Cocheco Printworks

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Cocheco Printworks is on the left, Mill No.1 is on the right.

Calico printing started in Dover about 1826 in Mill #4 of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company. In 1827, agent John Williams brought five master printers from England to instruct the Dover printers in the intricacies of the block printing craft, all done by hand at that time. The Print Works employed highly skilled and talented workers and the industry expanded quickly in Dover. Separate facilities, approximately fifteen buildings filling what is now Henry Law Park, were constructed between 1842 and 1844, and cylinder printing (by machines that could do the work of 100 men) was introduced. By the 1880s, Cocheco Prints were renowned worldwide for their color, texture, diversity and quality.

Cocheco Printworks was situated on Washington Street. Some of the buildings stood at the present location of Henry Law Park.