History
In 1672, John Allen was granted land for a sawmill by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut, making it one of the oldest (if not the oldest) continuously occupied industrial sites in the country. Records indicate that the early American industrialist Aaron Buckland already had a woolen mill in operation at the site ca 1780, making it the oldest woolen mill in the country. During the period when Mr. Buckland owned the mill it has been reported that it produced the wool for the suit that President George Washington wore to his inauguration. It is confirmed that blankets for soldiers in the War of 1812 came from this factory. In 1824 Aaron Buckland sold the mill to Tracy and Williams. In 1828, Tracy and Williams then conveyed the property to Sidney Pitkin, who took on Elisha Edgarton Hilliard as an apprentice there.
In 1832, Mr. Hilliard became one-quarter owner and by 1842 became sole-owner of the mill. In 1849, E. E. Hilliard sold one quarter of his interests to Ralph E. Spencer and the business was known as Hilliard and Spencer. By 1871, the factory was again solely owned by Mr. Hilliard and named the E. E. Hilliard Company. During Mr. Hilliard's tenure, the company made blankets and clothing for the Union Army in the American Civil War. After the death of E. E. Hilliard in 1881, his son took over the family business built the structure known today as Building #2 in 1895. The company acquired the rights to a brick lined pond in 1901, the former Peter Adams site and built a long raceway that extended through Building #4 for both power and washing requirements. The mill was further expanded in 1925 by the addition of Building #1 to accommodate the upturn in business.
The Great Depression took its toll on the business and by 1940, the mills were silent. When it closed in 1940, the Hilliard Company was the oldest family-owned, continuously operated factory in the U.S . The site was then sold to Mr. Aaron Krock, who leased them to the United Aircraft Corporation for the war effort. During the War the site was known as Plant J at Buckland. Small tubes, tappets and roller guides were produced at Plant J, as well as the tool refurbishment for all of United Aircraft was completed at the site.
In 1949, the entire site was purchased by the Bezzini Brothers for their company Old Colony Furniture. At the company's height, they were one of the largest furniture manufacturers on the east coast and supplied to retailers like Macys, G. Fox and Co. and Saks Fifth Avenue. Famous for its top notch upholstery work, Old Colony had a long and successful career and the name is still well known to this day.
In 2006 the Bezzini brothers sold the remaining three buildings to Hilliard Mills LLC. In 2009 Hilliard Mills LLC acquired the last remaining mill buildings to the east, reuniting the site for the first time since 1980.
Read more about this topic: The Hilliard Mills
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“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
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—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)