Graniteville Historic District | |
![]() View of the old mill tower | |
Location | SC 191 and Gregg Street, Graniteville, South Carolina |
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Coordinates | 33°34′0″N81°48′30″W / 33.56667°N 81.80833°W |
Area | 55 acres (22 ha) [1] |
Built | 1846 |
Built by | William Gregg |
Architect | J. B. White |
Architectural style | Carpenter Gothic |
NRHP reference No. | 78002491 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | June 2, 1978 [2] |
Designated NHLD | June 2, 1978 [3] |
The Graniteville Historic District encompasses one of the first textile company towns to be established in the Southern United States. Built in the late 1840s by William Gregg near Aiken, South Carolina, and now known as Graniteville, it was modeled after New England mill towns. Gregg used the success of this enterprise to advocate for the industrialization of the South, laying the groundwork for its eventual domination of the American textile industry. The district, which includes the original canal, mill building, mill worker housing, and a period church, was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1978. [2]
William Gregg (1800-1867) had already had a successful career as a jeweler by the time he became involved in the textile industry in the 1840s. After touring New England and seeing its textile mills and industrial towns, he began advocating that the states of the Southern United States should industrialize to compete economically with the north. Gregg obtained financing from Charleston financiers to establish a model textile business, which would (controversially for the slavery-dominated South) employ white laborers. [1] [3]
Between 1845 and 1849 Gregg supervised the construction of a mile-long power canal, drawing water from Horse Creek and Bridge Creek, a mill building, schoolhouse, and 100 Carpenter Gothic wood frame worker housing units (of which 26 survive in good condition). He made available lots of land within the development for the construction of churches, of which two were eventually built. (One of these, St. John's Methodist Church, is still standing.) The mill was furnished with the most recent technology for spinning and weaving, and went into operation in 1849. The financial success of the enterprise prompted the development of other, similar mills elsewhere in the South. Development was interrupted by the American Civil War, although this facility was one of the mainstays of textile production in the Confederacy. Gregg's businesses continues to operate today, as Graniteville Specialty Fabrics. [1]
Graniteville is located west of Aiken, on the east side of Horse Creek, a tributary of the Savannah River to the southwest. The historic district includes the original 1846 power canal (no longer used for that purpose), which runs north from the center of Graniteville on the west side of Canal Street (South Carolina Highway 191). It also includes the original 1849 mill building, the 1847 Graniteville Academy building, St. John's Methodist Church, and the surviving line of 1840s worker houses on Gregg Street. [1]
Graniteville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,614 at the 2010 census. It lies along U.S. Route 1, five miles (8.0 km) west of Aiken in Horse Creek Valley, which originates in the nearby town of Vaucluse.
Vaucluse is an unincorporated community in Aiken County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Vaucluse is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area.
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William Gregg was an ardent advocate of industrialization in the antebellum Southern United States and the founder of the Graniteville Mill, the largest textile mill in South Carolina during the antebellum period. Gregg was a revolutionary figure in the textile industry. His practice of having his employees live in company-owned homes became common.
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Langdale Historic District is a historic district in Valley, Alabama and Harris County, Georgia, United States. It was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on July 22, 1991, and the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on November 12, 1999. It lies primarily in Valley, Alabama, on the West side of the Chattahoochee River.
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Horse Creek Valley is a geographic area along Horse Creek, a tributary of the Savannah River. It lies within present-day Aiken County, South Carolina. The area is alternately referred to as "Midland Valley". Rising near Vaucluse, South Carolina, Horse Creek enters the Savannah two miles downstream of downtown Augusta, Georgia. Other communities along Horse Creek include Graniteville, Warrenville, Gloverville, Langley, Burnettown, Bath, and Clearwater. While Horse Creek itself is rather insignificant, its potential for water power led to early examples of Southern industrialization, including a textile mill at Vaucluse (1830) and William Gregg's Graniteville Mill (1845). The textile industry continued to play a primary role until the Graniteville Train Derailment and final closure of the Graniteville Mill in 2006.
The Monadnock Mills are a historic mill complex in Claremont, New Hampshire. They extend along the southern bank of the Sugar River on both sides of Water Street, between the Broad Street bridge to the east, and the junction of Main and Water Streets in the west, where they abut the industrial area formerly associated with the Sullivan Machinery Company; there also a small number of surviving elements on the north side of the river opposite this area. The complex represents the surviving elements of what was once the largest manufacturing complex in the upper Connecticut River watershed area, and one of its oldest. The mills were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Many of its buildings have been repurposed to other uses.
Buffalo Mill Historic District is a national historic district located at Buffalo, Union County, South Carolina. The district encompasses 190 contributing buildings and 2 contributing structures associated with the Buffalo Mill textile mill complex and mill village. The mill complex includes the main mill, mill office, power house, ice factory, mill warehouse, company store, and company bank/drug store. The main mill building features applied stylized Romanesque Revival detailing. The mill village housing varies from large, free-classic, Queen Anne style supervisor's houses, to shingle-style bungalows, to simple, one-story, workers residences. The village also includes a school and a baseball field/park.
The Hickman Mill Historic District encompasses an early 20th-century textile mill complex in Graniteville, South Carolina. It is located just south of the older Graniteville Mill, and is bounded on the north by Marshall Street, the east by Canal Street, and the south by Hard Street. The complex includes a large brick mill building, and the Classical Revival Hickman Memorial Hall. The mill was built by Tracy Hickman, whose father had succeeded William Gregg at the helm of the Graniteville Mill. The hall was built in 1908 as a place to provide recreational and cultural opportunities to the mill workers.
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(help) and Accompanying 12 photos, aerial and exteriors, from 1970, 1976, 1977 (32 KB)