A significant chapter in the story of the burgeoning economic power of Norwich during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century was the development of a reliable and sustainable water power system. William P. Greene a wealthy Boston lawyer moved to Norwich in 1824 at the invitation of the mill owner William C. Gilman. Through their business partnership they created the Thames Manufacturing Company which operated a cotton mill at Yantic Falls. Their company expanded with the creation of a paper mill and an iron factory. The overwhelming financial success of those mills prompted Greene and Gilman to explore other locations for industrial development in the area.
Greene’s vision of industrial development was greatly influenced by the successful model of speculative water power development created in Lowell, Massachusetts along the Merrimack River. In 1823 a group of investors financed the construction of a dam and a two-level canal system which dramatically increased the available water power by fifty percent to more than a dozen mills which were eventually built to take advantage of this sustainable power.
Based on this Lowell model, Greene bought up the land and water rights on both sides of the Shetucket River just north of the city. He became the founder and principal shareholder in the newly formed Norwich Water Power Company. The plan called for a dam and canal to be built that would harness the flow of the Shetucket River and create ample water power to the mills and factories leasing the land from the NWPC. The company calculated that the sustainable water power provided by the project was sufficient to power 50,000 spindles. The construction of the dam and canal was completed in 1829 and the first land leases obtained by manufacturing concerns occurred in 1832.
By 1833 there were six mills leasing land along the Shetucket River, two large cotton mills, one paper mill, one button manufacturer, one flannel mill and a carpet manufactory. The Chelsea Manufacturing Company was one of the largest of the water-powered mills with about 230 employees producing ten million tons of paper each year. Among the paper manufacturer’s hundreds of customers was Harper & Brothers of New York, publishers of a diverse line of popular special interest magazines. The commercial fortunes of all these mills was enhanced when in 1840 Greene persuaded some deep-pocketed Boston businessmen to finance the building of the Norwich & Worcester Railroad line adjacent to the canal on the Shetucket River. The railroad route strategically connected the Norwich economy to national markets and cemented Norwich’s position as major manufacturing center for textiles and paper.
As the mills expanded, employment increased and the population of the village of Greenville grew accordingly. By 1867 the total population of the village had increased to 2,706 inhabitants comprised mostly of working class mill workers and their families. Forty-six percent of the village’s residents were native-born or of English descent and Irish immigrants comprised fifty-one percent of the population.
In 1880 the NWPC managed by the company’s president Hiram Cook decided that it was time for a new dam to replace the aging 1828 dam. In 1882 a new dam was constructed further downstream on the Shetucket River along with a more efficient power facility at Fourteenth Street in Greenville. During the early twentieth century two electrical generating stations were built, one at the south end of the canal and the other one on Tenth Street. In 1961 the City of Norwich acquired the power company and all its facilities.