Taftville, Connecticut
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Taftville
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Ponemah Mills in 1907
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| Location | Route 97 and Route 169 in Norwich, Connecticut |
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| Coordinates | 41°34′4″N 72°2′57″W / 41.56778°N 72.04917°WCoordinates: 41°34′4″N 72°2′57″W / 41.56778°N 72.04917°W |
| Area | 110 acres (45 ha) |
| Built | 1866 |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Mid 19th Century Revival, Second Empire |
| NRHP Reference # | 78002878 |
| Added to NRHP | December 01, 1978 |
Taftville is a small village in eastern Connecticut. It is a neighborhood of Norwich but has its own post office (ZIP Code 06380). It was established in 1866 as site for the large Taftville Mill, later Ponemah Mill. The village is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Taftville and as alternative name Taftville/Ponemah Mill National Register Historic District.
Currently redevelopment of the large mill is being conducted by The O'Neill Group in conjunction with OneKey LLC. The National Park Service will oversee the historic preservation of the structure, to ensure the historic elements are sustained. The 430,000-square-foot (40,000 m2) Ponemah Mill is being converted into luxury apartments and commercial space.
The Taftville Cotton Mill, a cotton textile factory, was built on the Shetucket River where a large dam could be built to provide power. The large mill building (Building No. 1) was purported to be the largest weave-shed under one roof at that time. The original workers were predominantly Irish immigrants, and they were hard hit by the depression of the 1870s that began with the Panic of 1873. Unemployment rose and wages dropped appreciably from 1873 to 1875, causing bitter relations between workers and management in many places.
In April 1875, the 1,200 workers went on strike. The mill owners had raised rents in company-owned housing as well as prices at the company-owned store. Wages at the time were under $10 for a 67-hour work week. In one often-cited anecdote, a workingman said he and his daughter had worked full-time for more than three months but only had four dollars between them to show for it. The immediate cause of the strike was a pay cut of 12 percent in an attempt to stop unionization. Workers were told half of the pay cut would be restored to anyone who had not participated in trying to form a union at the company.
The company replaced the workers with French Canadians, who would come to number more than 70 percent of the population. Workers were evicted from company-owned housing, and the Connecticut General Assembly passed a strict "tramp law" aimed at workers (such as those from Taftville) who became drifters after their strikes were broken.
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