Sterling Cotton Mill

Sterling Cotton Mill is a large brick industrial building on East Green Street in Franklinton with an L-shaped layout and Italian architectural features. The complex spans multiple structures originally designed for textile manufacturing and now contains residential apartments and office spaces.

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 building shows how industrial facilities were designed in this region and reflects the importance textile manufacturing had for the local economy. You can still see in the architecture today how significant this workplace was to Franklinton.

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 building was constructed from bricks made on-site, and workers used different drying methods depending on where the bricks would later be placed in the walls. This handcrafted technique is still visible today in the composition of the masonry.