Harmony Mills, in Cohoes, New York, United States, is an industrial district that is bordered by the Mohawk River and the tracks of the former Troy and Schenectady Railroad (now the Mohawk-Hudson bike trail).

A portion of the district encompassing the industrial buildings and some of the housing built for millworkers was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1999.

This phase—98% leased as of July, 2012—was called Harmony Mills Fallsview Luxury Apartments because of the views of the Cohoes Falls.

[4] The project has been hailed as a prime example of how adaptive re-use of historic buildings can revitalize cities, while clearing urban blight in an environmentally friendly manner.

[7] From its founding, Harmony played a leading role in the economic and social lives of the people of Cohoes.

[7] Due to the powerful Mohawk River Falls and the introduction of the Erie Canal, the location of the Harmony Mills was key to the success and vast expansion of the company.

[7] After its acquisition by Garner and Wild, Harmony Mills began to flourish under the management of Robert Johnston.

[11] After moving from Rhode Island to New York, he worked for Wild, who bought the Harmony Manufacturing Company at his suggestion.

Mimicking the gable-roofed like structures common to the Greek revival movement, these impressive architectural features can still be appreciated today.

It consisted of an architecturally pleasing 5-story 274 foot long building and featured a large tower and arched entryway.

To meet these needs, the Picker House was utilized for the opening and cleaning of the imported cotton bales as well as a storage space.

[3] Boasting 130,000 spindles, 2,700 looms, and over seven miles of gas and water pipes, the Mastodon Mill became a destination for cotton capitalists from across the country.

[3] In addition the main mills, there was the Boiler House (c. 1911), Office and Sunday School Building (c. 1853), and the Generator Plant.

The quick growth of the Harmony Mills accompanied by a large influx of immigrants from Europe and Quebec, Canada, allotted the Johnston’s the opportunity to provide an easily adaptable community to entire newcomers.

To do so, they eventually constructed over 800 tenements to house these immigrants and their families at very mere costs as long as they worked in the mills.

[13] This allowed the mills to employ over five thousand operatives and assisted Cohoes in becoming the nation’s largest producers of wool knit goods in the 1860s.

[17] These women were paid low wages and did not have many prospects of upwards mobility, easing the decision to stay home after marriage.

[8][16] Higher-paying skilled jobs, with the exception of weavers, were generally the provenance of men, largely married Englishmen, who had fled from the working conditions of 19th century English textile mills.

[21]) Harmony Mills offered employment to these children for wages as low as 30 cents for a 12-hour workday;[13] hence, to keep these families afloat, between 1860 and 1880, the percentage of workers under 15 had tripled.

[22] In 1882, thirteen Harmony Hill families testified before a New York State legislative committee investigating child labor that they could not stay out of debt without sending their children to work.