New life for historic Hebronville Mill housing

By Rhianwen Watkins for The Sun Chronicle

ATTLEBORO — A major renovation of Hebronville Mill and Gardner Terrace II is underway, with officials on Friday celebrating the effort to preserve 123 affordable apartments in the city.

Local legislators, including Congressman Jake Auchincloss, gathered Friday afternoon at the affordable housing complex to get a firsthand look at the work being done.

Preservation of Affordable Housing — or POAH — acquired Gardner Terrace I and Gardner Terrace II/Hebronville Mill in August 2020. Both properties were converted to affordable housing complexes roughly 40 years ago but had fallen into disrepair.

The first set of renovations to Gardner Terrace I — a former jewelry factory on Pine Street — were completed last year.

Now POAH is renovating Gardner Terrace II and Hebronville Mill, another former factory at 988 Read St. in the Hebronville section of the city, that needed significant reconstruction.

Gardner Terrace II and Hebronville Mill consist of eight buildings — a 52-unit brick building on Knight Avenue and the former Hebronville Mill complex, a seven-building red brick textile factory dating to 1854 that consists of 82 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The property also contains 11 market-rate apartments. Rents will not increase as a result of the renovation project, POAH officials said.

Hebronville Mill was once the site of an original Fruit of the Loom mill in the 1800s. It was built along the Ten Mile River, which historically powered the mill’s machines.

When renovations are complete, there will be 134 units, 123 of which will be income-restricted to households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income.

The units will include a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

One portion of the Gardner Terrace II property is currently occupied because some units required more minimal repairs, while others are being reconstructed from the foundation.

Read the full The Sun Chronicle article here.

Photo by Paul Connors for The Sun Chronicle