Riverside Cotton Mills

Riverside Cotton Mills. . , On July 27, 1882, six local businessmen received a charter to operate a company to manufacture cotton and woolen fabrics. The Riverside Cotton Mills was born., Riverside began with the construction of Number 1 Mill at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets on the south side of the Dan River. The company expanded rapidly. Additional construction moved north of the river due to the unavailability of water power lots on the south side. On the north banks of the Dan, Riverside Cotton Mills built mills number 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 and, in 1890, purchased Number 4 Mill that had been constructed in 1882 by another company., In less than twenty years, Riverside Cotton Mills had become the largest in the South. Its growth continued into the twentieth century. By the early 1950’s, the company, now named Dan River Mills, Incorporated, employed almost 12,000 workers and operated three shifts. In 1957 alone, sales from the local mill surpassed those of the entire state less than a century before. By 1982, the company recorded over $600,000,000 in world-wide sales., In 1921, the company moved back to the south side of the river with the construction of Mill Number 8, known as The White Mill. It was atop this structure that, in 1948, a huge electrified sign was erected proclaiming Danville to be the “Home of Dan River Fabrics”. This iconic sign was removed when the company, known in its final days as Dan River, Incorporated, was finally shuttered. The citizens of Danville fondly remember this sign that still remains in the city and will, hopefully, someday be re-erected as a tribute to mill heritage that lies at the heart of Danville.