Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills Historic District

Last updated

Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills Historic District
Mill worker housing, Thompsonville, Connecticut.jpg
Mill worker housing
USA Connecticut location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationRoughly bounded by Lafayette St., Hartford Ave., Alden Ave., Pleasant, High, Spring, South and Prospect Sts., Enfield, Connecticut
Coordinates 41°59′59″N72°36′6″W / 41.99972°N 72.60167°W / 41.99972; -72.60167
Area100 acres (40 ha)
Architectural styleGreek Revival, Gothic Revival, Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No. 94001382 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 25, 1994

The Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills Historic District encompasses a company-built factory and residential area in the Thompsonville area of Enfield, Connecticut, United States. In addition to the former factory buildings of the Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills, it includes more than 150 housing units built by the company between about 1830 and 1920. It is roughly bounded on the north by Lafayette Street and Alden Avenue, the east by Hartford Avenue and Lincoln Street, the south by High Street, and the west by River Street. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. [1]

Contents

Description and history

The Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills were the largest employer in Enfield for many years, and one of the largest textile firms in the state. Founded in 1828 by Orrin Thompson on the banks of Freshwater Brook, the company became one of the nation's largest manufacturers of carpeting, employing more than 13,000 workers in Thompsonville at its height in the 1920s. The company's growth through the 19th century prompted an ongoing need for nearby affordable housing for its workers. The result is several generations of stylistically different housing, built densely in the blocks surrounding the main factory complex. [2]

None of the earliest housing, a row of simple single-story cottages documented in drawings, built by Orrin Thompson survives. Early buildings tended to house either two or four families on two floors. Later construction expanded on these models, resulting in three-story tenements and row houses with as many as twelve units. The 1845 Cottage Green area was an unusual deviation from the largely grid-based layout the company used for its housing, with a series of single-family Gothic cottages around a common yard. This area may have been developed as a means to attract highly skilled craftsmen from England. The tenement-style housing found in the district was mainly built in the late 19th century; the housing of the early 20th century returned to the models of two and four families, and featured vernacular versions of popular architectural styles. [2]

In addition to the mass of company housing, the district also includes the surviving early 20th-century factory buildings, which have for the most part been converted to residential use. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enfield, Connecticut</span> Town in Connecticut, United States

Enfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 42,141 at the 2020 census. It is bordered by Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to the north, Somers to the east, East Windsor and Ellington to the south, and the Connecticut River to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tariffville, Connecticut</span> Census-designated place in Connecticut, United States

Tariffville is a neighborhood and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Simsbury in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,324 at the 2010 census. It is a popular location for whitewater paddlers who use the Farmington River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thompsonville, Connecticut</span> Census-designated place in Connecticut, United States

Thompsonville is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Enfield in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population of the CDP was 8,577 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mechanic Street Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Mechanic Street Historic District encompasses a historic 19th-century mill and mill village in a 14-block area of the Pawcatuck section of Stonington, Connecticut. Extending along the Pawcatuck River and south of West Broad Street, the area includes a large brick mill complex on the banks of the river, and a neighborhood of well-preserved worker housing on the road grid to its west. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheney Brothers Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Cheney Brothers Historic District was a center of the silk industry in Manchester, Connecticut, in the late 19th and early 20th century. The 175-acre (71 ha) district includes over 275 mill buildings, workers houses, churches, schools and Cheney family mansions. These structures represent the well-preserved company town of the Cheney Brothers silk manufacturing company, the first America-based silk company to properly raise and process silkworms, and to develop the difficult techniques of spinning and weaving silk. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enfield station (Connecticut)</span>

Enfield station is a planned CTrail Hartford Line station in Enfield, Connecticut. As of September 2023, construction is expected to begin in 2025. A previous station at the site was open from 1844 to 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connecticut Route 190</span> Highway in Connecticut

