Pre-eighteen hundreds prehistoric and historic Indian peoples, and English colonists, fished at Valley Falls, leaving few traces. Between eighteen twelve and eighteen twenty, twin brothers Abraham and Isaac Wilkinson bought land and water rights on both sides of the river and built the first timber dam around eighteen thirteen. They sold some land to the Harris brothers, William, Samuel, and Daniel, who built a wooden cotton mill and probably a stone picker house by eighteen twenty. From eighteen twenty to eighteen thirty-seven, the Wilkinsons built a second timber dam in eighteen twenty-eight, higher than the first, but complaints from upriver mill owners whose waterwheels were flooded forced the lowering of the Valley Falls dam in eighteen thirty-five. Crawford Allen bought the Harris property in eighteen thirty-three, rebuilt the mill in stone, and probably replaced the picker house before going bankrupt in eighteen thirty-seven. From eighteen thirty-nine to eighteen sixty-eight, Oliver Chace bought mill properties on both sides of the river and leased them to his sons Harvey and Samuel, who enlarged the mill in the eighteen forties after the Providence and Worcester Railroad was built in eighteen forty-seven. After Oliver Chace's death in eighteen fifty-three, his sons built the stone dam that stands today. In eighteen sixty-eight, the Chace brothers divided their holdings, and Samuel Chace took over the property here, quickly adding two brick mills and waterpower improvements on the Cumberland side while his firm built bleach and dye works on the Central Falls side. In nineteen twelve, Sayles Finishing Plants bought the Valley Falls mills. During World War One, the mill made materials for explosives, and after the war many small textile firms rented space. The decline of the New England textile industry by the late nineteen twenties led Sayles Finishing Plants to demolish the mill in nineteen thirty-four. Before the present stone dam was built in eighteen fifty-three, the complex had three mills, one or two picker houses used to store and begin processing cotton, and several smaller storage buildings. The stone dam required the Chaces to modify their raceway system but allowed an additional headrace and major expansion of waterpowered facilities. Aside from the boiler house, probably used to make steam for power and textile processing, and more storage buildings, the complex was largely complete by around eighteen seventy. The Allen Mill, built in eighteen thirty-three, used a waterwheel and a mechanical system of shafts, gears, pulleys, and belts to drive textile machinery.