{"nrhp_refnum":"78000467","name":"Bigelow Carpet Mill","other_names":["The Old Mill"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Union and High Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Clinton","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.41548617500007,"lon":-71.68552442799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture","Invention"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of six interconnected brick mill buildings on about nine and a half acres at Union Street and High Street in Clinton, Massachusetts, built in stages from 1847 to 1922 for the Bigelow carpet manufacturing operation.","why_significant":"The mill is tied to Erastus B. Bigelow, an inventor who developed power looms that mechanized carpet weaving and other complex textile work. It is also significant as an intact group of buildings still used for industry, reflecting late 19th-century industrial architecture with brick post and beam construction, large windows and high Victorian detail.","narrative":"Six interconnected brick buildings on Union Street in Clinton, Massachusetts, make up the former Bigelow Carpet Mill. The complex grew from a small one-story building of 1847 into a large industrial works, with later construction running to 1922. Buildings 1, 2 and 3, rebuilt or erected in the 1880s, form the focal point, with round arched windows, buttresses, corbelled brickwork and towers. Other buildings range from two to five stories and are plainer in design. The mill is associated with Erastus B. Bigelow, who held fifty patents, forty of them for loom improvements, and who invented the first power looms for weaving carpets. He joined his brother Horatio in 1849 to manufacture Brussels carpeting, and the firm incorporated as the Bigelow Carpet Company in 1854. The mill closed in 1932, then saw partial warehouse use and vacancy. Nypro bought it in 1972 and rehabilitated the main core for manufacturing, keeping the complex in industrial use.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use; rehabilitated by Nypro after purchase in 1972, with the main core in manufacturing and office use and some buildings used for warehousing or empty. The mill closed in 1932 and was partly warehouse and partly vacant for about forty years.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.771026-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/38/7974/63797438/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/78000467.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000467/f0e5f0ad4e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000467/f0e5f0ad4e-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bigelow_Clinton.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bigelow_Clinton.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797438","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow_Carpet_Mill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4906806"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/bigelow-carpet-mill-78000467/"}