{"nrhp_refnum":"96000830","name":"Mount Holly Cotton Mill","other_names":["Alsace Manufacturing Co."],"category":"building","location":{"address":"250 N. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mount Holly","county":"Gaston County","state":"NC","lat":35.30073028100003,"lon":-81.01475536399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-08-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick cotton mill complex at 250 North Main Street in Mount Holly, Gaston County, North Carolina, begun in 1875 and expanded around 1919. It sits on Dutchman's Creek and is the oldest surviving mill in the county.","why_significant":"It is the oldest surviving textile mill in Gaston County, which later claimed more textile mills than any other US county. Its Industrial Italianate form represents the functional industrial architecture of the New South. Its founding in 1875 led to the town being renamed Mount Holly in 1879 and to the growth of a textile community.","narrative":"Begun in March 1875 beside Dutchman's Creek, this brick cotton mill in Mount Holly was the fourth textile mill in Gaston County and is now the oldest still standing there. A partnership of Abel Peterson Rhyne, Daniel E. Rhyne and Ambrose Costner built it, and it opened with 2,000 spindles and water power. The complex grew in stages: an original 1875 block, a three-story west addition built after the 1916 flood, and a one-story machine shop and boiler house. Its plain, functional Italianate styling is typical of the industrial buildings that spread across the county. The mill's presence prompted the 1879 renaming of the nearby settlement from Woodlawn to Mount Holly. Later owners renamed it Alsace Manufacturing Company and merged it into American Yarn and Processing Company in 1920. It was stripped in 1932, used for research from 1953, and abandoned in the early 1960s. Since 1973 it has housed industrial and commercial uses.","period_of_significance":"1875-1946","architect_builder":"unknown","architectural_style":"Other: Industrial Italianate","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Used for industrial and commercial purposes, including a specialty store, after being abandoned in the early 1960s and sold in 1973.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:48.759884-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/93/7203/47720393/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/96000830.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000830/3b3b429a28-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000830/3b3b429a28-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"RoxylovesHistory","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotton_Mill_-_Mount_Holly,_NC_(front_angle2)_9-20-2014.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">RoxylovesHistory</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:Cotton_Mill_-_Mount_Holly,_NC_(front_angle2)_9-20-2014.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720393","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Holly_Cotton_Mill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19987221"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/gaston-county/mount-holly-cotton-mill-96000830/"}