Route 190 is a state route in the northern part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It starts at Route 75 in the town of Suffield and proceeds eastward across the Connecticut River through the towns of Enfield, Somers, and Stafford. It ends at Route 171, in the town of Union. Route 190 was established in 1932 as a route between the state line at Southwick and the town of Enfield. The route was later extended eastward to Union but was truncated in the west to Suffield center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somersville Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Somersville Historic District encompasses the historic components of the mill village of Somersville in western Somers, Connecticut, United States. The district is centered on a mill complex on the Scantic River, which divides the district. The most significant years of development were between about 1835 and 1935, although the area has a history dating to the 1760s. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The Mill itself has since burned down and as of October 2018 is currently open field, although the canal structure remains in place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazardville Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Hazardville Historic District is a historic district in the Hazardville section of Enfield, Connecticut, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pine Meadow Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Pine Meadow Historic District encompasses most of the historic 19th-century village of Pine Meadow in New Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Located at a bend in the West Branch of the Farmington River southeast of New Hartford center, it is a well-preserved example of a rural industrial village. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ware Millyard Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Ware Millyard Historic District encompasses a 19th-century mill complex and industrial mill village in the town of Ware, Massachusetts. It is roughly bounded by South Street, the Ware River, Upper Dam Complex, Park Street, Otis Avenue and Church Street. The area includes surviving mill buildings, the oldest of which date to the 1840s, and a collection of tenement-style housing built for the millworkers, built between 1845 and the 1880s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ipswich Mills Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Ipswich Mills Historic District encompasses a major textile mill complex and associated worker housing along the Ipswich River near the center of Ipswich, Massachusetts. The district includes the factories of the Ipswich Mill Company, and several blocks of modest worker cottages mostly on side streets off Estes and Kimball Streets. The site had been used as for mills since the 17th century, and was purchased by the Ipswich Mill Company in 1868. Mill worker housing was built surrounding the complex through the early 20th century, when River Court, Peatfield Street, and 1st through 6th Streets were laid out. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">District B</span> Historic district in New Hampshire, United States

District B is a historic worker housing district located in Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, near the former Amoskeag Manufacturing Company millyard. It is roughly bounded by Canal, Mechanic, Franklin, and Pleasant Streets, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 12, 1982. It contains 32 contributing properties, including seventeen rowhouse tenement blocks built mainly between 1838 and 1850, in an area of approximately 170 acres (69 ha).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Main Street Historic District (Durham, Connecticut)</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Main Street Historic District encompasses the historic civic, commercial, and residential center of Durham, Connecticut. The district is primarily linear and runs along Main Street from between Higganum Road and Town House Road in the south to Talcott Lane in the north, and along Maple Avenue, which parallels Main Street. The district includes most of its colonial architecture, as well as many of its civic buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elm Street Historic District (Hartford, Connecticut)</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Elm Street Historic District encompasses a collection of architecturally distinguished institutional and residential buildings near the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford, Connecticut. Located on Capitol Avenue and Trinity and Elm Streets, it includes the city's best concentration of early 20th-century architecture, including Bushnell Memorial Hall and several state office buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holden–Leonard Workers Housing Historic District</span> Historic district in Vermont, United States

The Holden–Leonard Workers Housing Historic District encompasses a collection of mill-related tenement houses, plus a former mill store, in Bennington, Vermont. They are located on Benmont and Holden Avenues, near the former Holden–Leonard Mill Complex, Bennington's largest employer in the late 19th century. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills</span> United States historic place

The Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Mills were once one of the largest manufacturers of carpeting in the United States. The company's early 20th-century factories, located in Thompsonville, Connecticut, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Used by a succession of carpet makers until the 1960s, the company complex has for the most part been converted to residential use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtisville Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Curtisville Historic District encompasses a predominantly residential area along Naubuc Avenue and Pratt Streets in northwestern Glastonbury, Connecticut. Developed mainly in the 19th century, it illustrates the coexistence of agricultural and industrial pursuits in a single village area, mixing worker housing, former farm properties, and a small mill complex. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enfield Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Enfield Historic District encompasses a two-mile stretch of Enfield Street, the main north-south road of Enfield, Connecticut. Centered on the town common with its church and old town hall, it includes a diversity of residential architecture from the 18th to early 20th centuries. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Albany Historic District</span> Historic district in Connecticut, United States

The Upper Albany Historic District encompasses a predominantly residential area of the North End of Hartford, Connecticut. It extends along Albany Avenue between Garden and Woodland Streets, including side streets to the south, and extends northward to include the southern portion of Keney Park. This area was developed in the first two decades of the 20th century, and has a fine array of period middle-class housing in the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "NRHP nomination for Bigelow-Hartford Mills Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved April 16, 2017.