{"nrhp_refnum":"85000982","name":"Duck Mill","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"60 Duck Mill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fitchburg","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.04569573100008,"lon":-71.92951661199999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-05-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Duck Mill is a brick textile mill complex at 60 Duck Mill Road in South Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on a 2.5-acre parcel. The main mill was built in 1844 by George Blackburn, with ten attached structures and additions made through 1926.","why_significant":"The nomination ties the mill to cotton manufacturing, Fitchburg's leading nineteenth-century industry, and to Blackburn, a prominent local industrialist. The 1844 building is a well-preserved example of New England mill construction from 1820 to 1850. Its many additions document how a mill changed over time. It was also the only Fitchburg mill making heavy canvas duck.","narrative":"Duck Mill is a brick textile complex on Duck Mill Road in South Fitchburg, Massachusetts. George Blackburn built the three-story main mill in 1844 on the site of an earlier cotton factory that had burned. Over the next eight decades, a machine shop, picker house, boiler and engine rooms, cloth room, weave shed and other additions were attached, giving the complex ten connected parts. Power came first from the Nashua River through a raceway, later supplemented by steam and electricity. The mill was the only one in Fitchburg making heavy cotton duck, supplying belting cloth to local paper makers, canvas goods during the Civil War, and sail cloth for schooners. It closed in 1947 after more than a century of cotton manufacturing, then housed a bag-filling machine company, apron makers and plastics firms. It was listed for its link to Fitchburg's cotton industry and for its architecture, which records how a mill evolved. Conversion to apartments began in 1983.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900- (specific dates 1844, 1853, 1878, 1893, 1900, 1907, 1910, 1926)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Typical New England textile factory (1820-1850 type)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Work in progress; the mill was being converted to apartment units following a 1983 purchase.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.846846-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/35/7971/63797135/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85000982.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000982/154287c0ff-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000982/154287c0ff-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duck_Mill_Fitchburg.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duck_Mill_Fitchburg.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100004707","name":"Dudley Hill Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/dudley-hill-historic-district-100004707/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797135","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Mill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5311462"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/duck-mill-85000982/"}