Millwood, Washington — Paper Mill Designed the Neighborhood

Millwood is a company town whose company never entirely left.

Inland Empire Paper Company began operating beside the Spokane River in 1911 near Woodard Station.

Workers needed homes.

The company purchased residential lots, offered employee financing and provided house plans, helping shape a compact neighborhood around the mill.

The name itself combined the industrial purpose with the older Woodard identity.

Millwood incorporated in 1927.

More than a century after production began, the paper mill still operates beside the community it helped create.

Most company towns eventually have to figure out what happens when the company disappears.

Millwood has spent more than a century postponing the question.