Harpers Ferry Paper Company and Shenandoah Pulp Company were established in the late nineteenth century by Thomas H. Savery (1837-1910) along the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. With several associates, Savery bought multiple properties on the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1884, including the site of the famous armory. He first established paper mills on these sites and, in the mid-1890s, began building electric power generating facilities. He organized the Harpers Ferry Electric Light & Power Company.

Savery's son, William H. Savery (1865-1949), served as president of the three companies. By the 1920s, the mills had the capacity to produce fifteen tons of groundwood pulp daily for the paper industry. After several unprofitable years, the Shenandoah Pulp Company closed in 1935, and a year later, the building was destroyed in a record flood.