The Family Mill

394 2nd St, Manchester, New Hampshire 03102

In 1891 George Crafts and his partner C.E. Green constructed a brick shoe factory on the banks of the Piscataquog River in Manchester, NH. By 1893 the Crafts and Green Shoe Company employed 300 people and turned out 400,000 pairs of shoes per year. With the decline of the shoe industry in the mid 1900s, the building was used for aluminum products manufacturing and then by Mailways of New England, a bulk of services mail company which operated in the mill from 1963 until 2004. Today, the mill is home to 33 families and houses the retail store Family Outfitters, operated by Families in Transition.

In the Spring of 2004, Families in Transition, in partnership with Great Bridge Properties, undertook a complete redevelopment of the mill. The mill became the perfect answer to the growing need for permanent affordable housing for graduates of the FIT transitional housing program, a permanent home for the thriving Family Outfitters thrift store, as well as housing the agency Job Training Program for participants in the many FIT programs. Many of the mills unique historic features were preserved and many of the remaining building and former business artifacts have been carefully restored and are now housed in a museum at the entrance to the thrift store. The restoration of the mill was completed in June 2005.