Newport Steam Mill/Aquidneck Mill/International Yacht Restoration School (1831, ca 1867, 1902, ca 1985) (Newport, Rhode Island)

 school, place with historical importance, mill, interesting place

Originally built as a textile mill in 1831, the restored Aquidneck Mill Building now serves as a component of the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS). The building houses a visitor center, marine library, and administrative offices.

www.iyrs.org/AboutUs/Projects/tabid/69/Default.aspx

The Newport Steam Factory was a key building in the history of the Newport Illuminating Company. This company was formed from the Edison Illuminating Company financed by General Electric Company.

The Newport Steam Factory is an important surviving example of the nineteenth century industrial development of the Newport waterfront, as well as an interesting large example of early mill construction dating from, 1831. With its green, Jamestown granite walls, it is an imposing and handsome piece of architecture in its setting.

www.historic-structures.com/ri/newport/steam_factory.ph...

www.iyrs.org/AboutIYRS/History/tabid/671/Default.aspx

see also - 'Industry in the Southern Thames Street Neighborhood of Newport, Rhode Island, 1820 -1920'
Daniel P. Titus, Salve Regina University
escholar.salve.edu/fac_staff_pub/31/

www.preservation.ri.gov/pdfs_zips_downloads/national_pd...

An impressive mill, approximately 180 by 48 feet, built in two sections, a 114-foot-wide original section and a 66-foot-wide brick addition. The original section, constructed of uncoursed green granite quarried in Jamestown, Rhode Island, is 3½ stories high and 11 bays wide, with rectangular windows, square-plan tower centered on its north elevation, and gable roof; the addition, constructed of pressed brick with tight mortar joints, is 4 stories high, 8 bays wide and 5 bays deep, with segmental-arch 12-over-12 windows, loading bays in the center of each level on the east elevation, bracketed cornice, and shallow gable roof. A smaller brick addition to the
west of the stone section was constructed around the same time as the eastern brick section and removed ca 1985.
To the southwest of this building is a monumental 1-story brick building, 8 bays wide and 6 bays deep, with tall segmental-arch windows.
Founded and built as a steam-powered textile mill, this was one of four constructed in Newport in the mid years of the 19th century, when local businessmen were attempting to revive Newport’s economic base; only this and the Perry Mill, 337 Thames Street (q.v.) remain. The mill produced cotton cloth until 1857; the following year it was sold and refitted for warp manufacture. The additions were probably constructed after the mill’s acquisition for the Richmond Manufacturing Company. The Newport Illuminating Company acquired the complex in 1892 and constructed the 1-story freestanding building in 1902; it served originally as a power plant to run Newport’s streetcars, and, after the complex’s acquisition by General Electric in the early 1920s, continued to generate power into the 1970s.
The International Yacht Restoration School, founded in 1993, acquired the complex to house its accredited career-training program adjacent to Newport’s historic waterfront.
www.preservation.ri.gov/pdfs_zips_downloads/national_pd...