Floating Through Fall River, Part II*

From Dave Brigham:

* No actual floating was undertaken in pursuit of this and other posts about Fall River.

I know I say this a lot, but I've had the old manufacturing city of Fall River in the back of my mind for years. I recall driving past numerous old mills along Interstate 195 on my way to Newport, R.I., many years ago, and being quite intrigued by the granite buildings, which are much lighter in color than the typical brick factories I see around New England.

In my first post about Fall River, I discussed signs, a mural, tile entryways and ghost signs (see August 24, 2024, "Floating Through Fall River, Part I*").

In this post, I will cover mill buildings and one fairly gritty non-industrial property. There will be a third post about everything else that I typically obsess about on this blog.

There are more than 60 historic textile mills in Fall River, down from a high of at least 120 in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the city was the leading cotton textile center in the United States, according to Wikipedia. I only had time to check out a handful of the old mills, but I hope to return to scope out more.

The first mills were established in Fall River (at the time, part of Tiverton, Rhode Island) early in the 19th century. "The Quequechan River, with its eight falls, combined to make Fall River the best tidewater privilege in southern New England," per Wikipedia. "It was perfect for industrialization — big enough for profit and expansion, yet small enough to be developed by local capital without interference from Boston."

Evidently, I made a damn good choice for the first building I checked out - the former Chace Mills on Lewiston Street, hard by the interstate and the Quequechan River.

"The monumental granite Chace Mill of 1872 has been called the most imposing and attractive in the city and stands out because of its relatively isolated site and finely detailed Italianate stair tower," per MACRIS. "The Chace Mills was one of 15 textile companies organized during the years 1871-2, a period of remarkable expansion in the city's manufacturing capacity. Capitalized at $500,000, the mill was named after one of the organizers and first president, Augustus Chace....The first mill was erected in 1872 and had a capacity of 43,480 spindles and 1,056 looms producing 12 million yards of print cloth annually. A bleaching, dyeing and finishing mill was added in 1895."

That's a lot of print cloth!

As regular readers know, I love New England's old mill towns, from the former factory buildings that have been redeveloped into artist/living/office space to the ones that stand derelict, from the wonderful architecture making up the city halls, banks and social clubs to the old bars, theaters and commercial districts. As hard as I try, I find it hard to visualize what these cities were like when they were going like gangbusters, with thousands of mill workers coming and going, trains and ships filling up with textiles and other products, diners jammed from end to end with workers filling their bellies, taverns loud with the noise of after-work crowds.

By the late 1920s, a company called Arkwright took over this facility. In 1999 there was a fire here, with some smaller buildings destroyed. There is a UHaul facility here currently, and perhaps other businesses. I was reluctant to walk around this place for too long, as there were a couple of sketchy dudes hanging out watching me, and my time was short.

At the corner of Rodman Street and Plymouth Avenue stands the Davol Mills, a more traditional brick complex, albeit one with a Mansard roof, which is a bit unusual. MACRIS says this is the sole survivor of Fall River's Mansard roof mills.

From Wikipedia: "The Davol Mills Company was organized in 1866, with nineteen persons, with initial capital set at $270,000, and named in honor of William C. Davol, a machinery builder who is credited with importing the Roberts Self-acting Mule from Great Britain to Fall River in the early 1840s. Mill No. 1 was built in 1867 at the corner of Rodman Street and Eight Rod Way (now known as Plymouth Avenue). The machinery was in operation by March 1868. The Davol Mills initially produced cotton shirtings, sheetings, silesias [thin twilled woven cloth made of linen or cotton] and fancy fabrics. In 1871, Mill No. 2 was built along Hartwell Street, connected to the first mill. By 1917, the Davol Mills contained 44,000 spindles and 1,258 looms. The company acquired the nearby Tecumseh Mills in 1924. It shut down in 1935."

The mill, which is included in the Corky Row Historic District, was taken over by the Dover Stamping Company at some point. Current occupants of the old Davol place include Gold Airport Transportation and the Medical Drug Testing Laboratory, among (I think) others.

