By Grant Welker
Herald News Staff Reporter

Posted Jul 29, 2009 @ 07:28 PM
source: The Herald News

Henry Ibbotson has seen the Bourne Mill complex as a cotton mill “floor boy” in the 1930s, later as an engine room worker, and until the 1990s as a moving company worker. On Wednesday, the lifelong Tiverton resident toured the main mill that this fall will become upscale rental apartments.

“Unbelievable,” he said while walking into the first floor of the five-story building, where rows of cotton spinners once operated the clothes production line. The same mill, with the same wooden floors that in many places are worn, marked up or uneven, is being divided into lofts and flats.

For most of his life Ibbotson, who lives off Fish Road, worked at the old mill complex off Cook’s Pond. He was 17 when he started in 1936, working alongside his father and brother and walking a mile or so to get from home to work, he said. He left for nearly four years to serve in the the Navy, and when he returned he worked in the mill’s machine shop for three years and the engine room for 12 years.

That was when Bourne Mill — once one of the largest cotton mills in the world, with as many as 60 buildings up and running — closed. But Ibbotson stayed on, working into his 70s, mostly as a packer for two moving companies that took over the site.

Ibbotson said he never would have thought the same mill complex, built in 1881, would be converted into apartments. He found out about the restoration when he was curious what was going on and decided to stop by.

What he saw were crews working in the main mill and on access roads and cleaning the site for landscaping and parking. Most of the mill buildings have been vacant for decades, though the complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. Bourne Mill will house 166 units, the first to open in October.

While taking a tour with Susan Gustin, who does leasing and marketing for real estate firm Peabody Properties, Ibbotson stood in the middle of a first-floor common area and, with construction workers circling aroun,d pointed out where the room with the diesel boiler used to be. It will soon be a fitness room.

Standing in the same spot, he saw a clearing where they were once restrooms and modern elevators near where the old ones once stood. He looked up at exposed ducts and across to an entrance. That, he said, was where most of the hundreds of workers in the main mill arrived and left.

By Derek Vital
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Oct 14, 2009 @ 08:04 PM
Last update Oct 15, 2009 @ 11:42 AM

TIVERTON —The revitalization of the Bourne Mill complex has taken on an artistic vibe.

The once-thriving cotton mill next to Cook’s Pond has been transformed into upscale rental units. The first wave of renters are expected to move in the first week of November.

In an homage to the glory days of the mill, local artist Jamie McMillan has painted a mural of a power loom on one of the lobby walls at the main entrance.

Susan Gustin, marketing manager for Peabody Properties, which manages Bourne Mill, was looking to add an aesthetic quality to the common areas of the refurbished complex.

“We have an immense amount of wall space at the property,” said Gustin. “Tiverton is a town with a strong artistic community. We thought the lobby, hallways and recreation rooms could serve as a blank canvas for some interested artists to exhibit their works.”

So Gustin contacted Jennifer Sunderland, director of the Tiverton Four Corners Arts Center. The duo walked the property brainstorming for ideas. Sunderland recommended McMillan, an art teacher at the Meadowridge Behavioral Health Center School in Swansea, who came down and toured the site. McMillan submitted drawings for a mural to Peabody, which chose McMillan’s rendition of the power loom because of its tie to the mill’s distinguished past.

McMillan retrieved a 19th-century photo of a power loom from the Royal Mills in Warwick. She ran it through Photoshop and used a cutout filter to give it more of a pop design. McMillan added sepia tones to give the work an old-time feel. “The idea was to have a mix of the vintage and the modern decor that they have,” said McMillan. “They loved the idea,”

McMillan spent eight days on the 9 1/2-by-10-foot mural, which was completed just before Labor Day.

McMillan is currently working on a number of projects at Bourne Mill, including attaching textiles to the wall in the laundry room and painting it one solid color. She is also adding stripes on the backsplash in the model loft and designing a hockey theme in the children’s room of the two-bedroom model.

“It really ties in with the creativity that this place is decorated with,” McMillan said.

In addition to McMillan’s work, Peabody has agreed to display the works of various local artists in its common area beginning next month.

“I look forward to seeing the work of many remarkably talented artists,” said Sunderland. “I am excited to have such a beautiful, restored building to work with.”

By Derek Vital
Herald News Staff Reporter

Posted Jul 12, 2009 @ 08:39 PM
source: The Herald News

Tiverton —After lying dormant for decades, the Bourne Mill will experience a rebirth this fall.

Located next to Cook’s Pond, the once thriving cotton mill will be transformed into 166 upscale rental units ranging in size from 660 to 1,340 square feet. The complex will include a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom units which will come in a variety of styles: lofts, townhouses and flats.

Braintree-based developer E.A. Fish is restoring 10 buildings on the site with a mix of residential and commercial properties. The goal is to have the first wave of tenants move in to their new digs in October.

“We’re getting very excited,” said Karen Fish-Will, vice-president of Peabody Properties Inc., the management agent for the property. “We are even hoping to display artwork from the many local artists, maybe even mobiles and sculptures, in the voluminous common interior space. We have received more than an enthusiastic response from the Tiverton Four Corners Art Center and we are very excited about this creative approach to fitting out the building space.”

Of the 166 units in the building, 99 will be offered at market rates and 67 will be designated as affordable, leased to households at 30 and 60 percent of the median income.

