By Peter Hammond
Read Article
For those who remember the big rambling building that was the shoe factory, it’s hard to envision it on the space now covered by the Norway Municipal Building, the parking area and the Norway Savings Bank drive-through.
In 1872 the voting residents of Norway approved a bond of $10,000 as a contribution toward the creation of a building that would eventually expand and, at its peak, employ more than 900 workers.
The original four-story building, completed in the spring of 1873, measured 40 feet by 100 feet.
The B.F. Spinney Co. of Lynn, Massachusetts would equip the building with the necessary manufacturing equipment and pay rent of $10 per year to the Town of Norway. That’s right, TEN Dollars per year, quite an incentive.