West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail

Telling Stories, Connecting Communities

Tag: Carroll (Page 2 of 2)

Villa Rica

The adjacent industrial community of Fullerville influenced the thriving hosiery industry in this community.

Visit

Things to Do

  • “The Mill” Amphitheater, Main Street: Located in downtown Villa Rica, The Mill is at the former location of the Golden City Hosiery Mills and is located on the north side of the railroad. The Mill hosts a variety of events and community programs.

Places to See

The following properties are not open to the public, but you can view them from the exterior to learn more about the buildings that supported the textile industry here.

  • Historic Downtown Villa Rica: Explore the historic downtown that supported the thriving hosiery trade in this community. On the north side of the railroad tracks is an old cotton warehouse, now transformed into apartments. The North Villa Rica Commercial Historic District of eighteen buildings, including antique stores, the police department, restaurants, and other businesses, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 2002. The boundaries of the district are North Avenue, East Gordon St, West Church St, and the Southern Railroad line.
  • Villa Rica Hosiery Mills and Fullerville, 600 Rockmart Road: Acting as one of the former economic cores of Villa Rica, this mill can still be viewed in the heart of its mill village of Fullerville. It is located at the corner of Rockmart Road and Dogwood Street. Many of the homes along these roads, which surround the mill, are part of the Fullerville community and housed the workforce for Villa Rica Hosiery Mills and the nearby Villa Rica Cotton Mills.

History

  • Photo of the Villa rica Cotton Mill in 1939 with the workers sitting outside
    Villa Rica Cotton Mill circa June 1939. Photo courtesy: CPH Collection

For over a century, the community of Fullerville played a major role in Carroll County’s textile history. Incorporated in 1916 and located adjacent to the historic community of Villa Rica, Fullerville is home to a historic textile mill and hosiery mill, a mill school, a one-room jail, and over sixty carefully arranged homes built by the mill company for its employees.

In 1906, Judson Fuller founded the Villa Rica Cotton Mill in Fullerville. Building off this success, his three sons established the Villa Rica Hosiery Mill in 1911 to produce men’s socks. Villa Rica Hosiery Mill employed 50 employees, both men and women, by the 1920s. The company built a company town that features several different styles of mill homes.

The financial success of the Fullerville mills led to the creation of other hosiery operations in adjacent Villa Rica. Rica-Tex Hosiery Mill opened in 1927, followed by Golden City Hosiery Mills two years later. These companies opened near the railroad in the downtown area. By 1935, Carroll County became a center of the hosiery industry, and Villa Rica was one of the hubs.

Textile production in Villa Rica boomed during World War II when companies acquired government contracts to produce socks for the military. After the war, between three to six hosiery companies operated in Fullerville and Villa Rica through the 1980s. The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 ultimately brought an end to hosiery production in Villa Rica.

Charter Trail Members

Resources to Explore

Click on the following links to learn more about this region.

Back to Community List

Email the Trail at wgtht@westga.edu or visit our Contact Us page for more information.

Bremen

Several textile companies called this community home, giving it the nickname “Clothing Capital of the South”. 

Known as the “Clothing Center of the South”, the Sewell Company moved operations to Bremen from Atlanta in 1928. Their success encouraged several other textile companies to emerge in this town. While production has since moved to Alabama, the Sewell Company is still very much active within the town of Bremen.

Visit

Things to Do

  • “Stitching the Fabric of Community in the West Georgia Region” Exhibit, 126 Hamilton Avenue: This indoor exhibit shares the textile story of the Sewell Family in the central west Georgia region. This space is located in Sewell Mill Events Facility & Community Center, which is open to the public by appointment only. Please contact Sewell Mill at (404) 492-4336 or sewellmillbremen@gmail.com.
  • Bremen Self-Guided Walking Tour, 3 signs at the Bremen Deopt Park at Atlantic Ave and Carrollton St and and 2 signs at Sewell Mill Event Facility on Hamilton Ave.
  • Sewell Factory Store, 115 Atlantic Avenue: Buy a suit or check out the apparel produced by The Sewell Companies on the ground level of the Sewell Companies Building, which is home to their clothing store. Their hours of operation are Monday through Friday 9:00 am – 4:30 pm.

Places to See

The following properties are not open to the public, but you can view them from the exterior to learn more about the buildings that supported the textile industry here.

  • Cluett, Peabody & Co. Building, 203 South Buchanan Street: This location is privately owned and is not open to the public. Drive by the “Arrow Plant” on South Buchanan Street. This building was the location of the Cluett, Peabody & Co. building between the late 1920s and 1991. Before Cluett came along this site was home to the first textiles in Bremen as Bremen Looms and later on as Bremen Mills.
  • The Ray Sewell Company Building, 300 Alabama Avenue: This multi-story brick building on Alabama Avenue served as the headquarters for The Ray Sewell Company from the 1960s through the 1980s. Currently, this location houses the Bremen office of the Georgia Vision Institute.
  • The Sewell Companies Building, 115 Atlantic Avenue: This two-story building was the headquarters and Plant No.1 for Sewell Manufacturing from 1928-2008 and is now the headquarters for The Sewell Companies. Be sure to check out the historic Art Deco sign and clock and look nearby for our interpretive signs nearby!

History

  • Aerial view of Bremen.
    Aerial view of Bremen. Photo courtesy: City of Bremen

In 1928, brothers Robert, Roy, and Warren Sewell moved their growing apparel company from Atlanta to Bremen drawn to the community by the crossing of two railroads, the intersection of two U.S. highways, and a good supply of labor. Other clothing producers, such as New York-based Cluett, Peabody & Co., Inc., also built apparel plants in Bremen during the late 1920s. Both companies expanded operations several times in the coming decades, building plants in nearby Buchanan, Bowdon, Temple, Douglasville, and Rome, Georgia as well as Heflin, Alabama.

