Durfee-Union Mills - Fall River, MA
Posted by: 
NorStar
N 41° 41.918 W 071° 08.913
19T E 321220 N 4618546
The Durfee Mill complex, once the largest cotton mill complex in Fall River, is a series of granite buildings that now house a medical facility and several other operations.
Waymark Code: WMHCTE
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 06/24/2013
Views: 6
In Fall River, east of the city center, is a complex of granite buildings that once was the Durfee-Union Mills.
The mill are located in a plot bounded by Pleasant Street, Plymouth Avenue, and I-195. The complex is easy to see from all directions. Parking is available everywhere-though watch for reserved spaces.
There are many buildings to this complex. Most of them are built using the same gray granite rock throughout, quarried nearby. Most buildings are multiple stories, with rows of windows, topped by low slope roofs. Some roofs now have solar panels. Additions come out from the main structures.
The Durfee Mills were established in 1861. Mill No. 1 was built in 1866. Mill No. 2, which faces Mill No. 1, was built in 1871, and others were built between 1880 and 1895. At its height, it had 109,360 spindles and produced over 23 million yards of cotton fabric in a year. The company closed in 1923.
Today, most of the complex - usually lumped together with the mill buildings immediately west as the Durfee-Union Mills - is still intact, though there is some signs of decay. Prima Care Medical Center is in the main Union Mill Building. In the Durfee Mill buildings are a wide variety of operations, including a 99 Restaurant, a gym, a toy collectables shop, and discount shops.
The buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and have been documented in the Historic American Engineering Record (link provided).
Address:
359-457 Pleasant Street, Fall River
Other Source:
HABS/HAER (Durfee Mills, Fall River, Bristol County, MA):
(
visit link)