Greeneville Capehart Mill Complex

 

A memory from 2017 still plays in my mind. The Capehart Mill wasn't so much a building as it was a skeleton, picked clean by years of neglect and scarred by flames. My friend J and I navigated the wreckage, a landscape of slow decay. We kept our distance from the one pocket of life, the active Atlantic Carton Company, a business humming along next to a ghost.

Most of the complex was a lost cause. The fire-gutted buildings offered no safe passage to their upper floors, their secrets lost to time and the ravages of destruction. But then we found our way into one of the few structures that had been spared the worst. Inside, the light was different. It poured through thick glass block windows, relics of a bygone era, bathing the cavernous space in a soft, hazy glow. It was a quiet sanctuary amid the ruins, a moment of peace in a place that had seen too much violence.

That peace was temporary. For the residents of Greeneville, the Capehart Mill has been more of a recurring nightmare than a landmark. For nearly thirteen years, from the first major blaze in April 2010 to the most recent one in July 2022, the mill has been a playground for arsonists. An early plan to convert the historic buildings into much-needed housing, championed by former Mayor Ben Lathrop, literally went up in smoke as the repeated fires destroyed any chance of securing tax credits.

Today, the city has a plan to finally extinguish the problem. Officials intend to demolish the ruined buildings and transform the blighted land into a new park. For a community that has held its breath with every new plume of smoke, a public green space feels like a welcome, long-overdue exhale.

But just as the bulldozers warm up, a different vision has emerged. Developer Evan Blum, who owns the adjacent former Atlantic Packaging site, sees a different kind of life in the old mill's bones. He wants to purchase the property and merge it with his own, creating an ambitious art and tourism destination called “The Irreplaceable Artifacts Co. & Arts Bazaar.”

Blum’s proposal is a world away from a simple park. He envisions an art walk winding through the stabilized ruins, surrounded by multiple restaurants, a bustling marketplace, a theater, and even space for a solar panel manufacturer. His plan also includes a new home for the historic Shawmut Diner building, which he purchased in August 2024. It's a vision of preservation through reinvention, turning industrial decay into a cultural hub.

Norwich officials, however, remain unconvinced. They are moving forward with their own plan, cementing a deal that charts a very different course for the property. On February 3, the Norwich City Council approved the city’s purchase of the Capehart Mill from its long-time owner, A Foot of Fifth LLC, for a symbolic $1. As part of the agreement, the owner will pay the city $800,000 to help clear existing liens. With $11.8 million in state grants already secured for demolition and cleanup, the path toward a new park seems all but certain.

Before the smoke and the debates over its future, the Capehart Mill complex was born from a powerful idea: to harness the Shetucket River. The story of Greeneville begins not with brick and mortar, but with the vision of a man named William Greene. In 1828, he and his partners established the Norwich Water Company, building a dam that would forever change the landscape.

Greene dug a canal along the river’s western bank and in doing so, created an island. This sliver of land, perfectly positioned to draw power from the rushing water, became the engine of a new industrial village. On the mainland, he laid out a neat grid of streets where workers would live. On the island, factories would rise.

The first giant to answer the call was the Shetucket Company. Around 1840, they built a cotton goods mill at the foot of Second Street, a sturdy brick building with a tall stair tower and loading doors ready to receive the raw materials of an empire. But this first chapter was almost the last. In 1842, a devastating fire burned the original mill to the ground. Undeterred, the company rebuilt, bigger and stronger than before.

This new mill became the heart of Greeneville. It grew relentlessly, adding a new wing here, another story there. By the 1860s, 15,000 spindles were spinning inside, and by the 1880s, over 500 workers produced more than six million yards of cloth every year. The Shetucket Company wasn't just a factory; it was the town's lifeblood, owning scores of rental homes where its employees lived and raised their families.

The 20th century, however, brought waves of change. The end of World War I saw military contracts dry up, and New England’s textile industry began its slow, painful decline. The Shetucket Company, once a titan, finally shuttered its doors in the early 1920s.

But the buildings did not stay silent for long. A new industry, paper, moved in. The Atlantic Carton Company, a maker of folding paper boxes, took over the sprawling complex in 1924. They thrived where the textile looms had fallen silent, producing hundreds of millions of cartons a year and becoming the new anchor of Greeneville’s economy.

Over the decades, the complex became a patchwork of different enterprises. Other paper mills came and went. Then, in 1963, a new sound filled one of the old mill buildings: the assembly of television cabinets. A company called Wakefield-Capehart moved in, and in doing so, gave the site the name that would stick long after they were gone.

The great industrial retreat continued. The old finishing and paper plants to the north were eventually razed, leaving the Capehart complex as the last major remnant of that ambitious, water-powered island. Even the Atlantic Carton Company, which had survived for nearly a century, finally closed in 2016.

Source(s):

1. Grahn, M. (2024, August 20). Norwich accepts $4 million to remediate Capehart Mill property. Norwich Bulletin. https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/local/2024/08/20/norwich-accepts-4-million-to-remediate-capehart-mill-property-brownfield-remediation-grant/74862544007/

2. Envision Norwich 360. (n.d.). Capehart Mill. https://envisionnorwich360.com/en/projects/capehart-mill-1

3. Grahn, M. (2025, March 28). Norwich plans Capehart Mill site to be a park; Evan Blum wants art, tourism at Atlantic Packaging. Norwich Bulletin. https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/local/2025/03/28/norwich-plans-capehart-mill-site-to-be-a-park-evan-blum-wants-art-tourism-atlantic-packaging/82598436007/

4. Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce. (n.d.). State approves demolition of former Capehart Mill in Norwich. GNACC News. https://web.gnacc.org/news/newsarticledisplay.aspx?articleid=6833

5. Detelj, T. (2024, January 23). Norwich mill could become riverfront park. WTNH. https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-london/norwich-mill-could-become-riverfront-park/

6. Detelj, T. (2016, November 17). Vacant mills continue to be concerns in Norwich. WTNH. https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-london/vacant-mills-continue-to-be-concerns-in-norwich/

7. NBC Connecticut. (2022, July 8). Police investigating another fire at vacant Capehart Mill in Norwich. https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/police-investigating-another-fire-at-vacant-capehart-mill-in-norwich/2821587/

8. H.R. 1300, the Recycle America's Land Act of 1999: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, May 12, 1999. (2000). United States: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 201.

9. Iconic Norwich. (n.d.). Greeneville Mfg. Site. Retrieved September 30, 2025, from https://iconicnorwich.org/mfg-site-greeneville/