Pontiac Mills

1800 Arnold’s Bridge

The history of this area prior to the mill era ranges from foggy to nonexistent, but it’s clear that the Pawtuxet River was always the main character in this village. Prior to the industrial revolution, this woodsy, sparsely-inhabited area was known as Papepieset to the Native Americans, translated by English settlers as The Great Weir, due to the presence of a weir (long, shallow dam) used for fishing.

History comes into clearer focus around 1800, when Benjamin Arnold purchased the land and renamed it Arnold’s Bridge after the new bridge across the weir.

The first mill on this site was built by Benjamin’s sons Horatio and Dutee Arnold in 1810, variously called “Arnold’s Mill” or “Arnold’s Factory” on local maps. Though it was a modest wooden single-story grist and sawmill powered by a single waterwheel, its existence would determine the use of the land for centuries to come.

1830 Clarksville

Arnold’s Mill was bought at auction by John Hopkins Clarke in 1830. Clarke was the first to meaningfully develop the village around the mill and attract more workers to live there, and after two successful years reviving the business he tore down Arnold’s Mill and built a newer, larger two-story mill out of stone, renaming the village Clarksville. In 1840, one hiring decision would change the course of the mill’s history forever.

Clarke hired a young man named Robert Knight as a clerk at the new Company Store (a one-stop shop to sell cotton products directly to the townspeople along with other household goods.) Knight had worked at Coventry Cotton Mill from ages 8 to 17 and planned to run a mill of his own one day. His wish came true in 1846, when Clarke was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Knight leapt at the opportunity to lease the mill in his absence. Within four years he had grown the business so successfully that in 1850 Clarke agreed to sell the mill to him outright.

1863 The New Mill

After the most successful decade of ownership Clarke’s mill had yet seen, the Knight Brothers decided to demolish the old mill and build a newer, larger, state-of-the-art mill with the most cutting-edge steam power technology available at the time. That year, the huge brick building now known as Building 1 was erected, powered by a Corliss stationary steam engine. At the time, it was three stories and 200 feet long.

1870 Rapid expansion

The new mill was printing money. The Fruit of the Loom brand was a runaway success, and in 1871 became one of America’s first registered trademarks. Combined with the recent windfall from their Civil War uniform contract, the Knights were suddenly bringing in enormous revenue—and they were determined to invest every cent back into the mill and the community.

From this point onward, extensions and additions to the mill appeared at a never-before-seen pace.

The mill entered the 20th century on top of the world. Compared to the 5000-spindle capacity of the old Clarke’s Mill, an 1898 report puts Pontiac at 27,792 spindles, employing 543 workers. The complex was constantly upgraded to keep up with the latest in manufacturing technology, and transitioned from oil lighting to electric lighting in 1908 with the installation of a 240-amp dynamo.

1920 New Owners & Deadly Riots

It was almost like the departure of the Knights put a curse on the mill. Profit reserves from the World War I manufacturing boom ran dry, sales took a nosedive as the textile market was flooded with lower-priced imports, the village struggled to recover from the Spanish Flu epidemic, and worker morale plummeted as the locally beloved Knight family were replaced with nameless, faceless businessmen shipped in from New York with no connection to the Pontiac community and no mill experience themselves. To add insult to injury, they decided to keep using the “B. B. & R. Knight” name to manage the new Knight mills.

In 1924 the new owners reported an unprecedented loss of $4 million in a single year, and in 1925 were crippled by a second strike after they announced a desperate plan to double the number of looms while keeping the same number of weavers. The weavers were eventually allowed to return to work with the existing number of looms—but only by cutting their wages by yet another 10%. That year, the company filed for bankruptcy and sold several of its mills. Pontiac survived the selloff thanks to one unique specialty that had made it a valuable piece of the puzzle from the very beginning: the bleachery. The mill’s spinning and weaving equipment was removed and sold, and the entire complex was converted to operate solely in bleaching, dyeing, and finishing fabric and clothing.

