BUILDING AN EMPIRE

The Textile Center of the World

By the 1930’s, sixteen major cotton mills and two dye/bleaching/processing mills lay within three miles of downtown Greenville, SC, one of which was the largest mill under one roof in the world. The mills and their villages formed a crescent surrounding the growing city. The entrepreneurs who built these mills became leaders in the Southern textile industry and set out, not only to build an empire, but to build Greenville. Folks who grew up in the mill villages talk about their work and their life on the Mill Hill. It is truly an intriguing story, and there are 13 of their mills still standing, all within 3 miles of downtown Greenville.