The Cargill Falls Mill, also known historically as the Wilkinson Mill, is a historic
textile mill
Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...
complex at 52-58 Pomfret Street in
Putnam, Connecticut
Putnam is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,224 at the 2020 census.
History
Putnam, originally known as Aspinock, then part of Killingly, is a New England mill town incorporated in 1855. Created from se ...
. Founded in 1806, it is one of the state's oldest mill complexes, and it retains examples of mill architecture spanning more than 175 years. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 2014.
Description and history
The Cargill Falls Mill occupies a prominent location across the
Quinebaug River
The Quinebaug River is a river in south-central Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut, with watershed extending into western Rhode Island. The name "Quinebaug" comes from the southern New England Native American term, spelled variously , , etc ...
from downtown Putnam, set partially on a point projecting eastward on the south side of Pomfret Street (
United States Route 44
U.S. Route 44 (US 44) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that runs for through four states in the Northeastern United States. The western terminus is at US 209 and New York State Route 55 (NY 55) in Kerhonkso ...
). The mill complex occupies about , and includes twenty interconnected structures, all of which were originally used in some way in the textile manufacturing process. The buildings vary in size and height, with the largest five stories tall. The oldest building on the site was built in 1824, while the most recent new buildings dating to 1950, although there have been some subsequent alterations. Most of the construction is of brick with interior timber framing, although there is one building built out of coursed rubblestone, and another of wood framing.
The roughly drop in the Quinebaug River at this point saw early industrial use in the 18th century, with grist, saw, and fulling mills were set up in the vicinity. In 1806, a group of investors from
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
that included
Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the ...
's father-in-law, Oziel Wilkinson, established the Pomfret Manufacturing Company. They built a four-story wood-frame mill building on this site, whose foundation is still in used for one of the later 19th-century buildings. That mill was a direct emulation of
Slater's mill in
Pawtucket. and produced cotton thread. The growth of the town around this mill complex was instrumental in its eventual incorporation in 1855 of Putnam out of portions of
Pomfret
Pomfrets are perciform fishes belonging to the family Bramidae. The family currently includes 20 species across seven genera. Several species are important food sources for humans, especially ''Brama brama'' in South Asia. The earlier form of ...
,
Killingly
Killingly is a New England town, town in Windham County, Connecticut, Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 17,752 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It consists of the borough of Danielson, Connecticut, Dani ...
, and
Thompson.
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See also
*
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Historic districts in Windham County, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Windham County, Connecticut
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Putnam, Connecticut