A mill the size of the Wood Mill needed its own power plant, so it got one.

The Wood Mill power house was built in 1905–06, alongside the mill itself, to supply power to the whole site. For decades its smokestacks stood over what was once the largest worsted plant in the world.

On Thursday, October 15, 2009, at 10:00 a.m., those smokestacks came down in a planned implosion. The moment was filmed for television.

The demolition was part of the plan that became Riverwalk. It cleared the way for development led by Salvatore Lupoli: a commercial plaza along Merrimack Street, an office building planned for the riverfront, and a public park. The plan called for saving pieces of the old power house and displaying them in the park as public art, so the building that once powered the mill would stay part of the landscape.

That same year, other worn-out structures on the site came down too, including two storehouse sections. What remained became the foundation of what's here now.

It was the end of one chapter and the first page of the next.

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