The Rossie Velvet Mill Historic District is located in the village of Mystic in Stonington,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. Its main focus is the former Rossie Velvet Mill, a large brick industrial facility on the east side of Greenmanville Avenue that is now a research center for the nearby Mystic Seaport Museum. The district extends along Greenmanville Avenue between Pleasant Street in the north and the museum complex in the south. Most of the buildings in the district are residential housing built to house workers at the mill, and were built between about 1850 and 1950. The district includes 51 properties in . The district 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 v ...

on March 9, 2007. The area that houses the Rossie Velvet Mill was primarily agricultural until the mid 19th Century, with its farmers providing goods to the shipbuilders and other businesses in Mystic. A small

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 ...

began operation on the bank of the

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...

in 1850, on what are now the grounds of the museum, precipitating development as a modestly scaled industrial area. In 1897, the Rossie Velvet Mill was established spurred on by two factors: first, a local business development group recruited velvet makers from Germany to the area, repeating a success in Stonington village, and second, the

McKinley Tariff The Tariff Act of 1890, commonly called the McKinley Tariff, was an act of the United States Congress, framed by then Representative William McKinley, that became law on October 1, 1890. The tariff raised the average duty on imports to almost fift ...

of 1890, which encouraged the owners of a velvet mill in Süchteln (northwestern Germany) to relocate to the United States and open a manufacturing facility to avoid the tariff. This business was a major local success, employing 200 workers (including a significant number of experienced German immigrant weavers) at what was the village's largest employer. The Rossie operation failed during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, but the plant was soon operating again under different ownership. Finally, the mill permanently closed in 1958.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island, state=collapsed Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut Historic districts in New London County, Connecticut Stonington, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

See also

References

External links