Columbus Manufacturing Company

This brick textile mill complex overlooks the Chattahoochee River north of downtown Columbus, Georgia. Built between 1899 and 1901 to a design by the Boston engineering firm Lockwood, Greene & Co., it centers on a four-story main mill enlarged in 1910, with a concrete-framed weave shed of 1922, a cloth-finishing annex, cotton warehouses, two power plants, an office and an elevated water tank. Local business leaders built it to use inexpensive electricity from the nearby North Highlands Dam, then the largest dam in the South, and it was among the first Georgia mills to run on hydroelectric power. Its slow-burn construction and fire-suppression water system reflect the engineering of the period. The mill produced cotton sheeting until it closed in 1996, and it illustrates the growth of Georgia's textile industry in the early 20th century. Rehabilitated in 2004, it now provides loft apartments.