Hannah Pickett Mill No. 1
Why it's listed
Two miles southeast of Rockingham's commercial district at 300 King Edward Street, this textile mill complex was built between 1906 and 1908 as a hosiery-yarn mill for a company organized in 1906 by Robert L. Steele, Jr. and W. B. Cole. Its main building has a four-story stair tower modeled on an Italianate or Romanesque Revival campanile, with lancet windows, a corbelled cornice and a pyramidal roof. Weave rooms, cotton warehouses and an office followed in the early 1920s. Cole, a fourth-generation county textile industrialist, ran the mill for decades and shaped its growth. It is regarded as the least altered of the eleven original Richmond County mill complexes, and its stair tower is considered especially fine. The mill operated until 1957 and later housed warehouse space and a vocational training branch. Its importance rests on its architecture, its tie to Cole, and its place in the county's textile economy.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the mill is an unusually handsome and well preserved example of early twentieth-century textile mill construction, and the least altered of the eleven original mill complexes in the area. Its central stair tower is described as especially fine. It is also tied to W. B. Cole, a leading textile industrialist in Rockingham, and to the textile industry that dominated the local economy.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 83001906, listed September 22, 1983. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 300 King Edward St., Rockingham |
|---|---|
| County | Richmond County |
| Listed | September 22, 1983 |
| Reference number | 83001906 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1900-1907 |
| Architectural style | Italianate or Romanesque Revival (stated for the stair tower) |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Industry, Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Has not housed textile machinery since 1957; used for warehouse purposes and as a vocational training branch for Richmond Technical College. |
| Acreage | 2.3 |
| Coordinates | 34.91737, -79.76089 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For an income-producing building, listing (individually or as a contributing building in a district) is the gateway to the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit on qualified rehabilitation costs, often stackable with state credits. Work claiming the credit must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and be approved in advance.
Listing does not restrict a private owner acting without federal money or permits; where federal funding or licensing is involved, Section 106 review applies.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 83001906.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q19867628
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.