Columbia Spinning Company Mill/Fairhaven Mills

About this Property

#Reason for Demolition

Though a bit our of our normal area of focus, New Bedford has always amazed us with the sheer number of gigantic, three- and four-story stone and brick mill buildings. They are so many of them and they are so, so massive. Though we can’t quite get a handle on how the residents of New Bedford feel about their mills, it does seem that they have a complicated relationship with them, like any City.

The Fairhaven Mills site, located on the banks of the Acushnet River, forms a roughly 15-acre square of private and public properties dotted with modern businesses and historic mills in varying states of decrepitude and occupancy. They were built over time during the first 20 years of the 20th century as the Columbia Spinning Mills and the New England Cotton Company and were later named the Fairhaven Mills by 1917. (We also found a 1922 map that labels these buildings the Pemaquid Mills.) In their later years they were home to the sprawling New Bedford Antiques Mall and drew visitors from all over the region. The Mall consisted of over a 250 consignment vendors and small businesses.

A 1922 map shows five main brick mill buildings at this site as well as several smaller structures. A large mill number 2 and mill number 3 were not extant in 2005 when our photos were taken, nor were they in existence in a 2001 aerial photo but one can see the outline of their foundations.

A fire in 2003 damaged the mills number 1 and 5 towards the rear of the complex along Sawyer Street. While mill number 4 remained standing and relatively undamaged, it suffered neglect for five years before it was also demolished in 2009.

In those five years as developers and the City decided on what to do with this large parcel of land in a gateway location, city officials and developers haggled over rights and prices and committed conflicts of interest along the way(PDF). The first tenant to be rumored at the location was a Home Depot, but that plan did not move forward. A new administration put an end to the haggling, but the fate of the remaining building number 4 was sealed.

#Current Events

The former Fairhaven Mills complex is now called Riverside Landing and it is a strip mall with fast food and a Market Basket grocery store.

#History

• Photos by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection of the fire in 2003 (FLickr)

No formal history that we have been able to find.

#In the News

Market Basket to open at Fairhaven Mills site, bring 500 jobs

by Charis Anderson
Boston Herald | August 20, 2009 (UPDATED: November 18, 2018)

Market Basket, a Tewksbury-based supermarket chain, will open its first New Bedford store on the site of the former Fairhaven Mills next year, bringing more than 500 jobs to the region, officials announced Wednesday.

The news ended months of speculation about the identity of the anchor tenant at the Fairhaven Mills site, which is now known as Riverside Landing, reports the Standard-Times.

“We will put forward our best foot to make sure the city of New Bedford and the residents of New Bedford are very pleased and proud of this development,” said Arthur T. Demoulas, president and chief executive officer of Market Basket, during a press conference at City Hall.

The midday press conference was attended by a number of elected officials, along with representatives from Market Basket, and Mark Dickinson and Mark White, the project’s developers.

Captured December 14, 2021 from https://www.bostonherald.com/2009/08/20/market-basket-to-open-at-fairhaven-mills-site-bring-500-jobs/

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New Bedford historical panel to weigh razing of Fairhaven Mills

by Joe Cohen
SouthCoastToday.com | February 25, 2009

The Historical Commission next week will consider a developer’s request to tear down the last remaining large Fairhaven Mills building, setting in motion the first major test of a recently revised municipal demolition delay ordinance.

The commission is scheduled to hear a request next Wednesday by Dickinson Development Corp. of Quincy to demolish the mill building at 85 Coggeshall St. Known as building No. 4, it was built in 1910, has 187,600 square feet of space and sits on a 4-acre parcel. It is assessed at $1.428 million.

At issue is whether the historical significance of the building warrants blocking demolition for up to a year. The commission will advise the City Council, which ultimately has the power to determine whether demolition is delayed. Council President John T. Saunders could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls.

Dickinson Development purchased the building from John J. Meldon for $2.645 million, closing on it this month. The developer then filed to begin the demolition approval process. Dickinson Development added Meldon’s building to already acquired property to develop a retail/mixed use project with public access to the Acushnet River on 13.9 acres.

City officials, including Mayor Scott W. Lang, have touted the location as a gateway to the city along with its anticipated role as a generator of jobs and tax revenue. The site was previously considered for a Home Depot, a project that was killed in 2006 when Lang took office.

When the Historical Commission weighs the developer’s request to demolish building No. 4, the commission will use parameters, including whether there was any relationship to a historic person or event or to the architecture, culture, economic or political history of the city. Twice the building was found by the commission to be historically significant and preferably preserved.