The success of the Sewells spawned numerous other clothing manufacturers in Bremen, including the Hubbard Pants Company (1935), Warren Sewell Clothing Company (1945), the Ray Sewell Company (1955), and the Worley-Sewell Company (1963), among others. During the industry’s peak in the 1970s, some 2,500 Bremen area residents, most of whom were women, worked in the city’s apparel plants.

During the 1980s and 1990s, most of the city’s clothing manufacturers closed due to falling profits caused by foreign competition and the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 (NAFTA). Two of the Sewell family businesses remained — Sewell Manufacturing and the Warren Sewell Clothing Company. In 2008, these companies merged as The Sewell Companies and shifted their headquarters to the “Plant Number One” building, which is part of Sewell Manufacturing Company on Pacific Avenue. Today, The Sewell Clothing Companies produces suits and military uniforms in Heflin, Alabama. These men’s suits, slacks, and sports coats can be purchased at the factory store in Bremen.

Charter Trail Members:

Resources to Explore

Click on the following links to learn more about this region.

Back to Community List

Email the Trail at wgtht@westga.edu or visit our Contact Us page for more information.

Carrollton

Initially home to a lone cotton mill, this community soon saw textile growth through the construction of several hosiery mills.

The textile industry in Carrollton began with the foundation of Mandeville Mills in 1899. This lonely mill produced cotton on its own until the 1920s when numerous hosiery mills began opening throughout Carrollton along Bradley Street, formerly known as Depot Street and the railroad.

Visit

Things to Do

  • Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum, 306 Bradley Street: This museum hosts rotating exhibits on quilts and the textile arts as well as exhibits about the textile industry, including the full story of textile production in Carroll County. Their hours of operation are Thursday and Friday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm and Saturday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Look for the Trail’s wayside sign while you’re there!
  • Maryon Hosiery Mill, 506 Maple Street: This historic building is now open to the public housing the businesses of Feathers and Twigs, the Fabric Peddler, and the Nest. As these businesses are independently owned, their hours of operation may vary. Look for the Trail’s wayside sign while you’re there!

Places to See

The following properties are not open to the public, but you can view them from the exterior to learn more about the buildings that supported the textile industry here.

  • BlueWater Ropes, 209 Lovvorn Road: A Mandeville family business that produces climbing rope, not open to the public.
  • Carroll Mill, 202 Bradley Street: This location is now privately owned. This two-story building was the second and final location for the hosiery mill from the late 1920s through the early 2000s.
  • Aycock House, 408 Maple Street: This location is now home to a private business. This home was built by one of Mandeville Mills investors and presidents, Joseph Aycock.
  • Lawler Lofts, 301 Bradley Street: This location is now home to several businesses and private lofts. This multi-story hosiery mill was built in 1934 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
  • Lovvorn House, 701 Maple Street: This location is now a private residence and is not open to the public. This home was built by one of Mandeville Mills investors. Henry Lovvorn.
  • Mandeville Home (also known as Maple Street Mansion), 401 Maple Street: This location is now a privately owned business. This home was built by Mandeville Mills founder and first president, Leroy Mandeville, and was renovated as a restaurant, sports bar, and event space throughout the late twentieth century.
  • Mandeville Mill and Mill Village, 361 Lovvorn Road: This location is now privately owned and is not open to the public. The mill has been converted to apartments, but visitors can see the range of mill houses that surround the mill as well as an old office building.

History

  • Photo of the exterior of the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum
    The Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum building.

A growing railroad town, Carrollton became a hub of textile manufacturing in the twentieth century.  In 1899, local businessmen established Mandeville Mills, and the mill soon employed over 200 workers to produce cotton yarn and fertilizer and to operate several gins on the property. By 1910, the mill added 120 looms to produce cloth. The company had its own spur lines from the railroad to collect raw product for processing and manufacturing and to ship finished products off to large regional or national markets.

In the 1920s, entrepreneurs began opening hosiery mills along the railroad lines and downtown along Bradley Street, near the railroad depot, and they employed hundreds of women as well as some men.  The buildings that once housed Carroll Mills and Lawler Mills are still located downtown;  Maryon Mills is on Maple Street, near the Mandeville Mill; and Peds later operated in a building that still survives near Mandeville Mill.

Mandeville Mills closed in 1953, but the grandson of the founder opened a new rope company adjacent to the old mill. His son transformed the plant by the 1980s to create BlueWater Ropes which produces a popular internationally-known synthetic climbing rope.  Printed Fabrics opened in the old Mandeville Mill, moving south from Pennsylvania  to find cheaper labor. Now the surviving old cotton mill building has been converted into loft apartments, and the mill village still surrounds the historic mill.

Be sure to visit the Southern Quilt and Textile Museum, which is located in a former cotton warehouse on Bradley Street. In the early twentieth century, Carroll County was a booming cotton production center, and warehouses once lined Bradley Street, formerly known as Depot Street.

Charter Trail Members:  

Resources to Explore:

Click on the following links to learn more about this region.

Back to Community List

Email the Trail at wgtht@westga.edu or visit our Contact Us page for more information.

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Visit Us

Summer Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 10:00-3:00
By appointment

Physical location:
Ground Floor of
Ingram Library at the
University of West Georgia

Parking:
Call UWG Parking Services at
678-839-6525 to register your car

Contact Us

Phone:
678-839-6141

Email:
wgtht@westga.edu

Mail:
Center for Public History
History Program, TLC 3200
University of West Georgia
1601 Maple Street
Carrollton, Georgia 30118

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