Chick Colony, Harrisville Designs

Chick Colony, Harrisville Designs

From The Long Thread Podcast by Long Thread Media

February 7, 2026 · 42 min · Season 14

About this episode

The episode discusses the history of Harrisville Designs and the revival of a mill town in New England through yarn production.

Small textile towns were once common in New England, with stout brick buildings harnessing the power of the region’s water to mill yarn and cloth. The Colony family had been owners of a mill in Harrisville, New Hampshire, since before the Civil War, but by the mid-twentieth century, such factories had begun to disappear. In 1970, 53 mills closed in New England, the Colony family’s among them. John Colony (known as Chick) returned from serving in the Coast Guard to a mill town without a working mill. Chick saw that the small town would wither unless a new project came in to fill the gap. After considering the options, he had the idea: What better use could there be for an old mill village than to make yarn? So shortly after his father and uncle closed down the mill, Chick opened a business making woolen yarn on some of the same old equipment. The new endeavor was scaled back in scope, but yarn was coming from the old mill buildings once again under the label of a new company, Harrisville Designs. The town’s buildings and surrounding watershed became the center of a historic preservation effort. More than 50 years later, Harrisville is known as the best preserved early textile…

Topics covered

  • textile history
  • yarn production
  • small towns
  • historic preservation
  • crafting

Keywords

  • Harrisville Designs
  • yarn
  • textile village
  • historic preservation
  • New England mills

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harrisville Designs

Places: Harrisville, New Hampshire, New England

More episodes of The Long Thread Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Long Thread Podcast podcast page.