The historic old Addison Mill dates back to the 19th century. It was built for a young entrepreneur named Addison Clark. The 23-year old Clark established the Glastenbury (yes, it was spelled that way) Knitting Company, which had 150 workers at its peak and did a booming business knitting ‘health underwear—shirts and drawers’ for men. The employees during this time were of Polish, Hungarian and German descent. Many of these workers settled in the immediate neighborhood and helped build a remarkably diverse community in a rural area of Central Connecticut. The rich history of Addison Mill was eloquently captured by author W. Nystrom in his book “The Twine and the Thistle” written in 1970. Mr. Nystrom wrote in part,

The five o’clock mill whistle sounds
The work day is done and quiet abounds
A bird on a limb
Sings an evening hymn
And suppertime fullness is felt all around

The underwear produced by the company for the Union Army in the Civil War gave rise to the term ‘union suit’ for the one-piece undergarment that later became known as ‘long-johns’. After a fire in 1892 destroyed part of the mill, Clark rebuilt the structure. In 1897 the village of Eagleville was renamed Addison to honor Clark the year following his death. Another high point for the mill was during World War I when the knitting factory produced a reported 400,000 pairs of “long johns” to the U.S. army. Later efforts to update the product line failed and the factory went out of business in 1936 at the height of the Great Depression.

Although Addison village became part of Glastonbury, the mill area is still on Addison Road and the two waterfalls that powered the mill’s machinery still flow in a continuing reminder of its productive past.

Addison Mill captures most of the architectural features that were prevalent in 19th century mill construction. The developer is being careful to preserve most of those features. The original small pane windows under segmental brick archways in the typical Neo-Classical Revival mode have been preserved, as have the console brackets that support the wood column connections with the roof line. The developer also recreated the tower that was destroyed by fire in the late 1930s. The tower will stand in its original location at the west end of the building and will now serve as a stairwell.

In recent years, portions of the mill building were used as a warehouse for storage of outdoor furnishings, sold by the “Porch and Patio” stores until the sale of the building.

The property was purchased by the current ownership in October 2005. Addison Mill Apartments, LLC began the transformation of the historic property into a community of upscale apartments in February 2008. Photographs that chronicle the history of the mill and the people who lived and work there will adorn the walls of the hallways and common areas of the building to showcase its distinguished past to those fortunate few who choose Addison Mill Apartments for the elegant living it is designed to provide.