Pontiac Mills

Pontiac Mills in Warwick stands as one of the best-preserved textile mill complexes in Rhode Island. The original mill was built in eighteen thirty-three along the Pawtuxet River and expanded through the Civil War era into a full mill village, with worker housing, a company store, and a mill pond. Beginning in eighteen sixty-three, the Knight brothers rebuilt the complex into the large mill that stands today.

At its height it employed several hundred workers producing cotton cloth that shipped across the country. Unlike many Rhode Island mills that were demolished in the twentieth century, Pontiac's granite structures survived and were later converted to mixed-use space. The complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a rare intact example of Blackstone Valley industrial heritage.