THE VALLEY QUEEN MILL

The Valley Queen Mill was one of the numerous textile mills that prospered in Rhode Island from the mid-1800's until the early 1920's. Our mill produced cotton fabrics for the B.B.&R. Knight Company under the Fruit of the Loom trademark.

Located on the south branch of the Pawtuxet River, the mill is a long, five-story "L" shaped structure containing approximately 100,000 square feet of floor space. The granite for the entire complex was quarried from a ledge on the opposite side of the river. The original sections were built in 1835; it was enlarged to its present size in 1889.

We are proud our building is on the Federal Government's National Register of Historic Places. Being good stewards of history is important - so we endeavor to keep the west facing facade of our building looking the same today as it did in the late 1800's.

The imposing tower served two purposes: it housed the main stairwell and, above the roof line, it housed a large cyprus tank which was filled with water to feed the mill's sprinkler system. The tower is capped by a steep, slate roof set on an elaborate, bracketed wood cornice. The short ridge of the roof is finished with copper cresting and embellished with an ornate finial, as is the triangular dormer on the front of this tower roof.

Due to the noise and dust generated within a textile mill, the factory office was always housed in a separate building. A long cast-iron pedestrian bridge extends from the front of the tower at the third floor level to the mill office; it was installed during the 1889 expansion to facilitate communications between the factory and the office