Monohasett Woolen Mill

The photo to the left by P.H. Rose shows a view from the south of the Monohasett Woolen Mill, circa 1890. The mill was (and still is) located at the corner of Eagle Street and Kinsley Avenue in Providence.

The mill was established in 1866 by a couple of guys named Paine and Sackett. The main building, according to “Providence Industrial Sites,” published by the Rhode Island Historical Heritage and Preservation Commission (1981), is “a four-story, brick structure with granite trim, a flank-gambrel roof, and a five-story, flat-top tower which originally had a steep hip roof. [This main structure originally] contained the engine room, boiler room, drying room, and packing room. The tower contained stairways, dressing rooms, and an elevator. The two-story, hip-roofed, brick building contained wool shops and more boiler and engine rooms. The Monohasset Mill specialized in the production of fancy cassimers and was known during its twenty-one years in operation as one of the best woolen manufacturers in the country.” The architect was J.C. Bucklin.

In 1887 Armington and Sims Engine Company, makers of high speed steam engines, moved into the buildings. Although they made a superior product, lauded by no less a personage than Thomas Edison himself, Armington and Sims was out of business by 1896, possibly as a result of the depression that followed the panic of 1893. The company’s physical assets were then acquired at auction by Julius Palmer, F.M. Bushnell, and James M. Scott. These guys thought it would be a good idea to run their new company under the Armington and Sims name, until they got sued for doing so without the permission of the original owners. The renamed business, the Eastern Engine Company, lasted only ten years before failing in 1903.

The ad to the right from Providence Board of Trade Thirtieth Year (1898), was placed by Palmer, Bushnell, and Scott’s company using the Armington and Sims name without permission.

Over the next hundred years the property was home to several businesses, including a number of worsted companies (notable among which was Cleveland Worsted Mills), machinery dealers, a rug manufacturer, and a jewelry manufacturer. The last major tenant left in 1955, leaving the properties in the hands of successions of small jewelry and industrial companies.

In 2002 a group of four artists bought the building and began renovating it into residential live/work condo units, “designed by artists, for artists.” Wanna buy one? Or just see what it looks like inside? Check out www.millproject.org.

The view to the left is of the north side of the main building, taken May 31, 2008. Incidentally, the New England Wireless and Steam Museum in East Greenwich has two working Armington and Sims engines, and an approximate reproduction of the Armington and Sims machine shop can be seen today at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.