Grant Mill

About this Property

#Redevelopment

Until 2008, the mill was home to many small businesses and studios in the middle of a largely residential neighborhood on the city’s west side. Famed local custom bicycle frame manufacturer Circle-A Cycles had their shop here, among others. Alas, as mill conversions became the hot thing to do, this mill was sold to an out-of-state developer and converted.

#Current Events

Originally redeveloped by Brady Sullivan Properties, the Grant Mill Lofts were sold for $13.4 million to Heritage Properties, of Lowell, MA in 2017. In October 2007, Brady Sullivan paid $2.4 million for the former Carpenter’s Mill building.¹

Units are now managed by Heritage, a real-estate developer and management company. Availability and contact information for rentals are available on the Grant Mill website.

#History

From the “Industrial Sites and Commercial Buildings Survey (ICBS)” by PPS and the AIA, 2001-2002

The four-story, flat-roof, brick building with segmental-arch windows was constructed around an earlier stone mill. The building extends from Carpenter Street to Grant Street to the north with a paved parking lot to the east. The main block of the building along Carpenter Street is embellished with brick corbelling at the cornice line and features a one-story, flat-roof projection which houses an office to the east. The building’s primary entrance is housed on the south elevation of the office block within a recessed, arched entrance. Additional pedestrian entrances are located throughout the complex. Fenestration consists of segmental-arch openings 10/10 sash set below fixed five-light transoms. Two bays on the west elevation of this block have had their windows bricked in, as have the windows on the first story of this block. Two sets of iron fire escapes are located along the Carpenter Street elevation. The northern-most bay of the east elevation of the block contains a hoist and pulley mechanism with paired doors in each bay.

The Grant Street elevation of the building is comprised of two-, three-, and four-story blocks. These blocks also feature corbelled brick cornices and segmental-arch window openings with multi-light sash. Window openings on the first floor of these blocks have been infilled with concrete blocks. A square, tapered brick chimney stack rises from the interior of the complex. Lozenge-shaped tie rods are regularly spaced throughout the buildings’ exterior walls. The building still retains its steam engine and original electric generator. A paved lot is surrounded by chain link fencing.

The building that currently occupies this site was constructed ca. 1910 around an earlier stone mill constructed by Schubael Grant for the manufacture of textiles in what was at that time a remote section of the city. The mill was operated by various individuals throughout the mid-nineteenth century and in 1871, was purchased by the cotton manufacturing firm of B.B. & R. Knight. The Knights fitted the building with 8,000 spindles. The building was one of the two Providence mills owned by the huge cotton combine of B.B. and R. Knight, known for their Fruit of the Loom products. Benjamin and Robert Knight began the manufacture of cloth in 1852 and in 1856 adopted their Fruit of the Loom symbol.

According to a Board of Trade Journal article, the old Grant Mill, known locally as the White Mill, was surrounded by the walls of the new four-story structure to allow for continued operations of the mill while the new building was under construction. Once the new structure was complete, the old walls were removed. Nineteenth-century maps confirm the existence of a different structure on the site.

By the early twentieth century, the B.B. & R. Knight Company owned 22 cotton mills in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Following the death of the Knight Brothers in the early twentieth century, the textile company was run by their sons until a New York corporation purchased the Knight holdings in 1920. Cotton goods were manufactured by this firm under the Fruit of the Loom label until 1926 when the company filed for bankruptcy. In 1935 the Grant Mill was sold to the Blacher Brothers jewelry company, which occupied the mill to at least 1981.

This is the only extant mill in Providence associated with the important Knight family. Additionally, the building is significant as another plant (Providence Steam Cotton Mill) owned by the Knights on Dyer Street, is no longer extant (Woodward 1986; RlHPHC 1981; Kulik 1978).

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Older history (Much of the history above is based on these references)

From the RIHPHC’s survey of Providence Industrial Sites, July 1981

Built around an earlier stone mill structure tis plain, 4-story, brick mill with a flat roof and segmental-arch windows was one of the two Providence mills owned by the huge cotton combine B.B. and R. Knight, best known for its “Fruit of the Loom” products. Another plant, the Nottingham Mill (originally the Providence Steam Cotton Mill) on Dyer Street, owned by the Knights in the early 20th century, has been demolished.

The Knight brothers, Benjamin and Robert, began the manufacture of cotton cloth in 1852 and in 1856 adopted their Fruit of the Loom symbol which was later accompanied by a guarantee of satisfaction. By the early 20th century the B.B. & R. Knight Company owned 22 cotton mills in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. After the death of the Knight brothers in the early 20th century, the textile combine was run by their sons until 1920 when a New York corporation bought the Knight holdings. This corporation manufactured cotton goods under the Fruit of the Loom label until 1926 when it filed for bankruptcy; the mills were subsequently managed by the Knight Finance Corporation. In 1935 the Grant Mill was sold to the Blacher Brothers jewelry company which still occupies the mill.

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From “RHODE ISLAND: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites”, Gary Kulik and Julia C. Bonham, 1978

The original Grant Mill, a 4-story, stone textile mill with a central tower and a 2-story, wooden weave room on the west, stood on this Carpenter Street site some time before 1880. Owned by the Hebron Manufacturing Company, the Grant Mill was a part of the B. B. R. Knight textile combine. In 1896, the Knights owned eighteen textile mills, twelve of them in Rhode Island — Grant, Arctic, Cranston Print, Jackson, Clinton, Natick, Fiskville, Royal in Warwick, Valley Queen, Pontiac, Lippitt in Warwick, and White Rock in Westerly — and controlled a total of 290,000 spindles.

Sometime between 1908 and 1918, the present Grant Mill, a 4-story, brick structure fronting directly on Carpenter Street, was built. The new mill completely replaced the earlier one. In 1935, with the decline of the state’s textile industry a jewelry firm bought the Grant Mill. This same firm, Blacher Brothers, continues to operate the mill. The mill’s basement contains two inactive steam engines: one, a cross-compound Corliss with a 16-foot flywheel, a 4-foot stroke, a 24-inch cylinder on the high pressure side, and a 40-inch cylinder on the low pressure side; the other, a small Fleming engine from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, connected to a 125 KW generator and previously used for emergency lighting. The Corliss once provided direct mechanical drive and was probably installed when the new mill was built. It is currently connected to a 450 KW generator, but it has not operated for a number of years.

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From the “Broadway-Armory Historic District” National Register nomination form, 1974

295-313 Gotham Court Grant Mill (ca 1910): 4-story; flat; brick mill; with corbelled cornice and segmental arched windows. Built around an earlier stone mill and the only extant mill in Providence associated with the important cotton manufacturing firm of B.B. and R. Knight, best known for Fruit of the Loom products.

#In the News

While our opinion of the development company Brady Sullivan are relatively high — in that the workmanship and respect for historic mill spaces in their projects are high — they have been the subject of controversy. In 2018, after selling the Grant Mill property, Brady Sullivan was involved in a protracted dispute with tenants and former tenants of a mill property in Coventry where mold issues made tenants sick. The full story is more complicated and details can be found on New Hampshire public radio’s website.