Yantic Woolen Mill (1865)

The village of Yantic developed as an industrial area in Norwich in the first half of the nineteenth century. Textile manufacturing began in 1818 with the construction of cotton mills. These were acquired in 1824 by sea captain Ersastus Williams, who installed machinery to produce woolens. In 1865, his son, E. Winslow Williams, took charge of the mills, which would become known as the Yantic Woolen Company. That same year, a fire destroyed the original mills and Williams replaced them with the present stone mill building. The company was placed in receivership in 1913 and the mill would continue to operate under a number of successive owners until 1988. The building is often called the Hale Mill because the last company to use it was the Hale Manufacturing Company, which produced yarn for automobile upholstery fabric. Since 1995, plans to convert the former mill into a hotel were long delayed by financial difficulties and foreclosure. Last year, the building was acquired by a new developer, who received permission to proceed with the project from the Historic District Commission.

Ponemah Mills Commercial Block (1871)

The community of Taftville in Norwich grew in the nineteenth century as a mill village next to Ponemah Mills, which was once the largest textile mill in the world under one roof. At the corner of North Second Avenue and Providence Street in Taftville is a commercial building erected by the company. It was probably built about the same time as Ponemah Mill #1 (1871), as it shares that structure’s French Second Empire style architecture. It features a Mansard roof with dormer windows. The building once housed the Ponemah Mills offices, which later moved to another building, erected in 1929. The building also had a post office, a fire station and a general store, operated by the company. On the second floor was a community hall.

Charles Mallory Sail Loft (1830)

Charles Mallory (1796-1882) was born in Waterford and learned sail making in New London as an apprentice to his brother-in-law, Nathan Beebe. In 1816 Mallory came to Mystic, where he soon set up his own sail loft. In 1836 he retired from sail making to focus on his fishing, whaling and shipping interests. His descendants would continue as an important shipping and shipbuilding family. Mallory had a sail making loft on the third floor of a building on Holmes Street in Mystic that he constructed circa 1830. All three floors were used for a variety of purposes over the years. In 1951 the building was brought upriver by barge to its current location at Mystic Seaport. The top floor has a sail loft exhibit, the middle floor has a ship rigging loft exhibit and the bottom floor has a ship chandlery exhibit. (more…)

American Paper Goods Company (1893)

In 1893, the Ajax Envelope Company of New York City and the Howard Manufacturing Company of Jersey City formed the American Paper Goods Company and moved their operations to Kensington in Berlin, where they secured water rights on the Mattabessett River. The company erected a dam, which survives today, and created Paper Goods Pond, now a town park. The surviving factory and office building was erected in 1893. Its west end (pictured above) has a curving rounded shape. Extending to the east along Main Street are factory additions built in 1900, 1903 and 1914. The company produced waxed paper bags for tobacco and seeds and envelopes for medicine and photographs, later also making paper cups. Continental Can Company bought the factory in 1954 and closed it five years later.

In 1959, Sherwood Industries, known as the Sherri Cup Company, purchased the property. Sherri continued to manufacture paper cups and also made machine tools for the paper industry. Millions of the iconic Anthora paper cups, created in 1963 and displaying the words “We Are Happy to Serve You” were produced in the building. The company was absorbed by the Solo Cup Company and the factory closed in 2004. The former factory building has since been converted into condominiums and is called the Lofts at Sherwood Falls.

Ponemah Mills Office Building (1929)

Ponemah Mills, in operation from the 1870s to the 1970s, was a cotton textile manufacturer with a massive mill complex in the village of Taftville in Norwich. Along Norwich Avenue can be found Mill #1, built in 1871, and Mill #2, built in 1884. In 1929, the company erected a building for its offices, attached to Mill #2, directly in front of that structure’s north tower. The building is now home to Amazing Furniture. The former mill buildings are now being converted into luxury apartments.

Wallace Silversmiths Administration Building (1920)

Happy Tanksgiving! Perhaps you will eat your Thanksgiving dinner with fine Wallace silverware? In the 1870s, Robert Wallace, an immigrant from Scotland, established what would become the R. Wallace and Sons Manufacturing Company, a major American manufacturer of sterling silver. Over time, the company expanded its factory complex at 340 Quinnipiac Street in Wallingford. The Administration Building was built c. 1920-1924. By the 1950s, the company was known as Wallace Silversmiths. Over the years it would be sold three times and would relocate twice within Wallingford before leaving the state in 1987.