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.