Pricing is expected to be between $980 and $1,500 a month for lofts and flats depending on the size and number of bedrooms and between $1,300 and $1,400 for townhouse units. Affordable rents will equal between $700 and $900 per month.

Construction crews will make improvements to the access roads leading up to the property: Mill Street from the south off of Canonicus Street, Bent Street from the east off of Mariano Bishop Boulevard and State Avenue from the west off of Shove Street.

E.A. Fish hopes to utilize some of the unique architectural details from the historic buildings. The apartments will boast arched doorways, high ceilings and expansive historic windows.

Common resident amenities will include a 24-hour fitness center, lounge area, multi-function room with billiards, on-site resident and guest parking, pet park, shared outdoor courtyard space, laundry care center, bike storage and a scenic pond-front setting. The plans also call for an exterior courtyard space preserving one of the small brick buildings as a gazebo-type structure with no roof.

Built in 1881, Bourne Mill comprised one of the largest cotton mills in the world with as many as 60 buildings during its peak production years. The business thrived in the early 1900s and is closely linked with the industrial heritage of Fall River. The complex was sold in 1953 and operations ceased in 1961.

Since then, only two of the 21 remaining buildings have been used, mostly for storage. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, making the complex eligible for federal and state tax credits.

The restoration project began in 2007 with Armory Revival Company of Providence serving as the developer. The firm partnered with E.A. Fish in the fall of 2008.

By Special to The Herald News
GateHouse News Service

Posted Feb 13, 2010 @ 08:48 PM
source: The Herald News

Linda Murphy —Transforming a bride into the star of her wedding day is second nature for celebrity hair stylist Frank Barbosa, who worked on Ann Hathaway’s hair in the film “Rachael Getting Married” and did the hair for “Bride Wars” episodes and the “Sex and the City” film in which the character Carrie Bradshaw finally marries the elusive “Mr. Big.”

“It’s all about the bride’s profile and creating a classic look,” said Barbosa, co-owner of Frank Antonio Hair and Makeup on Newport’s Bellevue Avenue. “In the past, updos were very severe and looked dated within a few years. People pay thousands of dollars for wedding photos: a softer wavier look is better for the profile and the wedding pictures won’t look dated in a couple years.”

The cocktail bang, a tight side part with a sweeping bang across the face, is one of the looks that Barbosa said is falling by the wayside in favor of softer looks. While he said hair for daytime weddings should be more ethereal and classic — and well-secured if it’s outdoors — hairstyles for nighttime weddings can be much more dramatic. And he said the makeup should match the hairstyle: softer colors for the day and deeper shades and more contouring for the evening.

He said brides should start planning their hairstyles up to two months in advance of their wedding day by setting up a pre-wedding appointment with a stylist. Brides should bring the dress or a photo of the dress and their veil so they can begin to try out different looks. “We need to see what the dress looks like — does it have a low back, a high collar, off the shoulder,” he said.

Barbosa said they’re wedding specialists at the salon and they also offer on-site wedding day touch-ups and a wedding day champagne brunch for the entire wedding party. “I love to do the whole bridal party. You want them to look uniform — when everyone gets their hair done at a different place they show up looking like they’re going to different weddings,” said Barbosa, a resident of Tiverton and former Fall River resident who graduated from B.M.C. Durfee High School in 1998.

He offered up additional tips for getting hair into shape at a recent “Celebrity Stylist Hair and Makeup Show” at the Bourne Mill Apartments in the restored historic Tiverton mill. With his business partner, makeup artist Antonio Aponte, salon manager Monique Graham and stylists Pablo Dupre and Francis Vargas in tow, the team from Frank Antonio Hair and Makeup updated hairstyles for Bourne Mill residents Morgan Desrochers and Alison Felisberto and Bourne property manager Donna Tavares, who got help for her fine, thin hair.

Barbosa said shampooing every other day, rather than every day, will help maintain the hair’s natural oils. “The more you shampoo the more you strip the oils — eventually your hair will start to feel thinner at the ends,” said Barbosa. People with fine hair, like Tavares, can help give their hair a lift between shampoos by using a powder spray.

When purchasing products from a salon Barbosa said people should as questions about the product: “Why do I need this? How do I use this?”

Barbosa gave another guest at the event, Regina Casey, a dry-point cut and layers to help with her unruly, curly hair while makeup artist Aponte transformed Lisa Valentine, of Bourne Mill’s leasing and management agency Peabody Properties, from a day to evening look with darker eye makeup and contouring makeup.

The team also offered tips on the first step to getting a great look: selecting a stylist. “Do your research: If you see someone when you’re out who has a nice style ask them where they got their hair done,” said Barbosa.

Graham also said finding a stylist who says he or she has done the hairstyle you’re seeking hundreds of times may indicate a hairdresser who is out of touch with training a new products. “You never want to find a stylist who’s complacent; she should be hungry for a fresh, new experience every time,” said Graham. “Getting your hair done shouldn’t be a chore.”

The salon is located at 22 Bellevue Ave. in Newport and is also planning a series of cut-a-thons on upcoming Sundays to raise money for Haiti. For more information call 401-619-3100 or see www.frankantoniohairandmakeup.com.

Bristol County Bride
Herald News Special Publication

Feb 14, 2010

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