McAdenville Historic District

McAdenville is a textile mill village in eastern Gaston County, North Carolina, laid out in the early 1880s around McAden Mills, a cotton mill chartered in 1881. The district covers about 85 acres along the South Fork of the Catawba River, organized along Main Street. Its best-known feature is a group of fifteen two-story, gable-fronted brick mill houses from the 1880s, mostly duplexes, an uncommon form in a region where mill housing was usually frame. Mill No. 3 (1906-07) survives intact, while only remnants of the first two mills remain. Other parts of the village include a small commercial block along Main Street, churches, houses built for mill owners and managers, frame mill cottages, and a privately owned residential area toward Interstate 85. Of 156 resources, 102 are contributing. Most of the district is still owned by the mill company, which helps explain how well the village has kept its character as one of the region's last company-owned mill towns.