From the old Davol mill, I walked north-northeast past the former Tecumseh Mill, which was converted to apartments in the 1980s. I opted not to make any photos of it. At 138 Hartwell Street, though, some buildings caught my eye.

This is the former Frank M. Silvia School, which was built in 1902. From what I've been able to find out online (without the benefit of a subscription to the Fall River Herald News), the school was closed a while ago and the city has been trying to find a developer to take on a project here. Next door is a former school building division complex.

Along Pleasant Street, between 7th and 12th streets, is the most impressive complex I saw: Durfee Mills.

Again, my time was limited - and I was fighting the sun, so I only made a few shots. From MACRIS: "Durfee Mills was the largest single firm of textile manufacturers in Fall River. The mill buildings, standing at right angles to Pleasant Street, with the granite office bldg. between them, are among the most visually significant industrial structures in downtown Fall River."

More from MACRIS: "The firm was organized in 1866 with a capital of $500,000 and named after Major Bradford Durfee, whose son, B.M.C. Durfee, was the principal stockholder and original president. Major Durfee has been credited as 'the originator of plans which were the inception of Fall River's industrial life.' With Colonel Richard Borden, he was the founder of the Fall River Iron Works Company, which began as an iron manufactory and which constructed many of the city's earliest textile mills. The first two Durfee mills were erected in 1866 and 1871, and in 1877 the company had a capacity of 87,424 spindles and 2,064 looms. Its product was print cloth, of which 23 million yards were made in 1877, consuming 9,500 bales of cotton and employing 950 operatives. After the #3 mill was built in 1881, the firm had a capacity of 109,360 spindles, a number which increased to 151,328 by 1920. During the 20th century, the company remained the largest Fall River textile firm not part of a larger conglomerate. The corporation was liquidated in 1935."

Today, there are numerous businesses located in the complex, including Prima Care Medical Center, the accounting firm of Dorman & Associates, the General Fitness gym, Regiment martial arts training center and Delken Dry Cleaning.

Heading east-southeast on Pleasant Street for a bit, you will come to the Stafford Mills complex at the intersection of Quarry and County streets.

Currently occupied by Globe Furniture Outlet and probably other businesses, the old Stafford buildings date to 1872, 1888 (the granite mills) and 1896, the detached, Richardsonian Romanesque brick office building (pictured below).

From MACRIS: "The Stafford Mills was one of 15 textile corporations founded between 1871 and 1872 during a period of rapid expansion of the city's manufacturing capacity (hmm....seems I've read this somewhere before). The company was organized in 1870 but reorganized in 1871 with a capital of $550,000. It was named in honor of its founder and first president, Foster H. Stafford, a man who began working in mills as a young boy."

Stafford Mills closed in 1929. I'm not sure if another manufacturing operation took over at that point.

The final site on my mill tour is special because it still functions as a manufacturing hub.

The No. 2 Granite Mills building on Bedford Street, between Robeson and Seabury streets, was built in 1871 as part of a larger complex. The Granite Mills was a textile operation founded in 1863 that made, according to MACRIS, "fancy goods as well as plain cloth, and the beauty and elaborateness of some of the products was (sic) noted in a 1902 review of the American cotton industry....In 1932 the company was sold to the Pepperell Manufacturing Co."

Subsequent to the Pepperell Company, the mill buildings were owned and occupied by Anderson-Little, a men's clothing manufacturer and retailer that was founded in the 1920s in Boston and moved to Fall River in the 1930s. I remember seeing TV commercials and newspaper ads for the brand when I was a kid. The company closed in 1998, but the brand has been revived as a web-only retailer.

Currently, the Granite Mills building is occupied by the Merrow Sewing Maching Company, an operation founded in Connecticut in 1838 that has been in Fall River since 2004. Joseph Merrow started a business in the Nutmeg State manufacturing gunpowder, but after a fire destroyed that mill, he turned to making knit cotton goods, according to the company's history on its web site. In due time, Merrow began manufacturing sewing machines.

The company continued to grow internationally. In 2010, the founder's great-grandnephews moved operations to Fall River.

Make sure to check back for the third and final post in this series, in which I will discuss a diner, named buildings, a church, fraternal organizations and much more.