Whitman Mills

Whitman Mills is a large textile complex on Nash's Point in New Bedford, between Riverside Avenue and the Acushnet River. Its main buildings are Mill No. 1 (1895), an office building, Mill No. 2 (1902) with a sawtooth-roofed weave shed, and several support structures, all in brick with spare Romanesque Revival detailing such as corbeled cornices and segmental-arched windows. Charles R. Makepeace of Providence designed the two mills, and Benjamin F. Smith of Pawtucket built them. The local firm Leary and Walker designed later additions in the 1920s. The mills reflect New Bedford's change from a whaling port to a center of fine cotton manufacturing, with large windows for daylight and sturdy plank-on-timber floors. Some buildings were lost in the twentieth century, and many windows have been covered or altered, yet the plant remains enormous. It was listed for its link to the city's cotton industry and its architecture, with only one weave shed still producing textiles.