In 1791 Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton looked at the Great Falls on the Passaic River and decided they could power American industry, thereby gaining manufacturing independence from Great Britain. Hamilton, acting as a private citizen, and investor friends founded the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.) to develop the site.
The original S.U.M.-owned textile mills didn't bring in enough revenue to pay off the start-up costs so the S.U.M. got out of the mill business and turned to managing the land and water rights to the river. Steel mills, locomotive manufacturers, submarines, aircraft engines, arms all flourished on the power supplied by the falls. That hydroelectric plant in the middle photo was built by Thomas Edison in 1914 to augment the falls power. By 1870 more than half the silk made in the United States was made here, which is why Paterson is nicknamed the Silk City. Silk City Diners were made by the Paterson Vehicle Company.
The S.U.M. was in decline by the 1940s and dissolved in 1945, giving its assets to the city of Paterson. After many years of decay the 118 acre site was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1976, a state park in 2004 and, finally, a National Historic Park in 2009. A lot of the old mill buildings have been lost to decay and arson but there are still plenty around in various states of repair.
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