National Register Listing

Belknap-Sulloway Mill

a.k.a. Meredith Cotton and Woolen Mfg. Co. Mill

Mill St., Laconia, NH

The so-called Belknap-Sulloway Mill ranks among the foremost examples of small brick textile mills in New England. A survey of textile manufacturing architecture being carried out by old Sturbridge Village indicates it to be the earliest surviving brick mill in the region by virtue of a date of 1823. [Louis McLane, U. S. Secretary of Treasury, Report, 1832, Documents Relative to American Manufactures (Washington, 1832)]. As a typical example of a once common form of industrial architecture, the mill contains original elements rarely found in structures of that period. The framing of floors and roof is intregal to its original build, and the added turbines illustrate the changes in the use of water power systems.

Unlike the larger complex of textile mills of Manchester and Nashua, N. H., the Belknap-Sulloway mill was built on a small scale more typical of rural manufacturing of the 1820's, especially of the so-called Rhode Island manufacturing system. In form it reflects the developments, of textile mill architecture in southern New England. Unlike the earliest surviving mill in, Harrisville, N. H. (1832) which conforms to an out-dated building form, the Belknap-Sulloway mill was a forward looking: architectural specimen.

The location of this and the Busiel Mill on the banks of the Winnipesaukee River was originally the nucleus of a small manufacturing village. As part of the modern urban renewal project, the mills are again a central focal point of downtown Laconia.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1971.