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River Point in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, is a community made up of mill houses and three mills - the Valley Queen Mill, the Royal Mill and the Cotton Shed. Built in 1834 by the Greene Company, the Valley Queen Mill is the oldest of the three buildings. It originally operated as a cotton factory, producing coarse cotton cloths under the Greene Company name.
In 1888, B.B.& R. Knight Company, the textile giant that made Fruit of the Loom products, purchased the Valley Queen Mill. Over the next couple of years, they built the Royal Mill and the Cotton Shed. B.B. & R. Knight was a complete textile operation with combing, spinning and weaving facilities.
In 1931, the McIver Family, which owned The Original Bradford Soap Works, bought the Valley Queen Mill from the bankruptcy proceedings related to winding down the business affairs of the B.B. & R. Knight Company. In the 1960s, the Howland family took over the business. Under the leadership of the Howland family, today The Original Bradford Soap Works manufactures high quality bar soaps and soap bases in the Valley Queen Mill building. [1]
In 1936, the Royal Mill was purchased by the Saybrooke Manufacturing Company. They produced wool fabrics for over 10 years. The mill then changed hands several times and the Royal Mill and Cotton Shed eventually sold to the Barrish Family which owned Ace Dyeing and Finishing.
When Ace Dyeing and Finishing went bankrupt in the 1990s, the state/town took over both the Royal Mill and the Cotton Shed for overdue taxes. Eventually, they enticed the Struever Brothers to convert the Royal Mill into apartments and more recently they convinced the Thundermist Medical Center to relocated to the Cotton Shed.
The name Riverpoint is derived by virtue of the fact that the North and South branches of the Pawtuxet River merge into a single river at the point immediately behind the Valley Queen Mill, which continues to be the home of Bradford Soap Works.
Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls and Lincoln to the north, and North Providence to the west. The city also borders the Massachusetts municipalities of Seekonk and Attleboro.
Bradford is a census-designated place (CDP) and historic district in the towns of Westerly and Hopkinton in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 1,406 at the 2010 census. The Bradford Village Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 as a 224-acre (91 ha) area including 149 contributing buildings, one other contributing site, and one other contributing structure. The CDP as defined by the United States Census Bureau is located only in Westerly.
Hopkinton is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island. The population was 8,398 at the 2020 census.
West Warwick is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 31,012 at the 2020 census.
The Knight Estate is a historic estate in Warwick, Rhode Island, that is home to the Knight Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island. Developed as a country estate for a family of industrialists and later donated to the state, the main house and its outbuildings were listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Lippitt Mill is an historic mill at 825 Main Street in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Pontiac Mills is a historic textile mill complex on Knight Street in the village of Pontiac, Rhode Island within the city of Warwick. The mills produced the original Fruit of the Loom brand of cloth.
The Royal Mill Complex is an historic textile mill site at 125 Providence Street in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The mill complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. It has recently been completely renovated and remodeled into 250 residential apartments. The complex also includes the Ace Dye Works mill on the south side of the river, which has been converted into lofts. A pedestrian skybridge connects the two mills.
The Valley Queen Mill is an historic mill at 200 Providence Street in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates was an American textile company, founded in 1889 as Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company in Adams, Massachusetts in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
The American Printing Company, located in Fall River, Massachusetts grew to become the largest producer of printed cotton cloth in the United States by the early 20th Century. The company grew as an offshoot of the Fall River Iron Works, established in 1821 by Colonel Richard Borden and Major Bradford Durfee. The American Print Works was established in 1835 by Holder Borden. It employed several thousand workers at its peak during World War I.
Colonel Richard Borden (1795–1874) was an American businessman and civic leader from Fall River, Massachusetts. He co-founded the Fall River Iron Works in 1821, and later built several early cotton mills, as well as the Fall River Line, Fall River Gas Works Company, the Fall River Railroad, banks and other businesses. The Borden family would dominate the economic and civic life of Fall River into the early 20th century.
Robert Knight was a New England industrialist and philanthropist, who was a partner with his brother Benjamin Knight in B. B. & R. Knight and was one of the largest textile manufacturers in the world when he died in 1912. He co-founded the clothing brand Fruit of the Loom, now owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
Benjamin Brayton Knight (1813–1898) was a New England industrialist and philanthropist, who was a partner with his brother Robert Knight in the B. B. & R. Knight Company and was one of the largest textile manufacturers in the world when he died in 1898. Knight co-founded the large and famous brand, Fruit of the Loom.
Pontiac is a historic village in Warwick, Rhode Island, and part of the Pawtuxet River Valley.
Lippitt, Rhode Island is a village within the town of West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Anthony is a village along Route 117 within the town of Coventry, Rhode Island near the villages of Washington and Quidnick on the southwestern banks of the Pawtuxet River. The village comprises "Anthony, Arnold, Boston, Mapledale, Meeting, Taft, Washington and Laurel Avenue."
Harris is a village near the town of Coventry, Rhode Island on the north branch of the Pawtuxet River near West Warwick.
Edward Gould Chase (1882–1935) was an American businessman and an entrepreneur in textile manufacturing. Chase led the organization of the Fort Dummer Mills in Brattleboro, Vermont, a cotton mill, and he served as the founding manager. He also served as a vice president and the treasurer of Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates, a predecessor of Berkshire Hathaway.
Amos DeForest Lockwood (1811–1884) was an American manufacturer and engineer based in Providence, Rhode Island. He was self-trained as a mechanical engineer, and gradually expanded his scope to all areas of textile mill construction. He was a cofounder, in 1882, of Lockwood, Greene & Company, which would become one of the largest engineering firms in the United States in the twentieth century.