CPG was hired to trace the history of this extraordinary mill complex from its role in a hundred years of eastern North Carolina textile mill history to its current state. As part of that work, CPG would perform a comprehensive examination of the resource, the trends in mill construction and functionality that it represents, along with consulting people who worked there over multiple generations.
Commonwealth
Elizabeth City Cotton Mill
Architectural Survey
Building Documentation and Scanning
Historic Research
Historic Resource Documentation
National Register Nominations
Oral Histories and Community History Days
Elizabeth City Cotton Mill National Register Nomination
Partners
North Carolina Historic Preservation Office
National Park Service
Project Goals
The primary goal of this project was to document a rare nineteenth century mill complex in support of a potential later rehabilitation project.
Project Design
CPG completed a National Register of Historic Places nomination to both document the mill’s history and also position it for historic rehabilitation tax credit eligibility.
CPG utilized architectural survey of the complex mill site combined with primary and secondary source research focused on regional mill history and development. CPG added detailed historic map analysis to tell the developmental history of the site.
Challenges & Accomplishments
In the post World War II period, as the mill reached its current form, there was less regular historic documentation and mention of the facility in public sources.
CPG utilized newspaper stories of plant workers along with an interview with a former mill owner to fill in the gaps in mill history. CPG also used comparative history to relate the general progression of cotton mills during the second half of the twentieth century.