Continental Mill, Lewiston, Maine, ca. 1900.Courtesy of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
Continental Mill, Lewiston, Maine, ca. 1900.Courtesy of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
The prominent architectural feature in this and most nineteenth-century mills was the bell tower. Bells controlled life in mill towns. Ringing bells raised workers from their beds, told them when it was time to be at work, and when to eat.
According to historian Steve Dunwell at times the, "[b]ell time gained even more perverse meaning when crafty mill owners began slowing their clocks down to artificially prolong the working day and get more value from their workers."