Pontiac Mills

Pontiac Mills is a historic textile mill complex on Knight Street in the village of Pontiac, Rhode Island within the city of Warwick. The mills produced the original Fruit of the Loom brand of cloth.The mills were built beginning in 1863 by Robert Knight and Benjamin Knight (B.B. & R. Knight Company). The mills produced uniforms for Union soldiers during the American Civil War. In 1920 Webster Knight sold Fruit of the Loom and the Pontiac Mills. The textile industry in New England began declining shortly after this period. The mills were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.