. As usual, I wasn’t disappointed. It turns out that it has a very interesting story especially when its story is combined with two other places close to the same vintage.

The Lincoln school was built on Lincoln Street, thus the name. The first four rooms were ready to go by 1882. The building was a frame structure heated by stoves, one in each room. It also had an outdoor pump and restrooms. The two-story building had only one exit until the state fire marshal ordered the building of a set of backstairs.

By 1910, the town fathers had crowded schools again. A new high school was built on Wilson Street. It was the high school until around 1936 when the town built a new building that continues as the high school to this day. With the new high school, the 1910 building became the grade school, and in 1967 it was torn down to make room for a much-needed gymnasium. By 1936 or so, the Lincoln Street school was sold and torn down. There were new plans in the offing for that location.

Enter J. E. Peterson, an important developer and promoter of all things New London. He had started a mitten factory in 1907. It was located in the upstairs of his department store. As the business grew, he eventually built s two-story building on Main Street between Walnut and Maple in a partnership with the Masons. If you guessed that it might be the current home of the Dover Museum, you would be correct.

In 1909, Mr. Peterson was operating a mitten factory in the lower level of his new building. There was a business manager, a foreman, and 36 seamstresses. The second story was home to the Masonic Lodge.

This business had its own electrical plant because the New London light plant only operated in the evening.

With the success of the mitten factory and as more space was needed, Peterson built the second brick building and connected the two with a hallway. It is this building that the museum has just purchased.

Peterson’s untimely death in 1917 at 55 caused the factory to close briefly. Fifty people were out of work. But by 1920, the factory was again running at capacity with new owners. The Fairfield Glove and Mitten factory was now in charge. All ages could find work there with salaries ranging from twelve to twenty-five dollars a week, as they churned out fifty thousand dozen pairs of gloves per year.

By the end of 1930, the Depression was looming. The Fairfield owners planned to close the glove factory due to an overstock of supply. The town tried to keep the glove factory open, but it closed.

The story now turns back to Lincoln Street. In 1938, the Wells Lamont Smith Glove Company out of Chicago had their eye on New London. A group of local business men saw a great opportunity. They assisted in the financing of a new factory where the old school had been on Lincoln Street. It opened on November 28, 1938.

During WW II, Wells Lamont had government contracts. They employed 140 people from 1941-1942. But by 1948, the company was losing money and moved the factory to Brownsville, Mississippi.

The factory changed hands several more times, all to glove manufactures. In April 1973, the United Auto Workers struck the plant over wages and other grievances. The plant closed permanently, and Smith’s Geode Industries relocated there in early 1974. The final act for the glove factory was a wood working business that made benches and other wood projects.

The current owner is tearing it down and clearing out the remains of the glove factory and the other businesses that operated from there. The clearing is sorely needed, although it’ a little sad. One can only wonder what’s in store for this location.

The school is finally “finished.” It has parts from 1936 to 2023 yet it all goes together really well. It has been revitalized with many amenities in which New London should take immense pride. My personal favorites are the renewed football field/track and the new “second” gym.

That brings us to the plans for the Dover Museum expansion at the second Main Street building. They too have had several lives: they have housed a creamery, a locker plant, beauty salons, a restaurant plus many more…and now will be a part of a unique museum. Mr. Peterson must be pleased when he checks on his beloved little town from what is surely his heavenly post.

As I ponder all this history, I reminisce. My grandmother worked at the glove factory, as a young woman before she married in 1912 and when she was a widow in her seventies. My mom and dad attended the Lincoln school when they were children. My dad was a Duckpin setter when he was a boy at the locker plant on Main. Five generations of my family have graduated from New London schools.

For my money, it’s been a great place to grow up and a nice place to grow old!

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