Dolge Company Factory Complex

Straddling East Canada Creek at Dolgeville, New York, this factory complex began as the Alfred Dolge and Son felt and sounding board works. Its centerpiece is a long limestone factory of 1886, built on the site of an old tannery, with a mansard-roofed office tower and buttressed walls that give a fortress-like look. Nearby are a frame factory converted from a horse barn, an iron Pratt truss bridge of 1887 and a group of smaller buildings. Across the creek stands Dolge's wooden mansion of 1895, with ornate interiors carved and decorated by German, Swiss and Italian craftsmen. Dolge, a German-born manufacturer, laid out the village and provided schools, a library, utilities and a park. He also pioneered noncontributory pensions, life insurance and earnings-sharing for employees. After his business failed in 1899, the Daniel Green Company took over and has kept the buildings in excellent repair. The property was recognized for its Victorian architecture and for its link to Dolge's social experiments.