Biddeford-Saco Riverwalk

This path offers a short stroll through the dramatic brick architecture of the cities’ former mills. You will follow a sidewalk and cross a footbridge as you explore a small leg of Saco River that bisects the cities. The footbridge requires you climb some stairs, but besides that, the path is paved and accessible. Just beyond the footbridge, on the Saco side of the walk, you’ll find some nice benches. 

Look for the blue Riverwalk signs to follow the route. At one point, the signs invite you to walk “the terrace,” which has you walk by the patios of riverside apartments.

Factory Island in Saco was an industrial site starting in the mid-17th century, first producing lumber with sawmills, and later, a place where iron, cotton, and textile products were made. The mill buildings have been renovated into offices, apartments, and businesses. On the Biddeford side, you’ll be walking by old brick factories that are part of Pepperell Mill’s 17-acre campus, with renovated apartments, studios, offices, and businesses. It was a thriving factory city once! In 1855, the mill complex employed 3,500 workers and produced more than 25 million yards of fabric a year. In the early 1900s, nearly 10,000 millworkers worked there, making fabric, sheets, blankets and towels. The work drew lots of immigrants, mostly French Canadians, but also immigrants from Ireland, Turkey, Poland, Greece, Syria, Italy, and Albania.

Before the colonialists turned this area into an manufacturing hub, the river was important to Native people. The tribe associated with the southern part of the Saco River were the Sokoki or Saco, and their main village was likely Sowocatuck, where modern-day downtown Biddeford and Saco are now, near the great falls.

Directions: There’s lots of parking on Factory Island, just be sure not to take one of the many reserved spaces. There are plenty leftover for visitors.