Sterling Cotton Mill, Former cotton mill complex in Franklinton, North Carolina, United States

Sterling Cotton Mill is an L-shaped brick mill at 108-112 East Green Street in Franklinton, built in five sections: a gabled one-story original rising to two stories at the east end (1895), a two-story addition (1914), a one-story addition (1960s), pre-1926 cotton sheds, and a small two-story brick office (1966). A detached chimney stack stands on the site. The mill now holds apartments and offices.

Samuel C. Vann founded the mill in 1895 as a textile manufacturing facility, and it operated for nearly 100 years until closure in 1991. During this long period it was a major employer and production center for the region.

The mill's name survives in the Lofts @ Sterling Mill, the apartment conversion now occupying the complex, while Inter Technologies works from the small two-story brick office of 1966. The site keeps its working identity: a textile plant until 1991, listed on the National Register in 1996, and still in daily use on East Green Street.

The site is accessible to visitors today and offers good views of the industrial architecture from that era. You can easily see and photograph the exterior structures, though the private residential spaces are not open to the public.

The mill's contributing detached chimney stack stands apart from the main L-shaped brick building. The complex grew in stages: the original 1895 gabled section, a two-story addition in 1914, pre-1926 cotton sheds, a 1960s one-story addition and a small two-story brick office from 1966. It closed in 1991 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.