Musée de l'Ancienne Sparterie Founded in 1839, Sparterie de la Maison Lemaire has developed an industry whose technical know-how has been recognized worldwide among textile manufacturers for 135 years. Installed on the site of the factory in 1994, the Musée de l'Ancienne Sparterie proposes to discover this old craft through preserved tools and several exotic and even unexpected fabrications, woven works in sisal or coconut. The site also offers historical lighting of the heritage of Dammartin-en-Serve (Neolithic occupations, Gallo-Roman dwelling, etc). Sparterie de la Maison Lemaire The sparterie factory, installed by Nicolas Lemaire in his native town in 1839, is an original Paris industrial site where sisal and coconut fibres were woven from the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century until the first oil shock of the 1970s: various carpets, hammocks, ropes, school bags, shoes, brides and licols, coal bags, grain elevators… The activity developed in the canton of Houdan allows to support more than a hundred employees from 1865, divided between the reception of raw materials from India, the preparation of reels and cans, weaving on mechanized loom (classic and Jacquard), dyeing, drying, finishing, shipping products to the Maison Lemaire’s Parisian store or its various customers. The technical know-how and the quality of the products quickly brings together the worldwide renown of the company that collects great prizes and gold medals from international and universal exhibitions (Nice in 1874, Antwerp in 1885, San Francisco in 1894, Paris in 1900, Hanoi in 1902, etc.). The arrival of plastics and international competition led Maison Lemaire to close down permanently in 1974, for lack of sufficient profitability and an industrial heritage that had become obsolete.