1935 Role Reversal

This time, the reorganization of the bankrupt company left it unrecognizably changed. It was determined that their most valuable asset was not any of their mills, but rather the Fruit of the Loom brand, which had become a household name. The company finally retired the Knight name and renamed itself Fruit of the Loom Corporation, and began licensing the Fruit of the Loom brand name to other manufacturers to bring in additional income. Where Pontiac Mills once owned Fruit of the Loom, Fruit of the Loom now owned Pontiac Mills.

The company sold off all of their remaining mills from the former Knight empire… except one. Pontiac’s bleaching, dyeing, and finishing operations were deemed just valuable enough to save it once more. To justify holding onto the aging mill where the brand had been born, new machinery for printing patterns and graphics onto fabric was installed, and the plant began doing business as Pontiac Print Works.

1961 Dead Mill Walking

Pontiac Mills’ last years in business were spent being dragged through a bizarre series of lawsuits. In an attempt to finally achieve financial stability, Fruit of the Loom Corporation started a bidding war by offering itself up to a variety of wealthy potential buyers. However, it was revealed that the buyer they selected—Bates Manufacturing Company—had conspired to convince their shareholders to approve the Fruit of the Loom purchase at one price while those in the know—notably including those controlling the shares of a dead employee—secretly traded shares through an intermediary at different prices. The deceased employee’s wife sued, claiming that the buyout was irresponsible and motivated by insider trading.

Pontiac Mills was dragged to the center of this lawsuit when it was repeatedly used as an example of Bates intentionally over-hyping Fruit of the Loom to their shareholders without properly determining its value. Bates directors were interrogated over whether they knew the bleachery they’d raved about to their shareholders was actually a 100-year-old mill that had produced “unsatisfactory returns” for over a decade and was projected to do so in the future.

Through this, it was revealed that a plan to sell Pontiac Mills already existed, and in the meantime it was being treated merely as a “safety valve” in Fruit of the Loom’s portfolio. As the lawsuit uncovered more suspicious trading, the SEC sued to stop the sale. Fruit of the Loom eventually sold to another bidder, the Philadelphia & Reading Company, who already owned several other companies that had been licensing the Fruit of the Loom name for decades.

In 1966, the inevitable finally happened. Fruit of the Loom—a brand born at Pontiac Mills 110 years earlier—sold Pontiac Mills. The buyer was a New Jersey corporation called Allied Textile Printers, who scooped the mill up for a bargain price as Fruit of the Loom shifted to newer facilities in the midwest and overseas. But this last lease on life wouldn’t last long.

1970 End of an Era

Like a game of Monopoly, Pontiac Mills was not lost suddenly or swiftly, but in a long, painful, gradual decline. The heartbeat finally stopped in March 1970, when it officially ceased operations for good with one week’s notice to employees, and was immediately vacated. The heartbroken Pontiac community organized a successful campaign to get the mill added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

After several years of uncertainty in which the mill sat abandoned, an unnamed buyer purchased the property in 1973 and began leasing it out to miscellaneous commercial tenants, at various times including a local clothing reseller, a furniture store called Stylewise Convertibles, and a branch of Unclaimed Freight Co. But tenants were few and far between, the century-old buildings were starting to deteriorate, and the future of the complex was uncertain. One 1987 newspaper column mentions Pontiac Mills simply as “a clothing store in Warwick” which “lacks proper lighting”.

1990 Artisans’ Gathering

2001 A Failed Rebirth

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction, the mill had deteriorated to the point that Hodges could no longer afford to follow through with required renovation plans.

2014 Pontiac Lofts

After decades of speculation, the fate of Pontiac Mills was finally solidified in 2014 when Union Box Company, a development company specializing in restoring historic buildings, purchased the mill with the promise to finally follow D’Agostino’s now 13-year-old renovation plan as closely as possible. A full renovation of the property commenced, and Pontiac Mills finally reopened its doors in 2018.

The only building still under construction as of 2024 is Building S1. Its second and fourth floors have been removed, turning five cramped floors originally intended for storage into three spacious floors which more closely match the height of the other buildings. (See before/after).