Cotton Mill a historical marker

Remnants of the Old Bleachery, the first mill building built in 1881, form a wall of the swimming pool area. Bricks for the mill's construction were made from on-site clay through the turn of the century

By Debra Krajnak
CNN.com Arts & Style editor

ATLANTA (CNN) -- The origins of the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills have historical importance beyond Atlanta, according to the report recommending that its neighborhood of Cabbagetown be added to the National Register of Historic Places. It was listed in 1976.

The first mill building was constructed in 1881, the year of the International Cotton Exposition, which drew attention to the South's rebuilding efforts after the Civil War. An iron foundry was located at the cotton mill site during the war; it was destroyed when the Confederates evacuated Atlanta in the face of advancing Union troops.

The historic nomination form documents other areas of significance:

1. Architecture -- The use of "slow-burning construction" methods -- minimizing damage by fire -- represented the latest technology of the day for factory buildings. The New Bleachery, built in 1953, used the new building technique of reinforced concrete construction.

2. Commerce -- Elsas May, who co-owned a textile and bag business before building the mill, decided to process his own cotton after growing tired of buying finished cloth from mills in New England. He was one of the first merchants in the region to standardize bags sold to millers and other customers. The mill's development came on the heels of the International Cotton Exposition in Atlanta, an economic renewal effort after the Civil War.

3. Community Planning -- Cabbagetown, where the mill workers lived, is described as "an excellent example of form following function" in the design and location of buildings.

4. Industry -- The mill and Cabbagetown are textbook cases of what happens when an industry prospers, then declines, causing economic devastation for workers whose homes and livelihoods depended on the paternalistic factory owners.

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