Rock Hill Cotton Factory, textile mill in Rock Hill, South Carolina
Rock Hill Cotton Factory is a textile factory in Rock Hill built in 1881 and now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The building features sturdy brick walls with large windows and preserved industrial structures that show how cotton was once processed into fabric.
The factory was founded in 1881 and was the first mill in Rock Hill to run on steam power, making it more efficient than other regional mills. It served as a design model for many other textile buildings and was later converted to use electricity from the nearby Catawba River.
The factory was deeply woven into the daily life of Rock Hill for many decades, shaping how the community worked and interacted. Workers formed tight bonds, and the site became a gathering place where local stories and family histories were tied to textile production.
The building is located near Chatham Street in central Rock Hill and is easy to spot from the street with its old brick structure. Visitors should know that many buildings from this era are now privately owned and not always open to the public, so it is important to respect the owners' privacy.
The factory was modeled after the Camperdown Mill in Greenville and served as a blueprint for many other mills in the region, showing how ideas and technology were shared between industrial towns. This reflected a larger movement where Piedmont towns borrowed concepts from New England to develop their own textile industries more quickly.
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