Poe Textile Mill

The Poe Textile Mill was a textile mill that was opened in Greenville, South Carolina. The mill was founded by F. W. Poe Manufacturing Company and was one of nineteen textile mills in the Greenville Textile Crescent. Although the mill was initially regarded as a "foolish experiment" by some critics, it became one of the most profitable mills in the Southern United States. The mill closed in 1977 and was destroyed by fires in 2002 and 2003.

History

A photo of the Poe Mill taken in late 2024.

19th Century

In 1895, Poe bought the mill and village area for $10,000 ($378,180 today). The mill was established in 1896 and they started operations in 1897. The building was designed by Joseph E. Sirrine, who was employed under Lockwood, Greene Co. With a design of 238 mill houses and 2 smoke stacks, he also designed a village to go with the Mill. They hired a local Contractor by the name of Jacob O. Cagle to build the mill. The textile mill was opened with 10,000 spindles, 300 looms, and 400 workers.

20th Century

About a decade later, in 1911, the mill grew to 70,000 spindles, 1,700 looms, and 800 workers. Francis Winslow Poe, the owner of the company and mill, died in 1926 so the mill had to be put up for receivership. Seven years after Poe's death, one of the houses in the village burst into flames with 5 casualties and 1 severely wounded, with those people's ages ranging from 5-20. In 1933, a protest in the mill successfully gained the workers a 15% percent pay increase. Protests didn't stop there, as in 1934, the Textile Workers Union of America went on strike because of safety issues in textile mills all across eastern America. The Poe Mill was no exception, as its working conditions were bad and were even known for overexerting their workers. During World War II, the Mill was used to create duck cloth to make tents, with women replacing men in the workforce. After the War, the Mill fell into the hands of Ely & Walker Co. in 1947 which they bought for $5,725,600 dollars ($81,563,098 today). Ely & Walker Co. soon sold the village in 1950 and then sold the mill to Burlington Industries in 1954. In 1977 Burlington Industries closed the mill which at the time had an annual payroll of $7,000,000.

This is a photo of the General Store in late 2024. You can also see the historical marker in the front.

21st Century

In 2002, a fire burnt down a bit of the main building and in 2003, a large fire wiped out the rest of the main building, leaving the 2 smokestacks behind and causing $800,000 of clean-up costs. The nearby area eventually turned into a small DIY skating park, and in 2016, there was a plan to buy the area to expand that skating park to 40,000 square feet but it didn't fall through. In 2019 there was a historical marker put up explaining a little history of Poe Mill. In 2021, Contour Company bought the Poe Mill site for 1 million dollars. They are planning to renovate all 11 acres of it into a more modern place that has 428 residential units, 30,000 square feet of commercial space, and an extension to the Swamp Rabbit Trail. In 2022, a man was shot and killed on A Street (The street right next to the general store and mill.) on July 4th and 3 people were charged and arrested for the crime.

Poe Village

Like many mills in the South, Poe Mill was adjacent to a mill town which was named Poe Village. F.W. Poe referred to the village, which was comprised of "houses, stores, churches, and schools," as "his 'little New York.'” Employees living in Poe Village had their days begin with the sound of the mill whistle which began blasting at 5:30 a.m. The whistle would also go off when shifts were to begin and for both lunch and dinnertime.

In 1947, a company called Ely & Walker purchased the mill and Poe Village. Three years later, the company sold the village. As of 2023, the village had 188 single-family housing units with a median market value of $58,780.