The Parkhill Mill is an historic mill complex at 1 Oak Hill Road in

Fitchburg, Massachusetts Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 census. Fitchburg is home to Fitchburg State University as well as 17 public and private e ...

. Built between 1885 and 1915, it was one of three mill complexes of the Parkill Company, one of the city's largest employers of the period. 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 2008. The complex has been restored and is used by a variety of public and private businesses, and as residential space.

Description and history

The Parkhill Mill complex is located west of downtown Fitchburg, on the south bank of the

Nashua River The Nashua River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 is a tributary of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the United States. It i ...

east of Oak Hill Road and north of Cleghorn Street. The complex consists of four buildings, three of which are joined in a U shape open to the south; the fourth, the mill's former boiler house, is located just east of these three, oriented north–south and parallel to the eastern leg of the U. Other features of the complex include its original brick chimney stack, and a former

railroad bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

spanning the

. The main mill buildings are four stories in height, and are built out of red brick. Windows are set in segmented-arch openings, and the roof is of low pitch, with a projecting

eave The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

adorned with exposed rafters. The oldest portion of the complex, part of the U's base, was built in 1885 by Andrew Cleghorn, a Scottish immigrant who operated it as a

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 ...

. He sold the mill to John Parkhill, his brother-in-law, in 1889. Parkhill was also a Scottish immigrant who had worked for many years in the mills of

Adams, Massachusetts Adams is a town in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 8,166 at the 2020 census. History Nathan Jones purchased the township of ...

. Parkhill had begun his business in a former chair factory in 1879, and expanded into a second complex in Fitchburg in 1887 before buying this one. The Parkhill Manufacturing Company principally produced

gingham Gingham, also called Vichy check, is a medium-weight balanced plain-woven fabric typically with striped, check or plaid duotone patterns, in bright colour and in white made from dyed cotton or cotton-blend yarns. It is made of carded, medium or ...

fabrics, and at its peak employed more than 1,000 people. This mill complex originally include two other buildings, which were located in the central space of the U, which is now occupied by a parking lot for the building tenants, clients and visitors.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Fitchburg, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References