Two mills in this complex, on the east and west banks of the Pawtuxet, typify local textile mill architecture. The 1834 stuccoed rubblestone mill is a low four-story plant that hunkers down close to the river (all the less assertive after a fire in 1875 destroyed the roof and occasioned the installation of the present low gable roof). Across the Pawtuxet, retained here by a handsome stepped granite-block structure, and on land higher than that on the west bank, the magnificent five-story L-plan 1865 mill rises forcefully along Factory Street as well as perpendicular to it: the main block, more than 300 feet wide, is fronted by an emphatic eight-story stair and bell tower with two-story belfry. The stonework here is particularly fine: random-coursed granite ashlar with stones of varying size and beautifully struck mortar joints. Stonemason Rufus Wakefield built the first mill and leased it to a number of woolen manufacturers before the Sprague Manufacturing Company bought it to use as a warehouse. After the breakup of the Sprague empire, B. B. & R. Knight bought the complex and continued textile manufacture until 1935.