Josiah Brown (1816–1875) was an American architect and civil and mill engineer of Fall River, Massachusetts. Among his major surviving projects are the Union Mill No. 1 (1859) and Border City Mill No. 2 (1873), both in Fall River.
Life and career Josiah Brown was born July 10, 1816, in Smithfield, Rhode Island, to Parley and Lucy (Southwick) Brown.Genealogy of the Descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick of Salem, Mass. (Salem, MA: J. H. Choate & Company, 1881): 260. Parley Brown was a methodist minister and was later a resident of East Douglas.
Brown received some education from his father, but he was mostly self-taught. He was a resident of Fall River by 1847, and was noted as an "Architect" in the first Fall River directory of 1853. In some of his early mill projects, Brown was assisted by the prominent machinist and mill superintendent William C. Davol.Sylvia Chace Lintner, "Mill Architecture in Fall River: 1865-1880," New England Quarterly 21, no. 2 (June 1948): 185-203. Brown was also the first employer of William C. Davol Jr.,"Davol, William C.," Our County and its People: A Descriptive and Biographical History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, ed. Alanson Borden (Boston: Boston History Company, 1899): 70-71. who would later establish the Davol Mills. From 1870 to 1875 William T. Henry, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was in his office. Brown died July 30, 1875,"Josiah Brown", https://www.findagrave.com, Find A Grave, August 20, 2014. at which point Henry succeeded to his practice."Henry, William T.," Our County and its People: A Descriptive and Biographical History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, ed. Alanson Borden (Boston: Boston History Company, 1899): 110-111.
The cause of death was Bright's disease."Obituary," Boston Daily Advertiser, July 31, 1875, 1.
In addition to his architectural and mill engineering work, Brown was involved in the Hoosac Tunnel project, serving as Chief Assistant Engineer under Thomas Doane, Chief Engineer from 1863 to 1867.F. W. Bird, The Hoosac Tunnel: Its Condition and Prospects (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1865) He was also involved financially in several of his manufacturing projects. He was both organizer and initial president of the Montaup Mills, incorporated in 1871, and a director of the Robeson Mills, incorporated in 1866.Frederick M. Peck and Henry H. Earl, Fall River and its Industries: an Historical and Statistical Record of Village, Town, and City (New York: Atlantic Publishing and Engraving Company, 1877) At the time of his death, he was also a director of the Davol Mills,"In Memoriam," Fall River (MA) Daily Evening News, July 31, 1875, 2. though it is not known if he was the architect.
He was the designer of several works listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.
Works + Year Building Address City State Notes Image Reference 1850 First Baptist Church 228 N Main St Fall River Massachusetts Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. First Baptist Church NRHP Registration Form (1983) 1855 Plan of Oak Grove Cemetery 765 Prospect St Fall River Massachusetts Designed on the model of Mount Auburn Cemetery, the archetypical garden cemetery. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Oak Grove Cemetery NRHP Registration Form (1983) 1857 Plan of Evergreen Cemetery 49 West St Massachusetts "News Items," Congregationalist (Boston), December 4, 1857, 3. 1858 House for Josiah Brown 521 N Main St Fall River Massachusetts The architect's own home. "FLR.1606", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n.d. 1859 Union Mill No. 1 289 Pleasant St Fall River Massachusetts Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Union Mills NRHP Registration Form (1983) 1866 Robeson Mill No. 1 350 Rodman St Fall River Massachusetts Demolished in 2001. 1872 Border City Mill No. 1 1 West St Fall River Massachusetts Burned in 1877. 1872 Montaup Mill 1089 Dwelly St Fall River Massachusetts Brown was the organizer and first president of the Montaup company. Later Osborn Mill No. 2. Burned in 1940. 1873 Border City Mill No. 2 2 Weaver St Fall River Massachusetts Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Border City Mill No. 2 NRHP Registration Form (1990)
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