York County · Marker 46-38
Rock Hill Cotton Factory
corner of White and Chatham Sts., Rock Hill
Front inscription
This textile mill, built in 1881, was the first in Rock Hill and the first in S.C. to use steam power. A.E. Hutchison, J.M. Ivy, W.L. Roddey, and A.H. White founded the Rock Hill Cotton Factory to boost the city’s status as a cotton market and to spur further industrial and economic growth. This two-story mill was designed and built by A.D. Holler and modeled after the Camperdown Mill n Greenville.
Reverse inscription
This was the first of seven textile mills built here from 1881 to 1907. Rock Hill soon became the model of a “New South” city, its population grew from 800 to more than 6,000, and White Street became its “Textile Corridor” and industrial center. This mill, sold and renamed several times before it closed in 1967, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 and renovated into offices in 2007.