Stillmanville Woolen Mill (Connecticut Castings Mill)
The historic Stillmanville Woolen Mill, also known as the Connecticut Castings Mill, was demolished in April 2019. The property, located along the Pawcatuck River in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, had operated under numerous business names over its long history, including the Westerly Shirt Company, Eagle Waste & Metal Company, Arnold Brothers Westerly Woolen Mills, and the Lenox Shirt Factory.
Today, all that remains of the 19th-century mill complex is the foundation pad and the underground tail race that once channeled water from the Pawcatuck River to power the machinery inside. Long gone is the foot bridge that spanned the Pawcatuck River where workers walked from Connecticut straight over the border to Westerly, Rhode Island. Isn't that super cool?
🗺️ I have added updated Sanborn Maps to this article, detailing the many business names associated with the mills from 1885 to 1946, tracing the site's evolution from woolen mill to shirt factory to metal casting.
Approaching the Connecticut Castings Mill, also known as the Stillmanville Mill, there were about three vacant boats lined up along the pathway to the mill, in various states of disrepair. From time to time, I have found various forms of recreational vehicles at various mills across the Eastern seaboard. From old cars to aquatic vehicles, I have found at least one vehicle, whether stripped down to its frame or fully left to rot like it was left a few months ago. Mills always have something sequestered within the old decaying spaces within their walls. This mill was no different.
Stillmanville would not be so named if it were not for the man known today as Orsemus M. Stillman, who established the industrial neighborhood as Rhode Island became the forefront of the American Industrial Revolution.
Along where Canal Street runs, Samuel Brand built a woolen mill roughly half a mile north of downtown Westerly around 1798. The district's population at the time was a mere 15 residents. Canal Street, as its name was derived, was actually a canal that was built by Pawcatuck Manufacturing Company to increase hydropower capacity. Unfortunately, the canal was filled in and built over. Today it is now known as Canal Street.
In the early 1800s, John Schofield, an Englishman, acquired the saw and linseed oil mill built by John Congdon before being purchased by Orsemus M. Stillman in 1831, who added a woolen mill. Mr. Stillman replaced the original mill building in 1848 with two three-story red brick buildings. The woolen mill was then purchased by F. R. White and Company, which maintained an extensive woolen goods plant opposite the Stillmanville mill east of the Pawcatuck River in Westerly, Rhode Island. In 1880, Warren O. and Louis W. Arnold purchased the firm and renamed it the Westerly Woolen Company. The brothers made substantial improvements to the land and even demolished the former Stillmanville Woolen Mill during the mid-1880s. In 1912, the Westerly Woolen Mill was liquidated at auction after being in operation since 1881, employing 450 people across two dozen buildings up until the early 1910s.
You can see a stereograph of the Stillmanville here.
Eventually, the property's last purpose was a foundry that occupied and operated on both sides of the state line, the Connecticut Casting Corporation in Connecticut and Westerly Casting Company in Rhode Island. The factory sat on the west bank of the Pawcatuck River and abutted the ruins of the former stone dam that provided power in the early days of Stillmanville Mill.
However, in 2005, the mill was supposed to be developed into apartments but was ultimately shelved in the 2007 economic downturn. A Worcester, Massachusetts development firm was supposed to redevelop the site into an 18,000-square-foot project. The property had sat vacant for over 20 years due to its designation as a brownfield site, which can add considerable costs in demolition and remediation before even the foundation can be poured. The site was used, as stated before, as an oil and sawmill, a woolen mill, a waste handling company, and a laundry and metal castings factory. The latter closed down in the late 1990s.
In April 2019, the mill was demolished due to its deteriorating condition and possible imminent collapse and contamination of the Pawcatuck River.
Were you or a family member employed at this Pawcatuck mill on the Pawcatuck River, which split the state line between Westerly, Rhode Island and Pawcatuck, Connecticut — whether under Orsemus M. Stillman, F. R. White & Co., the Westerly Woolen Company, Westerly Shirt Company, Eagle Waste & Metal Company, Arnold Brothers Westerly Woolen Mills, Lenox Shirt Factory, or Connecticut Castings? Do you have photographs of the brick mill before its 2019 demolition, or memories of the days when the Pawcatuck River powered an industrial village?
📩 Share Your Memory → or drop a comment below — full credit given to every contributor.From woolen mills and foundries to cotton mills and dye houses — the lost industrial giants that once powered the Northeast.
Potter Hill Mill (Westerly, RI) Another Pawcatuck River mill a few miles upstream — machinery still bolted to the floor. Hydeville Mill: The Phoenix Woolen Company A Stafford Springs woolen mill that made doeskins and cassimeres, now a graveyard for heavy machinery. Rockville Mill Complex (Vernon, CT) The human stories behind the Dart Stone Mill — a blacksmith's bold vision and his tragic downfall. Tiffany Mill (Quinebaug Mills) A Brooklyn, CT cotton mill that once produced 28 miles of cloth a day — reduced to rubble in 2024. Inside the Abandoned National Silk Dyeing Co. Paterson, NJ's forgotten textile mill — brick and color in America's first planned industrial city. Hotchkiss Brothers Factory Complex A Connecticut mill complex whose buildings outlived the company that filled them.Source(s):
- Vallee, Jason. (2021, June 28). Stonington secures brownfield grants for Mystic Boathouse Park, Stillmanville mill testing. The Westerly Sun.
- Stillmanville: Westerly's Lost Village. SeeWesterly.
- Sommer, Carol. (2019, January 20). Innovators in industry and the arts: the Scholfields. The Day.
- Ferreira, Nicholas, & Platow, Madison. (2020, April). Former Stillmanville Mill Remediation Project for the Town of Stonington, CT. UConn School of Engineering.
- Town of Stonington Department of Planning. (2018, November 4). Stillmanville Mill Property Abandonment Report. Town of Stonington.
- Vallee, Jason. (2020, January 30). Town denied access to old casting mill site. The Westerly Sun.
- Wojtas, Joe. (2019, April 16). Demolition continues on Pawcatuck mill. The Day.
- Wojtas, Joe. (2019, April 15). Stonington begins to demolish collapsing mill. The Day.
- Preservation Connecticut. (2015, April 30). Stillmanville Woolen Mill [Mill record]. Historic Mills of Connecticut.
- Sanborn Map Company. (1885, February). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island [Map]. Library of Congress.
- Sanborn Map Company. (1907, May). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island [Map]. Library of Congress.
- Sanborn Map Company. (1912, November). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island [Map]. Library of Congress.
- Sanborn Map Company. (1921, August). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island [Map]. Library of Congress.
- Sanborn Map Company. (1946, August). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island [Map]. Library of Congress.
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