{"nrhp_refnum":"03001273","name":"Laboratory Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Jct. of Laboratory Rd. and S. Fork Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Laboratory","county":"Lincoln County","state":"NC","lat":35.43800754200004,"lon":-81.25660149200289,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-12-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small rural historic district of nearly twenty-two acres about two miles south of Lincolnton in Laboratory, Lincoln County, North Carolina. It includes the 1887 Laboratory Cotton Mill, its dam and reservoir, the 1894 Daniel E. Rhyne House and the ca. 1844 Hoke-Rhyne House.","why_significant":"The district preserves the surviving core of the cotton mill complex founded by Daniel E. Rhyne in 1887, which revived textile manufacturing in Lincoln County. It also includes the site of a Confederate medicine laboratory (1863-1865) and the earlier Lincoln Cotton Factory. Its houses and mill structures are strong local examples of their types and styles.","narrative":"Laboratory Historic District is a compact rural group of mill-related resources on the South Fork River, about two miles south of Lincolnton. Its centerpiece is the brick Laboratory Cotton Mill, built in 1887 by Daniel E. Rhyne and his brother-in-law James A. Abernethy Sr. on a site that earlier held the Lincoln Cotton Factory and, from 1863, a Confederate laboratory producing medicines for the army. Also included are the mill's dam and race system, a stone reservoir, the ca. 1844 brick Hoke-Rhyne House and Rhyne's 1894 frame house with its ornate Victorian porch. The mill reintroduced cotton manufacturing to Lincoln County's economy in the late nineteenth century and operated until the late 1990s. The mill village that once surrounded it was demolished or moved after 1953, so these surviving buildings and structures, with their wooded hillside setting, preserve the industrial and domestic landscape of Rhyne's long career. Nine of the twenty-two resources contribute to the district's character.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1844-1861; ca. 1887-1953","architect_builder":"George Finch (supervised construction of the Confederate laboratory); Daniel E. Rhyne (mill founder and builder of the 1894 house)","architectural_style":"Federal; Greek Revival; Late Victorian","criteria":[],"status_note":"The mill closed in the late 1990s; the reservoir has been converted to an art studio and the houses are in residential use. Overall the primary buildings are described as largely intact and well preserved.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:54.159172-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/2/7211/47721102/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/03001273.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03001273/84f4bd5bdd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03001273/84f4bd5bdd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laboratory_Cotton_Mill.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laboratory_Cotton_Mill.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721102","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19864900"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/lincoln-county/laboratory-historic-district-03001273/"}