O'Bannon Mill

O'Bannon Mill
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	Barrington, Rhode Island
Coordinates:	41°44′50″N 71°20′43″W / 41.74722°N 71.34528°W / 41.74722; -71.34528Coordinates: 41°44′50″N 71°20′43″W / 41.74722°N 71.34528°W / 41.74722; -71.34528
Built:	1905
Architectural style:	No Style Listed
Governing body:	Private
NRHP Reference#:	96000891 [1]
Added to NRHP:	July 23, 1996

O'Bannon Mill (also known as O'Bannon Corporation Leather Division, or Collins & Aikman Mill) is an historical mill at 90 Bay Spring Avenue in Barrington, Rhode Island.

In 1905, a Mr. Frost founded the Frost Finishing Company and built the original 1905 structure which is part of the current O'Bannon building. Mr. O'Bannon, the treasurer, bought Frost's shares and the mill became the largest manufacturer of imitation leather in the world. O'Bannon went on to acquire other mills arounds Rhode Island and New Jersey. Mr. O'Bannon was became incompetent in 1921, died in 1923 and the company went bankrupt in 1926. Cranston Worsted Mills and then Collins and Aikman and finally American Tourister and Piling Chain owned the company until the 1970s. The mill building was converted into elderly apartment housings in the early 1990s.

References and links

• NPS info on listing
• History of the mill from "History of the O'Bannon Mill" from A lecture and slide presentation by Virginia Adams, April 23, 1997 at the Barrington Public Library, Sponsored by:The Barrington Preservation Society

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.