The sprawling former Rock Hill Printing & Finishing Plant is one of the next buildings in the corridor, pieced together in 2002 by the city, targeted for redevelopment.
At the Old Cotton Factory, developers have commissioned Raleigh sculptor Thomas Sayre of Clearscapes Inc. to build a statue for the front of the facility. Sayre has designed a textile spindle and thread figure that will be installed later this year.
An entrance hall will contain a small museum of textile history and Rock Hill manufacturing. An old fabric loom is already set up, with an Anderson car to follow, says Williams, Williams & Fudge chief executive. Anderson automobiles were made in Rock Hill in the 1920’s.
Railroad tracks set in cement in a rear walkway of the building mark the spot where railcars dropped off bails of cotton from a nearby rail line. “I want my children to understand the history of Rock Hill,” Perrin says. Some of that history is marked by textile mills worked by children, a sad moment in the city’s past that is documented by photos and art in the Old Cotton Factory building.
“We don’t want people to forget the sacrifice and hard work that went on here,” Perrin says.
General contractor Cox & Schepp Construction Inc. of Charlotte completed the Old Cotton Factory in nine months. The architect was McClure Nicholson Montgomery Architecture, also of Charlotte.
The faculty, overlooking Dave Lyle Boulevard and downtown Rock Hill, operated as a yarn mill when it opened in 1881. It was the first S.C. steam-powered textile mill.
Over the intervening 127 years, the building was used for the manufacture of denim, rope and sheeting. By the 1970’s, Ostrow Textile Mills operated the buildings for warehouse space, with a Plej’s Textile Mill Outlet in the front.
Another 2.5 acres remains undeveloped on the site, which could be dedicated to residential or community oriented projects, Barwick says.
“We want to continue to foster that.”