Norfolk Manufacturing Company Cotton Mill

While the kettle heats and the cup is set out, there is a little time to sit at the kitchen table and notice the picture waiting beside your hand. Dedham's mill buildings and millrace bring the Norfolk Manufacturing Company's working setting into view, with Mother Brook beside the industrial structures.

Mother Brook carried water from the Charles toward the Neponset, serving Dedham's mills. The Norfolk Manufacturing Company stone mill was built in 1835 and enlarged in 1863. Its buildings and millrace preserve the story of an industrial landscape shaped by that earlier diversion, begun in 1639.

The mill connects Dedham with the Charles-to-Neponset diversion, keeping the smaller waterway's industrial role as important as the buildings around it. Use it for the next cup at the table or by your desk.