JAY — The tower at the former Otis Mill on Mill Street was demolished Monday with several people watching the more than 100 year-old landmark collapse smoothly to the ground.

A professional demolition company took the tower down. It was a sad day for many people who either worked at the mill or whose parents and other relatives worked there.

The tower that had  printed on its roof, International Paper Co. 1906. The tower could be seen for miles — including from the Spruce Mountain Ski Slope and the top of Jay Hill on Main Street, also known as state Route 4. IP built a new mill in the 1960s on Riley Road in Jay and moved its operations there. Wasuau Corp. operated the Mill Street mill until it closed in 2009.

Amy Ouellette-Newman of Livermore Falls watched the tower go down from the steps of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church at the intersection of Church and Main streets in Jay.

“It was crazy that it came down as fast as it did,” Ouellette-Newman wrote in a Facebook message. “It was kind of a sad day as both my parents worked there as well as several other family members.”

She captured the collapse on video.

According to posts on Facebook, under Ouellette-Newman’s video, many people were sad to see it go.

Wausau Paper Corp. closed the mill in 2009 after there was more than 120 years of making paper at the site, putting more than 100 people out of work. It was bought by Tim DeMillo of Jay and Mary Howes, formerly of Jay, that year with hopes of redeveloping it to preserve the mill history. After years of trying to redevelop it, they sold it to MAC Development LLC.

The steam plant was taking on water but the roof had not collapsed, John Clark III of Farmingdale said in 2018. Most of the buildings have been demolished. He formed MAC Development LLC in 2015, initials of his grandchildren to buy the mill property.

The original mill was built in 1888 and became the founding mill of International Paper in 1898. The company built the Androscoggin Paper mill on Riley Road in Jay, which began operations in 1960s. That mill closed in March 2023.

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