Monroe and Walton Mills Historic District

On the southern edge of Monroe, Georgia, this district grew up around two brick textile mills and the villages built for their workers. The Monroe Cotton Mill Company began construction in 1895, and the Walton Cotton Mill Company followed in 1900, with contractor T.J. Nichols building the Walton Mill. Small frame houses, mostly duplexes and shotgun variations with front and rear porches, were set on a gridiron street plan with uniform setbacks and tiny yards. A church, school, stores and a recreation hall served the residents, and large trees line the Walton village streets. A few Victorian houses that predate the mills, and larger early 1900s homes along South Madison Avenue, are also included. The mills turned Monroe from a farm-service town into an industrial community and were long its largest employer. The district is valued for its mill architecture, its planned village layout, its industrial role and its surviving landscape. About 120 acres and 246 properties are covered, and most buildings remain in use today.