WILLOW CREEK — The mill on River Road marked 100 years of operation on Thursday, celebrating a century that encompassed a founding, seventy years of dominance, a decade of silence, and a rebirth.

Willow Creek Custom Flooring, LLC celebrates 100 years of mill operations on the same site. The celebration features tours, a Jed Thorne-curated history exhibit, and a speech by Stu Peller.
Willow Creek Custom Flooring, LLC celebrates 100 years of mill operations on the same site. The celebration features tours, a Jed Thorne-curated history exhibit, and a speech by Stu Peller.

The centennial celebration drew 300 people to the Willow Creek Custom Flooring, LLC building for guided tours, a history exhibit curated by Jed Thorne, and a speech by Stu Peller — the floor sweeper turned shift supervisor. The original 1903 steam-powered planer, preserved as a display piece in the entrance lobby, was the centerpiece of the event.

“One hundred years,” Peller said, standing beside the planer’s cast-iron frame. “When I started sweeping floors in this building in 1989, I was told by several people that I was wasting my time. They said the mill was a relic. They said the town had moved on. They were wrong. We have been running this planer for fourteen years straight, and we have never been busier.”

The mill’s niche in the historic restoration market has proven to be a sustainable business model. The company’s quarter-sawn white oak and hard maple are used in church restorations, courthouse renovations, and historic homes throughout New England. The mill currently employs 38 people — nearly double the workforce at reopening in 1990.

“Historic restoration is not a boom-and-bust industry,” said General Manager Raymond Thibodeau. “Old buildings need repair every generation. Churches need new floors every fifty years. There is a steady demand, and we are one of the few mills in the country that can meet it.”

Jed Thorne’s exhibit traced the mill’s evolution from 1903 through the 1972 closure to the 1990 reopening. “This building has seen more history than most museums,” Thorne said. “It has been the economic anchor of this town for a century. The fact that it is still running, still producing, still employing people from Willow Creek — that is the story of a town that refused to give up.”

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