Reported by us | Fall River

How Fall River's granite cotton mills rose as the city nearly quadrupled

In 1890, more than half the city was born outside the United States. The Durfee Mills alone ran 2,064 looms and employed 950 people in 1877, turning out 23 million yards of print cloth.

By the SC360 Community Desk | Published Oct. 26, 2026 | Last verified Oct. 26, 2026, 6:12 a.m. ET

FALL RIVER Fall River had 26,766 residents in 1870. Thirty years later it had 104,863, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and it ranked 33rd among American cities. Those were the years cotton mills of gray granite, much of it quarried locally, rose along the falls of the Quequechan River.

Many of the people who ran the machines came from somewhere else. In 1890, 37,734 of Fall River's 74,398 residents, or 50.7%, were born outside the United States, the Census Bureau's historical tables show. The city peaked at 120,485 people in 1920.

What the mills made

The main product was print cloth, a plain cotton fabric sold to be printed with patterns. The Durfee Mills on Pleasant Street were the largest single textile company in the city, according to the Massachusetts Historical Commission's inventory form. In 1877 the company had 87,424 spindles and 2,064 looms, used 9,500 bales of cotton, employed 950 workers and made 23 million yards of print cloth. By 1920 it had 151,328 spindles.

The company was organized in 1866 with $500,000 in capital and named for Maj. Bradford Durfee, whose son, B.M.C. Durfee, was the principal stockholder and first president, the commission's form says. Bradford Durfee and Col. Richard Borden founded the Fall River Iron Works, which built many of the city's earliest textile mills. The Fall River Historical Society writes that the firm was organized by David Anthony Brayton Sr. and his family, and that the capital came from the fortune of his nephew, B.M.C. Durfee, who was 23 at the time.

The Brayton family kept control until the company was liquidated in the 1930s. The commission's form gives the year as 1935, and the Historical Society gives 1939.

How the buildings changed

In the summer of 1968, a federal team from the Historic American Buildings Survey and the Smithsonian Institution photographed and measured Fall River mills as part of a survey of New England textile buildings, with help from the Fall River Historical Society and Bristol Community College. Six of those records, read in order, show how mill design changed from 1847 to 1910.

• Metacomet Mill, 1847 Built by the Fall River Iron Works below the lower falls of the Quequechan, it was the oldest mill still standing in the city in 1968. Its builders copied English mills by making it wide, and a water turbine powered it at first.
• Union Mills, 1859 Organized by Hale Remington, it was the first Fall River textile company financed by selling stock. Its No. 1 granite mill was built in 1859 and No. 2 in 1865.
• Durfee Mills, 1866 Two Italianate granite mills with seven-level towers face each other across a court, with a granite office building from about 1872 at the entrance. The complex grew to about a dozen buildings by 1904.
• Davol Mills, 1868 Built of brick instead of granite, they were the only major mill buildings left in the city with French mansard roofs in 1968, added when a fifth story went on.
• Richard Borden No. 1 Mill, 1873 The survey calls it the first large textile mill with a shallow gable roof instead of the steep "barn" roof, and one of the most efficiently designed mills of its time. Thomas J. Borden drew the plans.
• Charlton Mill, 1910 The last granite mill built in Fall River, designed by engineer William T. Henry, it was wider than the earlier mills and had more window area.

What is left

When the survey team visited in 1968, the Durfee Mills were owned by the Hull Co. of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and several firms were using them for textiles and light manufacturing. The state's inventory form calls the complex the finest granite industrial group in Fall River and says every major building survived. It is part of the Fall River Multiple Resource Area nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, at 359 to 479 Pleasant St.

The paper record survives too. The Fall River Historical Society reported in 2018 that it had shelved nearly 1,500 volumes of the city's mill records, including 734 from the Durfee Mills alone, 110 from the American Printing Co. and 315 from the Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory. The collection is open to researchers and is being listed in the SAILS Library Network.

See it yourself

The 1968 photographs, measured drawings and written histories of all six mills are free to view and download from the Library of Congress. The Durfee Mills sit on the south side of Pleasant Street at Plymouth Avenue, along the north bank of the Quequechan. The surveyors photographed the iron fence and granite posts along the street front.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.

Notes

The mill histories come from the Historic American Buildings Survey records at the Library of Congress and the Massachusetts Historical Commission's inventory form for the Durfee Mills. The Brayton family details and the mill record holdings come from the Fall River Historical Society, and the population figures from the Census Bureau's historical working papers. Where the commission and the society give different years, the story gives both. We read them all on Oct. 26.

Corrections

No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.

Sources (11)

1. Library of Congress, HABS MA-982: Durfee Mills, Plymouth Avenue and Pleasant Street, Fall River1968 photographs, drawings and data pages: dates, owner and use in 1968, granite construction, site plan. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
2. Library of Congress, HABS MA-983: Metacomet Mill, Davol and Anawan streetsBuilt 1847 by the Fall River Iron Works; oldest existing mill in 1968; wide English plan; water turbine. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
3. Library of Congress, HABS MA-981: Union Mills, Pleasant StreetFirst Fall River textile company financed by stock subscriptions; Hale Remington; mills of 1859 and 1865. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
4. Library of Congress, HABS MA-985: Davol Mills, Rodman Street and Plymouth AvenueBrick, 1868 and 1871; mansard roofs on added fifth stories. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
5. Library of Congress, HABS MA-984: Richard Borden Manufacturing Co. No. 1 Mill1873; first large mill with a shallow gable roof; plans by Thomas J. Borden. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
6. Library of Congress, HABS MA-986: Charlton Mill, Howe and Crawford streets1910; last granite mill in Fall River; William T. Henry, engineer. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
7. Massachusetts Historical Commission inventory form, Durfee Mills, 359 to 479 Pleasant St., in the Fall River Multiple Resource Area nomination (National Park Service NPGallery)Capital, founders, 1877 spindles, looms, cotton, workers and yards, 1920 spindles, liquidation year, survival of every major building. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
8. Fall River Historical Society, Curator's Corner: Durfee Mills RecordsPosted July 28, 2018. The Brayton family's role, B.M.C. Durfee's age, liquidation in 1939, and the society's mill record holdings. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
9. U.S. Census Bureau, Working Paper 27: Population of the 100 Largest Cities, 1790 to 1990Fall River's population and rank, 1850 to 1950. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
10. U.S. Census Bureau, Working Paper 29: Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population, table 22Fall River's foreign-born population, 1890 to 1990. Read Oct. 26, 2026.
11. Library of Congress: Durfee Mills, view looking north, August 1968 (HABS MA-982, photo 6)Lead photo. Historic American Buildings Survey; no known restrictions on images made by the U.S. government. Read Oct. 26, 2026.

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