New Mill and Depot Building, Hawthorne Woolen Mill facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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New Mill and Depot Building,
Hawthorne Woolen Mill |
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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South elevation and east profile, 2008
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 Location in Connecticut
Location in the United States
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| Location | Greenwich, CT |
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| Area | 0.8 acres (3,200 m2) |
| Built | 1875 |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne, Gothic Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 90000152 |
| Added to NRHP | February 23, 1990 |
The New Mill and Depot Building and the former Hawthorne Woolen Mill are two historic buildings in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. They were built in the 1870s as part of a larger textile mill complex.
These buildings are special because they were very decorative for their time, even though they were used for work. The mill building shows off the Gothic Revival style, and the depot building is in the Queen Anne style. Today, they are used for shops and businesses in the Glenville area of Greenwich. In 1990, they were added to the National Register of Historic Places, which is a list of important historical places in the U.S. Later, in 2003, they became a key part of the Glenville Historic District.
Contents
What Do the Buildings Look Like?
The two buildings are on a piece of land about 0.8 acres (0.32 hectares) big. It's located between Pemberwick Road on the west and the Byram River on the east. A 30-foot (9.1 m) high dam that once powered the mills is still there.
The New Mill Building
The "new" mill building is the bigger one, right by the river. It has three stories and is about 56 feet (17 m) wide and 156 feet (48 m) long. There's also a two-story wing on the north side. Because the ground level has changed over time, the building now looks like it has only two stories from the east side. A tall tower in the middle goes up to a fourth story, reaching about 55 feet (17 m) high.
Cool Brick Designs
This building has very fancy brickwork and decorations on all its main sides. The windows are rounded at the top. They have special brick lines, called "belt courses," that go across the building. These lines are made of three rows of bricks, with black bricks in between. The arches above the windows also have black bricks that are set back a bit.
Tall, flat columns called pilasters rise between the windows. They have square designs made of bricks sticking out at the top. A decorative edge, called a "dentilled cornice," runs just below the roof.
The top of the tower and most of the rooflines look like the tops of old castles, with crenelation (notches). The tower also has machicolation, which are stone projections that look like they could have been used to drop things from above. On one part of the building, bricks are arranged in a pattern called "diapering" to spell out "1881," which is the year the building was finished. There are also smaller towers at the corners of the building.
The Depot Building
A walking area separates the mill building from the depot building, which is to the east. The depot is a smaller, one-and-a-half-story brick building. It's about 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and 123 feet (37 m) long. It has a pointed roof with wide overhangs.
Fancy Wooden Details
The roof has gabled dormer windows (windows that stick out from the roof) on the west side. Both the dormer gables and the main roof peaks have decorative wooden braces. These wooden designs look like delicate leaves, and they are even more detailed at the main roof peaks than on the dormers. You can also see the ends of the roof rafters (support beams) on the dormers.
A Look at the Mill's Past
The area of Glenville grew up around a mill on the Byram River, starting in the mid-1700s. By 1814, a textile mill called the Byram Manufacturing Company was already working at this spot. Over the years, many different owners tried to make the mill successful, but none of them managed it for very long.
New Owners and New Buildings
In 1874, after the mill faced foreclosure (meaning the bank took it back), a man named William Tingue bought it. He started a new company called Tingue, Hous and Company, also known as Hawthorne Woolen Mill. An inspection in 1875 said the old buildings were "strong and in good repair." So, it's a bit of a mystery why Tingue decided to tear them down and build new ones just a few years later.
The depot building was probably built first. It was meant to be served by a railroad line that was planned in 1867, connecting Port Chester, New York, and Ridgefield, Connecticut. However, those railroad plans were never finished. The construction of the new mill, which replaced an older building of similar size, suggests that Tingue's business was doing very well.
Tingue's success might be why he chose such fancy designs for the buildings. Owners sometimes built grand structures to show how important their businesses were to the community. The detailed patterns on the mill building show a lot of thought went into its design. The wooden trim on the depot building also shows the influence of the Stick/Eastlake architectural style, which was popular for its decorative woodwork.
Changes and Decline
In 1892, the company changed its name to the Hawthorne Mills Company. Five years later, in 1897, it was recorded that the mill had 20 sets of carding machines (for preparing wool) and 70 broadlooms (for weaving wide fabrics). In 1899, the American Felt Company, a large company from New Jersey, bought Hawthorne Mills.
The mill continued to do well. Many Irish and later Polish immigrants who lived nearby worked there. By 1939, it had 24 card sets, five pickers (machines for cleaning fibers), and 200 employees. After World War II, like many other textile mills in New England, the Hawthorne Woolen Mill started to decline.
The American Felt Company closed the mill in the 1970s. Since then, the buildings have been changed into a mix of homes and businesses. The inside of the buildings were completely redone, but the outside still looks much like it did when it was a busy mill.
