{"nrhp_refnum":"77000999","name":"Arista Cotton Mill Complex","other_names":["Lentz Transfer &","Storage Co."],"category":"building","location":{"address":"200 Brookstown Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Winston-Salem","county":"Forsyth County","state":"NC","lat":36.09010834800006,"lon":-80.24577705102521,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-08-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-building industrial complex at 200 Brookstown Avenue in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, made up of the 1836 Salem Cotton Manufacturing Company mill and the 1880 Arista Cotton Mill built by F. and H. Fries, plus a ca. 1900 transformer station.","why_significant":"The complex is presented as the oldest physical reminder of Winston-Salem's textile foundations, of Salem's shift from craft production to mass manufacturing, and of the Fries family's role in industry, banking and transportation. It challenges the view that the city's growth rested only on tobacco.","narrative":"Two brick mill buildings and a small transformer station on Brookstown Avenue in Winston-Salem preserve the city's early textile industry. The older building dates to 1836, when Salem businessmen, including Francis Levan Fries, organized a cotton manufacturing company. It later became the Wachovia Flour Mills after the Fries brothers took control in 1856. The second building, the Arista Cotton Mill, was built in 1880 under Francis H. Fries. It is a three-story, fourteen-bay brick structure with a stair tower, and it was among the first Southern mills to use electric lights. It operated until the mid-1920s and employed about 150 workers at the time of a 1915 report. A transformer station from 1899 supplied power to the complex and other local users. The site shows how Salem moved from handicraft weaving to mass production, and it records the Fries family's part in the region's industry, banking and railroads. The old flour mill still serves as a warehouse.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Francis H. Fries supervised construction of the 1880 Arista mill; the 1836 mill was built by part of the Moravian congregation of Salem.","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; the former Wachovia Flour Mills building continues in use as a warehouse for a transfer and storage company. Several related structures (ice plant, cotton warehouse, power station, gas works) have been demolished.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.829852-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/82/7202/47720282/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/77000999.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000999/c86dbce16b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000999/c86dbce16b-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"JoAnn Sieburg-Baker, Photographer","credit_html":"JoAnn Sieburg-Baker, Photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salem_Manufacturing_Company,_Arista_Cotton_Mill,_Brookstown_%26_Marshall_Streets,_Winston-Salem_(Forsyth_County,_North_Carolina).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720282","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arista_Cotton_Mill_Complex","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18739418"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/forsyth-county/arista-cotton-mill-complex-77000999/"}