John Hayes Jr., owner of Riverpoint Lace Works, talks about the mill his grandfather started in 1923 and shows some of the lace ready to be shipped. The mill has suffered through a downturn and Hayes was finally forced to place it into receivership in November.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

The following story of statewide business interest previously appeared in a local news section.

WEST WARWICK — John Hayes Jr.’s whistling echoes as he climbs the stairs here at Riverpoint Lace Works. It’s no tune in particular.

He navigates the maze of corridors with comfort. And he should. For the last half-century, he’s spent almost every day at the company his grandfather started more than 80 years ago.

“I started from the bottom and did every single job,” said Hayes, 70.

Wednesday, as court-appointed receiver Theodore Orson, of the law firm of Orson and Brusini, read the terms of an auction held to pay off the lace company’s debts to the crowd of about 30 people, Hayes was nowhere to be seen.

He had ducked into a meeting in the office rather than watch the company his family built be sold off piecemeal.

The highest purchase offer was a “going concern” bid, from an investment group, which would allow the company to continue operating and save the jobs of its roughly 50 employees, Orson said in a statement, which was always the original goal.

The company received several bids, of various types, at the auction. The only bid to continue operating the company was made by Palmisciano-Ponte Investment Group LLC, for $250,000. Two other bids — $87,000 and $98,000 — came in to buy the assets as scrap. Buyers also offered bids for machines and other materials grouped into lots.

Riverpoint Lace Works no longer owns the building, on Main Street, in which it is still operating. While it could not be learned whether the company had formally accepted the Palmisciano-Ponte offer, the investment group was talking with the current owner about a lease, and a news conference will follow the completion of those talks, said Giovanni La Terra Bellina, the lawyer for the receiver.

Before the auction began, Hayes walked through the belly of the building pointing out machines, as potential buyers — among them Samuel Shapiro, of United Textile Machinery, in Fall River, inspected the goods alongside him.

“This man knows more about lace than any woman who owns any lace, period,” said Shapiro. “He’s the best manufacturer there was and there is.”

Hayes’ grandfather, Joe, started Riverpoint Lace in 1923 with two lace machines given to him when a company went out of business. He moved his business into what was then the Lippitt Manufacturing Company mill in 1925. Built in 1809, it is said to be the oldest continuously operated textile mill in the United States.

The business passed down to Hayes Jr.’s father, John.

As a teenager, John Jr. would come to the mill after school and work in the afternoons. After graduating from high school, he went on to study chemistry at the Rhode Island School of Design and accounting at Rhode Island College.

His first full-time work experience was in the dye house, using a can on a hotplate to mix colors in the days before computers digitally matched them. In the late 1960s, John Jr. took over the business from his father. He gave away the lace manufacturing machines because they weren’t making money and focused almost exclusively on dyeing textiles, which was bringing in customers.

The mill’s daily operations passed to John Hayes III in 1988. The father and son, who is now 45, saw business boom through the early 1990s. Things were so good that they took out a loan from what was then Fleet Bank and bought a tenter frame, the massive pea-green machine that stretches and dries the dyed fabric, and nearly takes up an entire room.

John Hayes Jr. gazed up at the machine, talking as if it were an old friend.

“This is the unit I spent $1 million on,” he said. “We use it all the time. This is my number one.” Bidders offered only $5,000 for the frame in Wednesday’s auction.

The mill fell on hard times in the late 1990s after a big buyer went bankrupt and styles changed. The Hayses sold assets and laid off employees.

Once, in July 2000, the gas was turned off for nonpayment and payroll checks were late. The company was saved after a few unexpected receipts rolled in. But by February 2001, Riverpoint Lace was facing the threat of foreclosure. On Thanksgiving Day of that year, an anonymous donor interested in investing in the company put up $280,000 to stave off the auction block.

They’d always gotten through it, Hayes said. But this time, they couldn’t.

“It’s very scary right now,” he said.

“It hasn’t been a nice month, since November, when I put it into receivership. It’s been hell. I never want to go through this again. I’m surprised I’m still alive, [with ] the tension and stress and sadness. I put everything I have in here. I’m basically one step from a pushcart. I put every dime I made in over 50 years in this place to try to keep it going and found I just didn’t have any more money.”

Orson, the lawyer, has been operating the business since the Superior Court, in response to Hayes’ petition, appointed him receiver. The company was scheduled to go on the auction block last week, but two potential buyers emerged at the last minute, prompting Orson to postpone the sale to Wednesday.

Orson said there’s no dollar amount the company was looking to raise from the sale, partly because all the debts haven’t been tallied. Creditors have until April 4 to submit claims, he said. Then, they’ll get in line to receive a portion of the proceeds from the auction.