Oil Painting, Annie Wandell, Factory Bridge at Thread Mill Square

Painting

-

Windham Textile and History Museum

Framed Painting of Thread Mill Square: The image depicts a framed painting of a snowy urban scene featuring a pathway flanked by buildings, with a stone wall on the left and a metal railing on the right. In the foreground, a car is visible on the street beside the wall, while the background showcases an arched bridge connecting two sections of the building. The architecture is characterized by rectangular windows and warm brick tones, adding contrast to the cool snow-covered path. At the central vanishing point, distant houses with orange roofs are bathed in light, creating a sense of depth and perspective in the composition.
Framed Painting of Thread Mill Square

The image depicts a framed painting of a snowy urban scene featuring a pathway flanked by buildings, with a stone wall on the left and a metal railing on the right. In the foreground, a car is visible on the street beside the wall, while the background showcases an arched bridge connecting two sections of the building. The architecture is characterized by rectangular windows and warm brick tones, adding contrast to the cool snow-covered path. At the central vanishing point, distant houses with orange roofs are bathed in light, creating a sense of depth and perspective in the composition.

Name/Title

Oil Painting, Annie Wandell, Factory "Bridge" at Thread Mill Square

Entry/Object ID

2024.61.01

Description

Framed oil painting by Annie Wandell of the industrial "bridge" connecting Mill No. 1 and Mill No. 5 of the American Thread Company in Willimantic, CT. The "bridge" was an enclosed walkway that linked the third floor of Mill No. 2 with the fourth floor of Mill No. 5, permitting workers to transport goods and materials between the two buildings in wheeled push carts. Also visible in the painting are Thread Mill Square and the Stone Arch Bridge below, with an automobile crossing the Stone Arch Bridge (now known as the Garden on the Bridge). The painting is a winter scene, and snow blankets the plank-surface sidewalk cantilevered off the east side of the Stone Arch Bridge in the center of scene. Built in the early 1900s, the industrial walkway bridge was a symbol of both the American Thread Company and the City of Willimantic until it was demolished in the 1990s. Based on the type of automobile shown in the painting, it appears to be set perhaps a decade before the industrial walkway and Mill No. 5 were demolished -- and was probably painted at that time, too. The factory windows are not boarded over, which likely would have occurred in the late 1908s, shortly after ATCO closed the plant. It is part of a series of paintings Wandell did chronicling the late industrial era in Willimantic.

Type of Painting

Landscape

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil

Subject

Thread Mill Square, Stone Arch Bridge, Mill No. 1, Mill No.5

Subject Place

Neighborhood

Willimantic, CT

City

Windham, CT

Continent

North America

Region

Northeast

Context

In the late industrial era, the Windham, CT, artist Annie Wandell completed a series of oil paintings depicting factories, stores, and residences of the industrial suburb of Willimantic, CT. The paintings capture the grittiness of such blue-collar communities at a time of social and economic decline. This painting captures what people in Willimantic viewed as an icon of the city's former industrial primacy -- a symbol of industrial Willimantic -- just before it was demolished: the "bridge" walkway that connected two factory building that were part of the American Thread Company complex, a walkway that spanned the Stone Arch Bridge that was, at the time, the main vehicular bridge across the Willimantic River. The demolition of the walkway signaled the end of Willimantic's industrial era.

Collection

General Collection

Made/Created

Artist

Wandell, Annie

Date made

circa 1990

Time Period

20th Century

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Painting

Nomenclature Class

Art

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Dimensions include frame.

Height

17-1/2 in

Width

21-1/2 in

Location

Location

Exhibit Room

Stairwell Gallery

* Untyped Location

Main Museum Building

Category

Exhibit

Date

November 21, 2024

Copyright

Copyright Holder

Windham Textile and History Museum

Copyright Date

circa 1990

Created By

historian@millmuseum.org

Create Date

November 20, 2024

Updated By

historian@millmuseum.org

Update Date

November 23, 2024