Cornell Mills is an historic cotton
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 ...
on Alden Street in
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state.
Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...
. Built in 1890, it is a well-preserved example of late 19th-century industrial mill architecture in stone. The mill complex was added to 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 v ...
in 1983.
On February 26, 2016, a developer has bought the property with the intent to convert the mill into middle-class residential housing.
Description and history
The Cornell Mills building stands in eastern Fall River, and is sandwiched between Alden Street to the east and the western interchange of
Massachusetts Route 24
Route 24 is a freeway south of Interstate 93 (I-93) in southeastern Massachusetts, linking Fall River with the Boston metropolitan area. It begins in the south in Fall River at the border with Tiverton, Rhode Island where it connects with Rho ...
and
Interstate 195 to the southwest, from which it is a prominent landmark. The main mill building is a three-story granite structure, fashioned out of rough-cut blocks with dressed corner quoining blocks, lintels, and sills. The window bays are regular in size, but are relieved architecturally by buttresses that group them into threes and sixes. It has a low-pitch gable roof with a wide cornice. The property's ancillary buildings include an engine house, garage, waste house, and storehouse. A freestanding brick chimney rises , with corbelled brickwork at the top.
The mill was organized in 1889 and built in 1890 from native
Fall River granite. It had a capacity of 45,000 spindles at its peak in the 1910s, and produced printed cloth and other textiles. John D. Flint was the company's first president. The plant was closed in 1930.
Phillips History of Fall River
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The structure was eventually leased out to the Elbe-Cesco bookbinding company in 1939 which continued to occupy parts of the mill until the property was sold to Starr Development Partners in 2016, where it will be converted into 101 middle-class residential rental units similar to what other historic mills have been converted into across the region.
See also
*
*List of mills in Fall River, Massachusetts
The city of Fall River, Massachusetts once had over 120 cotton textile mills and was the leading cotton textile center in the United States during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
There are currently about 65 historic textile mills rem ...
References
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Textile mills in Fall River, Massachusetts
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Fall River, Massachusetts