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Hope Mills

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1844, Mill No. 1, David Whitman, mill engineer, and Thomas Sharpe, mason. 1871, Mill No. 2. 1916, weaving shed. 1960, 1972, additions. 1 Main St. (Route 116)

The original four-and-one-half-story masonry structure of random mixed with cut blocks, 183 by 55 feet with a projecting stair tower, is well preserved even to its sixteen-over-sixteen sash, except for the flattening of what was once a low-pitched gable roof and the removal of its original belfry from the stair tower. The stair tower is not quite centered (seven bays on one side, nine on the other). The equally well-preserved masonry dam, gates, and raceway were doubtless built at the time of the 1844 block. After Brown and Ives sold the mill, the mill housed the Valley Lace Company during much of the twentieth century. Lace making was a skilled speciality particularly associated with the later phases of the Rhode Island textile industry. The mill presently houses several enterprises.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "Hope Mills", [Coventry, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-SC15.

Print Source

Buildings of Rhode Island, William H. Jordy, with Ronald J. Onorato and William McKenzie Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 270-271.

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