Historic Mills of Connecticut

Use (Historic)

• Textiles

Largest Documented Workforce

n/a

Historic Narrative

For historical significance see National Register application: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/83001256.pdf Surviving portions of this enormous carpet plant date from 1883 to 1923, a period during which two mergers catapulted the firm into the position of third largest corporation in New England, exceeded only by two other textile firms. Hartford Carpet Co., result of an 1854 reorganization of the Thompsonville Carpet Manufacturing Co. of 1828, merged in 1901 with E. S. Higgins Carpet Co. of New York City. Bigelow Carpet Co. of Lowell and Clinton, MA joined the combination in 1914, resulting in the Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Co. The oldest structure was built in 1883 for expanded production of pile carpets, such as moquettes and Axminsters. As later production facilities were built, this mill was used for machine shops. In scale it is one of the few structures here to suggest the more limited operations which preceded the advent of corporate capital. By contrast, the mills built in 1901-05 after the first merger are huge, reflecting changes in the style of production and accumulation. A third merger in 1929 combined Bigelow Hartford with Stephen Sanford and Sons of Amsterdam, NY to form the nation's largest carpet producer, Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Co., which employed up to 13,500 people here before closing in the 1960s. Demolition has taken many of the industrial structures, including the power house, several storehouses and the spooling mill. Extant, however, are hundreds of company-built houses, the freight depot, about one mile of rail sidings, a social club and an athletic club, as well as the mills noted above. Planning is presently underway for adaptive reuse of the empty factories. (Roth)

Number of Existing Buildings

n/a

Dates of Construction

1883, 1901, 1903, 1911, 1923

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Mill

Architectural Description

For description see National Register application: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/83001256.pdf Surviving portions of this enormous carpet plant date from 1883 to 1923. The 1883 2-story brick-pier mill, 139' x 59', has a near flat roof with skylights. The 3-story, brick, 1901 Tapestry Mill measures 897' x 100'. Its flat roof with monitor and segmental arched windows with stone sills were duplicated in the 1903 Worsted Yarn Mill, 3-story and 648' x 110'. This construction program also included new dyehouses, color house, filling mill and scouring mill, extension of the ingrain (a flat-weave carpet) mill, and demolition of the original 1828 structures. The 1 story Brussels (a pile carpet) Weave Shed was extended in 1911. The original structure, brick-pier and timber-framed, was 290' x 110' with two monitors along the flat roof. Reinforced concrete posts and beams frame the 230' x 175' brickpier, sawtooth-roofed extension; inside the extension remain overhead rails that were used for moving the broadlooms. The largest building erected after the 1914 merger is the 1923 Axminster Mill, as-story, 470' x 130' brick-pier factory. (Roth) Associated with the Hartford-Bigelow Carpet Mills (#2058). Within the district are roughly 150 company-built residences located north, east, and south of the mills. These include a mix of single- and multi-family brick or wood-frame houses built in a variety of styles between ca. 1830 and ca. 1920. Many are found in clusters of replicated designs, among the earliest and most notable being the group of six red brick Gothic Revival style single-family residences built along Cottage Green ca. 1845. Others, such as the rows of wood-frame duplexes located along Hartford Avenue, represent a blending of the Colonial Revival and Queen Anne styles typical of working-class housing constructed during the early 20th century.

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick

Structural System(s)

n/a

Roof Form

• Flat
• Monitor
• Sawtooth

Roof Material

n/a

Power Source

n/a

Condition

n/a

Condition Notes

n/a

Specific Location

On Main Street, between N River and Pleasant Streets.
Listed on the National Register.

Adjacent To

n/a

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 007/ / 0031 / Link →

Acreage

24.26

Use (Present)

• Residential

Form Completed By

n/a

Date

n/a

Bibliography

1. Roth, Matthew, et al, Connecticut: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites (Washington DC: SIA, 1981).
2. Roth, Matthew W. 1983. Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills National Register Nomination No. 83001256. National Park Service.