Cotton Mill District

Cotton Mill District. . , Located at the southeastern border of Columbia's original city limits, the Cotton Mill District includes the Granby and Olympia mill villages and the Whaley Street neighborhood. Established between 1895 and 1903 by mill architect, engineer, and owner W. B. Smith Whaley to support the Granby and Olympia Cotton Mills, these communities included churches, schools, parks, civic centers, and houses for mill employees. In 1916, national chain Pacific Mills acquired both Granby and Olympia as well as Richland Cotton Mills and Capital City Mills. Collectively, these enterprises operated as the Hampton Mills Department of Pacific Mills until 1954., Today, several hundred residential and commercial properties survive. Most are more than a century old and form a remarkably intact landscape that offers insight into Columbia's industrial past. The Mill District Alliance is the primary advocate for preserving these historic assets while guiding the district's future growth., ❶ W. B. Smith Whaley designed and operated four textile mills in Columbia. The two largest, Olympia Cotton Mills (1899) and Granby Cotton Mills (1895), are depicted here behind Trinity [Episcopal] Chapel about 1901. Between 1895 and 1903, his firm W. B. Smith Whaley and Co. designed these buildings, hundreds of houses for mill employees, and a company department store known today as "701 Whaley." , Image courtesy Postcards of the Midlands, Richland Library, ❷ Olympia Cotton Mills and its 104,000 spindles made national headlines in 1900 as "the largest cotton mill under one roof in the world." Equally impressive was Whaley's novel application of steam-electric power. While these achievements received acclaim from manufacturing executives around the country, financial mismanagement led to Whaley's removal as president in 1903. Nonetheless, the four mills Whaley founded went on to employ several generations of workers and support approximately 4,000 members within the mill community annually. , Image reproduced from Modern Cotton Mill Engineering, ❸ You Are Here 📍 , Designed by W. B. Smith Whaley and Co. and completed in 1901 for an estimated $30,000, the Mills Avenue Department Store sold fine clothing and groceries to Columbia residents, including mill workers who purchased on credit. In 1909, Whaley's successor Parker Cotton Mills converted half the building into a community center for the Y.M.C.A. Additions followed in 1919 and 1923, as Parker's successor Pacific ills built an indoor pool and gymnasium. In 2008, preservation-minded developers rehabilitated this historic landmark as a space for live/work lofts, commercial use, arts, and a special events venue known as "701 Whaley." , Image reproduced from Modern Cotton Mill Engineering, ❹ Children under the age of twelve could work in South Carolina's mills with a permit, and some parents brought or sent their children to work without one. Lewis Parker of Parker Cotton Mills, who likely commissioned this stereograph of Olympia in 1909, advocated for child labor. Testifying before Congress in 1914, he argued "it was the children of the family who became the skilled employees in the cotton mills. For that reason, it was the children who had to support the families for the time being." , Image courtesy Midlands Memories, Richland Library, ❺ Although efforts by mill employees to organize began with the Labor Day parade and strike of 1900, mill-provided housing, work, and community programming like schools and churches from unionization from gaining momentum. Columbia's Local 254 of the Textile Workers Organizing Committee finally received its charter in 1938 after overcoming decades of resistance from management. Pacific Mills' subsequent sale of village properties in 1940, while perhaps directly related, brought an opportunity to build Union Hall at 119 S. Parker Street. Completed in 1946, it played an important role in organizing efforts in the second half of the twentieth century, including the establishment of the Carolina Brown Lung Association. , Image courtesy Russell Maxey Photograph Collection, Richland Library, ❻ Published in 1928, Tomlinson Engineering Company's map of Columbia illustrates the diversified land usage, ownership, development patterns, and earlier street names within today's Mill District. The four mills depicted, Richland (1894), Granby (1895), Olympia (1899), and Capital City (1900), were known as Whaley's Mills until 1903. Later owners Parker Cotton Mills and Pacific Mills collectively called them the Hampton Group or Department, a nod to former Governor Wade Hampton III. , Image courtesy South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC