Telling Stories, Connecting Communities

Tag: Hosiery (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.


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Resources to Explore

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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.


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Resources to Explore:

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


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

Cartersville

This community hosted two textile mills alongside the hand-tufted bedspread industry lining U.S. Highway 41.

The first textile mill in Cartersville, the American Textile Company, was established in 1904, just 54 years after Cartersville became an established community. American Textile Company operated as the only textile mill in Cartersville until the foundation of Pyramid Mills Incorporated in 1920. Along with these two mills, Highway 41, also known as “Bedspread Boulevard”, was lined with women selling hand-tufted goods to tourists traveling through the area.


Visit


Things to Do

  • Bartow History Museum, 4 East Church Street: The Bartow History Museum’s signature exhibit highlights the impact of Goodyear and other textile industries in Cartersville and Bartow County. The museum has an extensive collection of documents and photographs relating to textile industry history. Their hours of operation are Monday through Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 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.

  • Shaw Industries Group Incorporated: This location is currently a private business and is not open to the public. Shaw Industries Group Incorporated purchased this tufting mill in 1971. This plant, along with the company’s headquarters in Dalton, became two of the major centers of carpet production in Georgia.
  • ATCO & Goodyear Mill and Mill Village, Clearwater Street: Portions of the old mill can still be seen from the street. The old American Thread Company mill building purchased by Goodyear is now mostly gone. This mill village, located near Mayflower Street at Ohio Street, tells the story of those who worked at the mill and lived here. The mill grounds were meticulously maintained and parks were created for family gatherings. In the 1930s, Goodyear expanded the ATCO mill village and continued to support a community for its employees with scout troops, gardening space, a baseball with grandstands, a tennis court, a swimming pool, and more. The Goodyear baseball field is located across from the Goodyear plant where Hometown hero and professional baseball player Rudy York played when he worked at the mill and played for the Goodyear Mill team.
  • Bedspread Boulevard: Also known as U.S. Highway 41 and Dixie Highway, running through Cartersville and heading up to Dalton was once a place where women sold their chenille in roadside stands. Travel along this highway to look for remnants of that industry from Cartersville north through Dalton.
  • Bartow Textiles, 326 South Erwin Street: Bartow Textiles was built by tufting pioneer B. J. Bandy in 1940. This brick building illustrates the type of factory buildings constructed around the mid-twentieth century to house a growing number of chenille production operations.  
  • EZ Mills, 1 Johnson Street: This brick hosiery mill was constructed in 1921 and originally featured an expansion interior filled with hosiery machines. Eventually acquired by the Sara Lee Corporation in 1991 the mill closed in 1995. This location is now known as Spring City Technology Park.

History


  • Aerial view of Goodyear and Mill Village
    Goodyear and mill village aerial view. Photo courtesy: Bartow History Museum

Established in 1850, in an agricultural region, Cartersville became the seat of Bartow County in 1872. Beginning in the early twentieth century, cotton manufacturing developed in the city and gave way to a thriving carpet manufacturing industry by the mid-twentieth century.

American Textile Company (ATCO) opened the first cotton mill just outside Cartersville in 1904. The company constructed a substantial brick mill building to produce cloth for horse collar pads and an adjacent mill village. After 1917, the Cartersville mill began to manufacture other types of cotton textile products including Duck sheeting, drills, and Osnaburg. Over the next twenty-five years, the horse collar pad business declined as the automobile industry grew and new markets for cloth were found.

In 1929, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company purchased ATCO, expanding the mill and the mill village to include almost 300 new houses. The company thrived, producing tire cord for the booming automobile industry. With company-sponsored baseball teams, a scout troop, a recreational park, garden space, and a mill band, the mill village was an enjoyable community for Goodyear mill employees. During World War II, the Goodyear mill and other southern mills focused on cotton and rayon production for tires and produced special fabrics for duffel bags, cartridge belts, tents, and field packs for the U.S. Armed Forces. In the 1950s, the mill expanded to include two new facilities, a rayon mill and a pre-dip unit where fabrics were pretreated for final finishing. With this expansion, the mill was converted to synthetic textile production, which replaced its cotton production. Goodyear closed the Cartersville plant in 2003. The American Thread Company and Goodyear mill buildings were torn down, and the mill homes are now privately owned.

In 1920, a hosiery mill opened in Cartersville to manufacture knit underwear. Known first as Pyramid Mills Incorporated, then as Cartersville Mills, the mill was purchased by the Haight Brothers in 1940 and renamed E-Z Mills. Manufacturing underwear for children and infants, the mills primarily female workforce operated the knitting machines, which made the popular “union suit,” as well as other types of undergarments. In 1969, E-Z Mills converted to manufacturing men’s and boy’s tee shirts and briefs to fulfill a contract with New York-based Cluett, Peabody & Co. In 1976, Cluett, Peabody & Co., Inc. purchased and expanded the mill and increased employment from 618 to 810 employees and changed the mill’s name to Spring City Knitting in 1988. The Sara Lee Corporation acquired the Spring City Knitting Company in 1991. This mill closed in 1992 due to increased international competition following the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 (NAFTA).

In the early twentieth century, many women in Cartersville and Bartow County were participating in the growing hand-tufted bedspread cottage industry, begun by Catherine Evans Whitener near Dalton around 1900. Women sold their hand-tufted goods along U.S. Highway 41, also known as Old Dixie Highway, Bedspread Boulevard, and later as Peacock Alley, which runs through Cartersville. In the early 1940s, as hand-tufted bedspread production moved from the roadside stands along the Dixie Highway and into factories that produced machine-tufted chenille products, chenille entrepreneurs B.J. Bandy and Dicksie Bradley Bandy opened Bartow Textiles in Cartersville. Bartow Textiles manufactured tufted chenille products such as robes, small rugs, spreads, and draperies.

In 1949, after the death of her father B.J. Bandy, Dicksie Bandy Tillman, and her husband, David Tillman, took over Bartow Textiles. As the chenille business died down in the late 1940s, the company transitioned from yardage machines that were used to produce large swaths of chenille to the broadloom for the production of wall-to-wall carpet. David Tillman at Bartow Textiles was one of the first to experiment with broadloom carpet production. The Tillman’s made the decision to leave the textile business in 1954 because entering into full-scale carpet production would have required heavy investment into refitting old machines and buying new equipment.

Inspired by experimentation with the idea of making broadloom-produced floor carpets, Jack Bandy, B.J. and Dicksie’s youngest son, became an industry leader in carpet production as one of the founding partners of Coronet Carpets. In 1970, Shaw Industries, a company based in Dalton, Georgia, began manufacturing carpet in Cartersville with the acquisition of the Philadelphia Carpet Company. Shaw Industries went on to become one of the world’s largest carpet manufacturers and is still operating in Cartersville today.


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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