Despite the commission’s findings, the council in 2005 approved demolition and in 2007 took no action on a demolition request by Meldon.

Developer Mark Dickinson said Tuesday his firm recognizes the former mill complex is historically significant, but notes only one large building remains. Building No. 4, Dickinson said, would cost tens of millions of dollars to redevelop, has limited future uses because of its configuration and lacks space for parking on its site. Further, Dickinson said, the building needs to come down to make way for an access road from Coggeshall Street into the site.

City officials, including Lang and Matthew A. Morrissey, executive director of the New Bedford Economic Development Council, concur.

Using that location for access to the site also is part of a MassHighway effort to improve the Interstate 195 interchange with Coggeshall Street.

Dickinson said the development team is in serious talks with a key potential tenant for the site. Dickinson said a one-year delay to demolish the building could nix the deal with the tenant. “This is an opportunity for something to occur” that would be good for the city, Dickinson said. “Waiting a year could make a difference.”

Council Vice President Jane L. Gonsalves, an advocate for preservation who spearheaded passage of the demolition delay ordinance, said regardless of what the developer says could be gained or lost, she is for preserving building No. 4. “It took 10 years to create it,” Gonsalves said of the ordinance, “and it was done exactly for a situation like this.”

Gonsalves noted she had opposed taking the building down in 2005, along with two other members of the 11-member council.

Other historic preservationists have been ramping up their opposition to demolishing the building, expressing their concern in letters to the editor of The Standard-Times, among other measures.

Lisa Sughrue, executive director of the Waterfront Historic Area League, said WHALE is “not in support of demolition” and considers the mill building to be historically significant. She acknowledged that over time the building is likely to be demolished — possibly after the up to one-year delay the council would impose. Sughrue said that although WHALE is focusing its energies elsewhere at present, it wants to be on record opposing building No. 4 coming down.

“We will continue to be true to our mission,” Sughrue said.

Captured December 14, 2021 from https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20090225/NEWS/902250374

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Residents Fight To Preserve Mill From Home Depot

by Al Norman
Sprawlbusters | May 16, 2005 (abridged)

Tonight, the City Council in New Bedford, Massachusetts will decide whether or not to tear down an historic mill building, nearly 100 years old, to make way for a suburban design big box store. Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement chain store has its sights set on the Fairhaven Mills, located in the north end of New Bedford, a community steeped in seaside history.

The building Home Depot wants is already filled with small businesses that operate an antiques center. But the city’s Mayor is taken with the plan, which calls for demolition of the existing mill building, and construction of a suburban style box store, with a supermarket and restaurant, all in an urban setting in an inappropriate waterfront location. To sweeten the deal, the developer, Whelan Associates, has promised to spend $40,000 for a “riverwalk” to connect the development to Riverside Park. Home Depot has offered to build a monument on the site dedicated to mill workers, even as it destroys the mill they worked in.

The Home Depot building will have a brick facade to blend in better with the neighborhood, but its windowless, box format will bear no resemblance to other built structures in the historic North End. One local businessman who uses the Fairhaven Mills, called the Home Depot plan “seriously flawed”, noting that the plan will “create substantial traffic issues; and eliminate one of the city’s most notable tourist attractions.” Fairhaven Mills is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the city. “On any given day,” the resident wrote, “the parking lot is full of out-of-town visitors who spend their money in New Bedford and help support the 250 local dealers who work hard to subsidize their income or make a living through the co-op. It is an absurd thought that a city that constantly strives to attract visitors to the New Bedford region would even consider eliminating one of it’s most popular tourist attractions.”

The developer has sold his plan based on new jobs for the area, but critics point out that not only will the people working at the existing businesses in the Mills lose their jobs, but local hardware, paint, garden supply and other occupations are likely to lose their jobs as well. Furthermore, New Bedford will not keep the sales taxes generated by the project, only the property taxes. So the likely impact on the city’s treasury will be a wash, or even negative. “A Home Depot would only serve to take money out of the community by potentially eliminating the competition who live and work in the local community such as Beacon Lumber, Fairhaven Lumber, and other smaller businesses.” There are already Home Depot’s and Lowe’s stores in neighboring Dartmouth. Money spent at the Antiques Co-op stays in New Bedford while money spent at a Home Depot is sent to Pace’s Ferry Road in Atlanta, Georgia. […]

Captured December 13, 2021 from https://sprawl-busters.com/residents-fight-to-preserve-mill-from-home-depot/