Erlanger Mill Village Historic District

Erlanger Mill Village is a planned textile-worker neighborhood about one mile north of downtown Lexington, North Carolina. Covering roughly 85 acres, it was built mostly between 1913 and 1929 around the Erlanger Mill complex, and it is separated from the city by a four-lane highway. The streets follow a grid, with curved streets at the north end laid out by Charlotte landscape architect Earle S. Draper. Most of the housing is frame and one story tall, set close to the street. The earliest section, built out by 1916-17, has modest side-gable houses with shed-roofed porches. Later blocks, developed from 1917 to 1923, include Craftsman bungalows, and houses on Second Rainbow Street were the last built, between 1923 and 1929. The houses may have been assembled from Minter Homes kits. The district also has two Gothic Revival churches, a former school building and the mill office. Many houses now have replacement siding, but most keep their original form. Some mill-related recreation grounds were lost to commercial development.