History Looms Large in Charlotte Mill Villages

Like a Family Book cover
Like a Family Book Cover

Before there was banking, there was cotton. While today, Charlotte is an epicenter for the banking industry, 100 years ago, it led the area in textile production. Places like Atherton Mill, Optimist Hall, and Heist Brewery, once held spools, looms, and hundreds of employees to work them.

If it weren’t for these mills – and the people who worked there – Charlotte wouldn’t be the city it is today.

The Mecklenburg County Historic Landmarks Department will explore the impact of the cotton mills and the stories of textile workers during a book discussion of Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World on Thursday, Feb. 26. The detailed oral history explores the lives of Southern mill workers in the 1920s and 1930s.

“The transition of Charlotte into a major financial center is directly related to the cotton mills,” said Historic Landmarks Department Director Stewart Gray. “The explosive growth of mills in the late 19th and early 20th centuries really got industry going in this area.”

The discussion will open readers to local history right where it happened; the group will meet at Heist Brewery, which was once part of Highland Park Mill #3, one of the largest, most technologically advanced cotton mills in the region. The mill employed over 800 workers, many of whom lived in the neighboring mill village, now known as NoDa. 

“When you live in Charlotte, mill villages are part of the landscape – we don’t even notice them,” said Gray. “These big mill buildings surrounded by modest homes are everywhere in the Piedmont. But we don’t realize this is completely unique to this area.”

The discussion will offer a deeper look into an industry that transformed the South, as well as explore what life was like for textile workers living in mill villages owned and controlled by their employers. Approximately 18 of these mills still exist in Mecklenburg County, with many of them preserved and adaptively reused as restaurants, retail, and housing. 

While reading the book is highly encouraged, it is not necessary to attend. Learn more and register at HL.MeckNC.gov/BookClub.