Mill History

Pawtucket Hair Cloth Mill //1864

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Despite its name, this handsome mill structure, known as the Pawtucket Hair Cloth Mill, is actually located in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The building, located on Roosevelt Avenue on the banks of the Blackstone River, is a great example of a Civil War-era mill, built for one of the many wool and cloth companies in New England. Begun in a small factory across the street in 1856, this business became successful after the acquisition of patents for weaving haircloth (most of the raw material for which originally came from Russian horse markets) for upholstery, crinolines, and inner linings. The company is said to have once been the largest producer of haircloth in the world. The Italianate style mill stands pretty much as built, besides the tower that has lost its low pyramidal cap. The building was one of the first commissions by great Rhode Island architect, William Walker, who was just 34 at the time of designing this large, and complicated structure.

Kennedy-Stafford Mill // 1825

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One of the oldest mills in Central Falls, Rhode Island, is this four-story brick building constructed in 1825 is important as one of the earliest extant brick mills in Rhode Island, at a time when such buildings were shifting from wood construction to fire-proof brick or stone construction. Built on one of the first industrial sites in the city, along the Blackstone River, the mill was originally constructed for a John Kennedy as a cotton manufactory. The complex was purchased and expanded in the 1860s by the Stafford Manufacturing Company, who built a new dam on the river and extension to the 1825 building. The structure features a five-story square end tower with freight doors, and a monitor roof which runs the span of the original 1825 building, terminating where the Stafford Company addition begins. Originally, canals flowed directly under the building, powering the building and three mills downstream, but they were filled in by 1965. Elizabeth Webbing started in the Kennedy/Stafford mill buildings in 1933. After over 70 years of making cloth straps used for seat belts, dog collars, luggage straps and more, it ceased operations in March of 2001. The complex, which included 19 nearby mill buildings, was split up and sold off. In 2007 work began on converting the former mill to residential use with the first phase of the project opening to tenants in 2009. It’s another great example of adaptive reuse into housing, the best type of project!

Valley Falls Mill // 1849

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The Valley Falls Mill sits along the Blackstone River in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and is one of the many significant industrial complexes which facilitated the development and growth of the city. The main building in the complex is the four-story rectangular building, constructed in 1849. To meet the requirements of fire resistance, the mill was constructed with load-bearing brick walls and heavy timber columns. Samuel B. and Harvey Chace, sons of Fall River mill owner Oliver Chace, built the mill on this site, influenced not only by the availability of water power, but also by the completion the same year of the Providence & Worcester Railroad, which passes by the mill on its east side. The mill was designed for the manufacture of a variety of cotton products. The Valley Falls Company merged with another industrial concern in 1929, and this mill was subsequently closed the following year. After decades of little-to-no use, the significant Valley Falls Mill was converted into senior housing in 1979 following its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It ranks as one of the earliest mill conversion projects in New England and while some details were lost, it preserves a significant piece of local history and meets a much-needed demand of housing.

Fales & Jenks Mill // 1863

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One of the largest mills in Central Falls, Rhode Island, is this complex tucked away on Foundry Street. Constructed in phases beginning in 1863, the site was originally owned by the firm of Fales & Jenks, manufacturers, and it was the first major factory in the town to not be built on a river, but on the railroad, showcasing a shift in the transportation of goods along with the increasing availability of steam power, relieving mill owners from having to build on the rivers. Fales & Jenks manufactured textile machinery here for just a few years until they moved to Pawtucket, and the complex was purchased by A. & W. Sprague in 1865 and after slight enlargement, was used as a flax mill until the Spragues’ failure in 1873. In the late 19th century, the mill was occupied by the U.S. Cotton Company. The oldest buildings are brick with granite lintels under a monitor roof. Later additions include a massive brick factory with a tower with castellated parapet. The small, two-story gable-roofed building at the corner was the mill office. The complex is today owned and maintained by the Murdock Webbing Company.

Dwight Manufacturing Company Complex // 1841+

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The Dwight Manufacturing Company is named for Edmund Dwight (1780-1849) of Boston, an industrialist who envisioned an industrial town on the Chicopee River. Dwight, having a country home in Chicopee, had begun a venture with his brother, Jonathan, at Chicopee Falls creating the Chicopee Manufacturing Company, to produce cotton cloth. Due to the company’s immediate success, the Dwights along with other investors formed the Springfield Canal Company in 1831, with the goal to create the “new Lowell”, an industrial community in what is now Chicopee Center. In 1856, the Dwight Mills purchased some earlier mill complexes, creating the Dwight Manufacturing Company and consolidating all their cotton cloth manufacturing into one organization. In addition to the mills, the Company also built employee housing
along Depot and Dwight Streets, a stone’s throw from the mills. The creation of employee housing allowed the Company to attract new employees in particular women and children, nearly all immigrants, who could be housed together. My favorite part of the complex is the entrance gate, built in 1894, connecting the Office and Cloth Building. It is amazing to think of all of the people who passed through this portal, working long hours for a better life. Overtime as production methods changed and technology evolved, nearly all the original mills would be replaced or retrofitted. Despite the changes, the Company could not remain profitable and shut down production in 1927 and ultimately selling the land and equipment in 1930. Some smaller manufacturing has since occupied some of these buildings, but they remain largely (if not entirely) vacant, awaiting a new life.

Sayles Mill // 1882-2023

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Dayville, a mill village in the town of Killingly, Connecticut, is typical of many similar 19th century villages in the region. Dayville was named after John Day (1756-1838) a Revolutionary War veteran who later owned the water privileges on the Five Mile River. With the opening of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad in 1830, Dayville became a stop along the route and also became a hub for freight transport for other manufacturing villages along the river. In 1858, brothers Harris (1817-1893) and Sabin Lorenzo Sayles (1827-1891) from Rhode Island, purchased a mill site in Dayville and established a woolen manufacturing company. Harris retired in 1879 and Sabin continued the business as the Sabin L. Sayles Company. Sabin had a modern brick mill building constructed here in 1882-1883 which employed 250 people in production of woolen broadcloth. After Sabin’s death, the company was sold and modified numerous times, eventually becoming a metal products plant and later was left vacant. In the 2010s, funding and plans were begun to redevelop the old mill, but that was abandoned after a massive fire in 2023 destroyed the building, leaving just the six-story tower intact.

Photo courtesy of Journeysthrumylens