Woodside

Woodside. . In 1902, John Thomas Woodside (1864-1946), worked closely with two of his brothers, Edward F. Woodside (1875-1943) and J. David Woodside (1871-1945) to organize Woodside Cotton Mills. With a capital stock of $200,000, John became the first president. Joseph E. Sirrine designed the building and village. In 1902, the mill began operations with 100 employees, 11,000 spindles and 300 looms. The sixty foot long mill had four stories, 10 rows of windows, a two-story support building, and a one story cotton warehouse. It became an instant success. By 1907, it had 45,120 spindles and had 600 employees, and 1,200 villagers. In 1912, with $1,700,000 capitalization, he expanded Woodside Mill to 112,000 spindles and 4,700 wide looms, earning the title of “The Largest Cotton Mill in America Under One Roof”. By 1920, they owned additional mills in Simpsonville, Fountain Inn, Liberty, and Easley, merging them into a single firm, Woodside Cotton Mills. A park, with 30 head of deer, was a unique site for a mill village. Woodside was very proud of its 1,500 acre camp, Wildwood, located in the Blue Ridge mountains 25 miles north of Greenville. By 1929, the 220 acre mill village housed more than 2,400 workers and families, living in 442 houses. The village featured gently curving oak lined streets, a company store, two schools, a Baptist church (1910), a Methodist church (1921), a baseball field, and a Y.M.C.A. building. The mill sold 10 acres of land for the building of Parker District High School which was completed in 1924. In 1936 Samuel and William Beattie took charge of the mills and managed them until 1956 when they were sold to Dan River Mills. Woodside shut down in March, 1984. The mill and village were listed in National Registry of Historic Places in 1989.