The earliest known industrial activity along the Contoocook River in the area of Commercial Street in Boscawen occurred sometime around 1790. Jeremiah Chandler (1763 – 1828) of Concord, built the first gristmill and sawmill at the lower falls near the Contoocook River confluence with the Merrimack River. The early mills were located on the south end of the street near the current day hydro-dam. 

In 1800, Richard Kimball and Jeremiah Abbott introduced the first woolen processing mill in the area by building a carding and cloth finishing mill. In 1812, both men drowned in the Contoocook River when they attempted to run the rapids upstream near the Borough in a small boat.

In 1803, the area’s first bridge over the Merrimack River, the “Boscawen Bridge”, opened a short distance to the north of Commercial Street at the site of the first ferry. The ferry was established around 1737 by Stephen Gerrish and later ran under the name Blanchard’s Ferry.

In 1820, a second sawmill was built a short distance downstream from Chandler’s first gristmill on a site that would one day become the Stratton & Company flour mill. It’s owners, William and Richard Gage, Job and Timothy Abbott, and John Eastman, would operate the mill in turns. The Gages would run the mill for two weeks, then the Abbott’s for a week and then Eastman for a week. The Gage’s also ran a successful business sending lumber down the Merrimack River to Boston for use in building sailing ships. By 1849, the Gage’s had retired and left the business to be run by Gerrish, Gage & Company, which was composed of Joseph Gerrish and two of Richard Gage’s sons. In all, the sawmill ran for about thirty years until C.M. & A.W. Rolfe converted it to a corn grinding mill in 1883.

In 1825, Warren Johnson and his wife Mercy Sanborn settled on the Harris Hill overlooking the lower falls of the Contoocook River where he built a brick blacksmith shop that would operated in some capacity for nearly seventy three years. The first trip hammer in the village was built by Warren in his shop in 1835, and with the addition of a lathe he soon began producing the first wagon axles in the village. The shop was destroyed by fire in 1836 and rebuilt the following year. In 1852, Ephraim Eaton tried his hand at hardening and finishing anvils in the shop but lasted only a short time. Johnson was eventually succeeded by the Gage & Lang Company, who in 1865, sold the shops machinery to D. Arthur Brown & Co., who was running the Concord Axle Works business a short distance upstream. In 1895, Johnson’s old brick shop was taken down and replaced by Concord quarry owner, John Swenson with a stone-polishing shop. There he formed the Concord Polishing Works.

In 1831, William Hazeltine Gage built a new carding mill on the site of the old Kimball and Abbott mill and operated a successful business for the next ten years or so. In 1847, Almon Harris purchased the land these mills occupied and built the three story 75’ x 40’ stone building and would run the Dustin Island Woolen Mill until his death in 1867. In 1893, his grandsons, Robert Lincoln Harris and Almon Greene Harris made extensive improvements to the mill and incorporated it under the name Dustin Island Woolen Mills. In 1906, Arthur B. Emery became a partner in the business, and in 1911, formed a new company, Harris-Emery Company, which then purchased the holdings of the Dustin Island Woolen Mills.

In 1846, a stone shop was erected for the manufacture of axes and hatchets by Adams & Rowell. After a couple of years the shop was converted into a saw factory that was operated by a number of individuals and partnerships, including Gage, Hubbard & Company, and Gage, Porter & Company. In 1882, the business was sold to J. Edwin Marden and George S. Locke. They continued running the business under the name Fisherville Saw Company.

The first flour mill on Commercial Street was built at the north end in 1857 by Calvin and John C. Gage. The business was in operation for only two years and was sold to John H. Pearson & Co. of Concord, who went on to operate the mill and a warehouse until 1867. The business was sold to Barron, Dodge & Company, who ran the flour business until 1871 when the Whitcher & Stratton Company was formed. Upon the retirement of Mr. Whitcher, Henry C. Merrill of Manchester joined George L. Stratton and William K. MacFarland to form Stratton, Merrill & Co.. They proceeded to rebuild the mill and modernize its equipment.

By the turn of the 20th century, the Stratton & Company mill was the largest flour mill in New England, producing three hundred barrels of flour and five hundred bushels of corn meal daily. The land and buildings of Stratton & Company were sold in 1953 to the Boscawen Development Corporation.

In 1942, Nathan Brezner acquired the old New Hampshire Spinning Mill on East Canal Street in Penacook and converted it to a modern tannery. The Brezner Tanning Corporation was New Hampshire’s largest and most successful tannery from its establishment in 1942 until 1987 when production ended at the facility. In 1952 the company was sold to the Allied Kid Company of Boston, a large conglomerate engaged in the manufacturing and tanning of goatskins, in Wilmington, Delaware. At the time of the Brezner purchase, Allied Kid had plans to expand production to include upper leather sides, a higher quality leather made from cowhides. To find the space necessary, the old Stratton & Company buildings and the Harris Emery Woolen Mill on Commercial Street were purchased. The Stratton property was used as a hide receiving station while the preparation of split leathers took place in the former Harris woolen mill.

In 1972 the Allied Kid Company and Brezner Tanning Corporation merged to become Allied Leather Company and by the mid 1970’s had become a part of the General Hose Company of New York. In 1978 Lowengart Corporation, a subsidiary of Feuer Leather Corporation of New York acquired Allied Leather. Through the early 1980’s millions of dollars was spent to increase production and modernize equipment, only to end in bankruptcy in 1987. Allied cited a tight labor market and state environmental regulation as reasons. The buildings were left abandoned for more than ten years during the bankruptcy proceedings.

On April 8, 1997 the Allied Leather Corporation filed a quitclaim deed transferring all Commercial Street properties and buildings to the Hannah Dustin Holdings, LLC.

Today the Town of Boscawen owns much of the property along the south side of Commercial Street.