The Metacomet Mill, built in 1847 by Colonel Richard Borden for the manufacture of cotton textiles, is the oldest remaining

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 good ...

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, tenth-largest city in the state, and the second- ...

. The adjacent American Printing Company Mill No. 7 (also known as Fall River Iron Works Mill No.7) was constructed in 1906 for the production of cotton print cloth. Both structures were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1983, and today contain a variety of small businesses. The site was also photographed and surveyed by Jack E. Boucher in 1968, as part of the

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

.HABS listing, Metacomet Mill
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Historical background

The Metacomet Mill was originally constructed in 1847 by Colonel Richard Borden, a prominent local industrialist who had begun the Fall River Iron Works in 1821. The plans for the mill were brought from

Bolton, England Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and villages that form the wider ...

by Major Durfee and William Davol, and it was considered a "model mill" for its time.A Centennial History of Fall River, Mass
/ref> The mill was constructed of native field stones over the stream of the falling

Quequechan River The Quequechan River is a river in Fall River, Massachusetts, that flows in a northwesterly direction from the northwest corner of the South Watuppa Pond through the heart of the city of Fall River and into the end of the Taunton River at ...

, which powered the machinery of the early mill. It originally had a gable roof and was five and one-half stories tall. The Metacomet Mill is also significant in that it was the first recorded use of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

girders and beams for mill construction in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The cast iron beams and girders were an improvement on timber supports, which tended to become soft over time, resulting in a slight sagging in the floors, and upsetting the operation of machinery. The Metacomet Mill was substantially enlarged later in the 19th century, and a steam engine was added to supplement the power of the falls. It later became known as "Iron Works" Mill No.6. The American Printing Company Mill No.7, constructed of red brick in 1906, just upstream from the Metacomet Mill, on the site of the former Anawan Mill, also originally built by Colonel Richard Borden in 1825. Mill No. 7 was the last expansion of the American Printing Company, once the largest employer in Fall River during the height of its cotton textile industry. It is also known as "Iron Works" Mill No.7, as this was the name of the cloth-producing division of the same company; a tribute to the company's roots in 1821. Mill No.7 featured a Gothic-style engine house, which can still be seen today, along Anawan Street.

The site today

Metacomet Mill and American Printing Company Mill Number 7 are the only two mills existing over the falls of the

, which once had several mills in the steep stretch between downtown and the waterfront. During the 1960s the mill complex was completely surrounded by the construction of Interstate 195 and the approach ramps to the

Braga Bridge The Charles M. Braga Jr. Memorial Bridge, also known as the Braga Bridge, or simply, The Braga, is a Truss bridge, through truss bridge that carries Interstate 195 (Rhode Island–Massachusetts), Interstate 195 over the Taunton River between the ...

. Today, it is still possible to view the falls of the

, for which the City of Fall River was named. Two small dams, on either side of the Number 7 mill "daylight" into small pools before flowing under the mills. The rest of the river was diverted into underground channels in the 1960s with the highway construction. The

"daylights" at the far end of the parking lot for the Metacomet Mill, beneath the Braga Bridge, adjacent to the railroad tracks. The two historic mills currently contain a variety of small businesses, including the W.O.W. fitness center, and others. One of the site's two historic brick smokestacks contains a sign advertising the fitness center, while the other contains mobile telephone transmission equipment. Due to highway construction, the site remains a rather isolated pocket between downtown and the waterfront.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Printing Co. And Metacomet Mill Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Textile mills in Fall River, Massachusetts Industrial buildings completed in 1847 Industrial archaeological sites in the United States Industrial buildings and structures in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Fall River, Massachusetts 1847 establishments in Massachusetts

Historical background

The site today

See also

References