{"nrhp_refnum":"11000891","name":"Asheboro Hosiery Mills and Cranford Furniture Company Complex","other_names":["Cranford Industries. National Chair Company"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"133 & 139 S. Church St., 230 W. Academy Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Asheboro","county":"Randolph County","state":"NC","lat":35.70410329500004,"lon":-79.81678908199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-12-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of former hosiery mill and furniture factory buildings occupying the south three-quarters of a block adjacent to Asheboro's downtown business district in Randolph County, North Carolina. The buildings were constructed from 1917 onward by C. C. Cranford's businesses.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the complex is significant under Criterion A for industry, as the home of Asheboro Hosiery Mills and the Cranford Furniture Company within the Cranford Industries group, which was one of the county's largest industrial concerns. It is also significant under Criterion C for architecture, reflecting advances in industrial building design from the 1910s through the 1950s, including load-bearing brick mill construction with heavy timber framing and an Art Moderne-style façade added in 1945.","narrative":"Along the railroad in downtown Asheboro, a complex of brick mill and factory buildings occupies much of a city block. C. C. Cranford began investing in the site in 1908, and in 1917 he built a two-story brick hosiery mill there for Asheboro Hosiery Mills. The plant grew from about thirty employees operating thirty seamless hosiery machines to a works that employed six hundred workers and produced sixty thousand pairs of hose daily in 1937. Adjacent to it, the Cranford Furniture Company factory, built around 1918, made bedroom and dining room furniture from Randolph County hardwoods. The buildings are regarded as significant for industrial history, because they were the core of the Cranford Industries group, and for architecture, because they show load-bearing brick walls combined with heavy timber framing and, later, steel framing. A 1945 Art Moderne façade with glass block windows marks the mill's later modernization.","period_of_significance":"1917-1961","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Classical Revival; Art Moderne","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Asheboro Hosiery Mills remained in business until 1998; the complex is currently owned and operated by B & H Panel Co. according to sign bands on the mill.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.765462-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/94/7218/47721894/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/11000891.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000891/8fa734f73d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000891/8fa734f73d-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asheboro_Hosiery_Mills.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asheboro_Hosiery_Mills.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100007595","name":"Asheboro Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/asheboro-downtown-historic-district-100007595/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721894","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheboro_Hosiery_Mills_and_Cranford_Furniture_Company_Complex","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19864814"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/randolph-county/asheboro-hosiery-mills-and-cranford-furniture-company-complex-11000891/"}