The former weaving and milling factory J-B. Martin, located in Tarare, Rhône, was founded in 1843 by Jean-Baptiste Martin (1801-1867), inventor of a mechanical weaving business for velvet and plush. The buildings, designed between 1839 and 1843 by architect Eugène-Toussaint Cateland, embody the Lyon model of the school-house, where 500 young girls lived and worked under the supervision of nuns. The site, isolated by the Turdine River, consisted of two workshops (moulining and weaving), a master house, a park and stables, with separate accesses for the workers and the Martin family.
The mill, an iconic building with high half-circle windows, housed on the ground floor a large working room rhythmized by yellow stone pillars, and on the floor of the dormitories as well as a chapel (1869) with carved polychrome frame. After the closure in 1974, the weaving was destroyed (replaced by a supermarket), while the milling, classified in 1987, became a wasteland before its rehabilitation planned in 2024 to accommodate public services (media library, intermunicipal headquarters, music school).
The manufacture reached its peak with the association of Martin heirs in 1898, forming an extended textile group from Roanne to Voiron, before declining in the 1970s in the face of international competition. The master house, sold in the 1930s, became a hospital until 2017, and was purchased in 2023 for restoration. The archives of the site, preserved at the Archives départementales du Rhône (subseries 45 J), bear witness to this industrial and social era.
The social model of the factory, where the workers were housed and framed on the spot, reflects the paternalistic practices of the nineteenth century in the Lyon region. This system, combining production and moral control, aimed to optimize productivity while insulating workers from the rest of the city. The documentary Les Petites Mains (2024) explores this human and architectural heritage, which is now being developed.
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