In 1860, Gardiner Hall Jr. (1839-1915) founded a spool cotton thread business called the Hall & Manning Company, and later renamed the Hall Thread Company. The new business failed in a year with the onset of the Civil War and the accompanying shortage of cotton. During the war, in 1861, Hall designed and patented a machine for finishing thread and moved to South Willington, Connecticut, founding the Gardiner Hall Jr. Company. He had a three-story mill building constructed around 1862 where his small operation took off. In the following decades, the factory complex expanded rapidly, and machine, blacksmith, and bleach and dye shops were built on the property to increase production. Coinciding with this growth, Gardiner Hall built tenements, a boarding house and a community building for his growing workforce in the 1870s nearby. Before his death in 1915, Hall donated funds to erect a memorial church in memory of his daughter, and donated generously to his workers. His son, William Henry took over operations and was succeeded by his sister, Rosa Hall, until the factory closed in 1954. The industrial buildings were used for decades from various manufacturing companies and today are occupied by retail stores, a tattoo parlor, and event space, perfect adaptive reuse!