The Avondale Mill Historic District is a former

mill village A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, usually cotton mills or factories producing textiles. Europe Italy * ''Crespi d'Adda'', UNESCO World Her ...

in Pell City, Alabama. Part of the

Avondale Mills The Avondale Mills were a system of textile mills located predominantly in Alabama, but also in Georgia and South Carolina, with headquarters in Birmingham, and later in Sylacauga, Alabama. The Birmingham neighborhood of Avondale was chosen to be t ...

, the area is architecturally significant for the first sawtooth roofed mill in Alabama, and the mill village represents a relatively intact example of an early 20th century

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

. The mill and its village were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The mill closed in 2006, and burned in 2008 while being dismantled for scrap.

History

The mill was built in 1902–1903 on the northwestern outskirts of Pell City, at the confluence of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and Southern Railway lines. Sumter Cogswell purchased the of land in 1890 after stopping to change trains in the town. By 1902, he had convinced Atlanta industrialist George W. Pratt to build a cotton mill on the land. The following year, the Pell City Manufacturing Company began operational with 21,000 spindles and 640

loom A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...

s. In 1919, the mill was purchased by the Birmingham-based Avondale Mills Company. At the time, the mill employed 600 people. Avondale spent over $1 million improving the mill and village homes during the 1920s and 1930s. A

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

was built in 1925, streets in the village were paved, and 40 new houses were built, bringing the total to 163 by 1945. Mill capacity was expanded to 25,584 spindles, 800 looms, and 800 employees by 1940. The mill village was incorporated into Pell City in 1956, and the company gradually sold the houses to private owners. ''See also:'' Automation and foreign competition caused employment to decline beginning in the 1970s. In the aftermath of a deadly train crash at one of its facilities in South Carolina, Avondale closed its plants in Pell City and

Sylacauga Sylacauga is a city in Talladega County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 12,578. Sylacauga is known for its fine white marble bedrock. This was discovered shortly after settlers moved into the area and has been ...

and sold several others in July 2006.

Architecture

Mill

The main mill building was a two-story structure built of brick and measuring approximately 225 by 640 feet (70 by 200 meters). The mill featured a sawtooth roof, which allowed

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

windows to be placed on the vertical roof sections for light and ventilation. It was the first saw-toothed mill in Alabama. The walls were lined with windows and blind arches, separated by stepped

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

s. The walls are punctuated by protruding buttresses at the bases of the sawtooths and small vents that open into the clerestory area. Four two-story pavilions spaced along each of the long sides of the building contained restrooms and staircases. The interior was divided into four large rooms: the main mill room at the north end, the picker room and dye room in the middle, and the weaving room at the south end. In addition to the main building, the complex consisted of engine and boiler rooms, a chimney stack, reservoir and water works, a warehouse, an office building, a cottonseed oil mill, and a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

. Today, only the office and a water tower remain. The chimney stack was demolished on November 24, 2015, after two attempts at an implosion and then weakening the base with a backhoe. Part of the chimney fell on the backhoe cab, the driver was uninjured.

Mill village

The mill village was constructed at the same time as the mill, and originally consisted of 115 houses. The village grew to a height of 163 houses in 1945. Roads were laid out in a grid pattern to the north and east of the mill complex. Houses were built to four different plans: a pyramidal four-room plan with a central chimney and front porch that was either

shed roof A shed roof, also known variously as a pent roof, lean-to roof, outshot, catslide, skillion roof (in Australia and New Zealand), and, rarely, a mono-pitched roof,Cowan, Henry J., and Peter R. Smith. ''Dictionary of Architectural and Building Te ...

ed or

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ca ...

ed; a side-gabled three room plan, which featured two equal-sized rooms with a rear shed room; a hipped roof three-room plan, where the main entry opens into a

vestibule Vestibule or Vestibulum can have the following meanings, each primarily based upon a common origin, from early 17th century French, derived from Latin ''vestibulum, -i n.'' "entrance court". Anatomy In general, vestibule is a small space or cavity ...

leading to the other two rooms; and a cross-gable six-room plan, which was built for managers and foremen and featured a central hipped roof with hipped roof

ells Ells may refer to: * Ell, a measure of length * Ell (architecture) * Ells (surname), a surname * Ells Field, an airport in Mendocino County, California, United States * Ells River, in Alberta, Canada * Euroleague for Life Sciences See also * E ...

on either side. The majority of the houses have been modified, many with rear additions and enclosed porches. In addition to houses, the village also contained a school (closed in the 1960s and demolished in the 1970s), community house (used until it was demolished in the 1980s), and a hospital (built in 1925 and demolished in 1965).

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in St. Clair County, Alabama Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Historic districts in St. Clair County, Alabama Company towns in Alabama Cotton mills in the United States Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama