Graniteville Historic District (South Carolina)
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Graniteville Historic District
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View of the old mill tower
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| Location | SC 191 and Gregg St., Graniteville, South Carolina |
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| Coordinates | 33°34′0″N 81°48′30″W / 33.56667°N 81.80833°WCoordinates: 33°34′0″N 81°48′30″W / 33.56667°N 81.80833°W |
| Area | 55 acres (22 ha) |
| Built | 1846 |
| Architect | J.B. White (designer); William Gregg (builder) |
| Architectural style | Carpenter Gothic, Other |
| NRHP reference # | 78002491 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | June 2, 1978 |
| Designated NHLD | June 2, 1978 |
The Graniteville Historic District encompasses one of the very first textile company towns to be established in the Southern United States. Built in the late 1840s by William Gregg near Aiken, South Carolina, and now known as Graniteville, it was modeled after New England mill towns. Gregg used the success of this enterprise to advocate for the industrialization of the South, laying the groundwork for its eventual domination of the American textile industry. The district, which includes the original canal, mill building, mill worker housing, and a period church, was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1978.
William Gregg (1800-1867) had already had a successful career as a jeweler by the time he became involved in the textile industry in the 1840s. After touring New England and seeing its textile mills and industrial towns, he began advocating that the states of the Southern United States should industrialize to compete economically with the north. Gregg obtained financing from Charleston financiers to establish a model textile business, which would (controversially for the slavery-dominated South) employ white laborers.
Between 1845 and 1849 Gregg supervised the construction of a mile-long power canal, drawing water from Horse Creek and Bridge Creek, a mill building, schoolhouse, and 100 Carpenter Gothic wood frame worker housing units (of which 26 survive in good condition). He made available lots of land within the development for the construction of churches, of which two were eventually built. (One of these, St. John's Methodist Church, is still standing.) The mill was furnished with the most recent technology for spinning and weaving, and went into operation in 1849. The financial success of the enterprise prompted the development of other, similar mills elsewhere in the South. Development was interrupted by the American Civil War, although this facility was one of the mainstays of textile production in the Confederacy. Gregg's businesses continues to operate today, as Graniteville Specialty Fabrics.
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