Vaucluse, South Carolina
Vaucluse is an unincorporated community in Aiken County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is located at 33°36′45″N 81°48′35″W / 33.61250°N 81.80972°W. Vaucluse is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area.
Three miles from Graniteville and 6 miles (9.7 km) from Aiken, Vaucluse is the site of the pioneering Horse Creek Valley textile mill. Employing 50 'operatives' on 1500 spindles and 25 looms, the mill was incorporated by local planter Christian Breithaupt in 1833, with later investors George McDuffie, John Bauskett, and William Gregg. Gregg found it under-capitalized and too small for economic survival, producing an unmanageable variety of products, and suffering due to a lack of active management. As such it served Gregg as a training ground for his successful Graniteville project of 1847.
Gregg observed 'the most indifferent overseer's house in Lowell, Massachusetts, at least such as I saw, cost more than the whole village of Vaucluse, containing upwards of 200 inhabitants including a comfortable dwelling recently built as a residence for one of its owners'. The existing mill building ca. 1880 employed 300 operators on 10,000 spindles under ownership of the Graniteville Company until its recent closure. The Vaucluse Mill Village Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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