Silk ribbons were a luxury product and the buildings where they were made were often part of their brand identity. In the 1850s, the Boston-based Dexter, Lambert Company removed its plant to Paterson, New Jersey, and in 1881 established a branch at Hawley. The company built an immense stone building that burned in 1894 and was immediately rebuilt with its signature crenellations and central administrative offices. It employed several hundred workers and attests to the former size of Hawley as it provides a hint at the gender-based split of labor with women working in the mill while men worked the waterways.