Casco Paper Box Company

(former)

343 Cumberland Avenue

Women have always comprised a majority of the workers at the Casco Paper Box Company, founded in 1892 on Cross Street. In 1904, 68 women and seven men assembled the rigid boxes, their hands, according to one reporter, “come to have wonderful quickness, and the work is performed as no machine could do it.” The women were paid by piecework, averaging $8 per week. Over the years, workers have assembled rigid boxes to hold gum, candy, toilet articles, jewelry, toys, and stationery. The company was managed for at least 20 years by Laures Perkins, who moved the plant to its Cumberland Avenue location in 1979. It later relocated to Topsham.