The little mill village has been restored with the help of the NC Historical Society. Seeing places like this just makes my heart flutter.
These old homes were restored from such a run down condition. It's amazing to see them now, perfectly repaired and restored to historical guidelines. (the lady at the museum said they were originally all white, when they were being used for employees of the old mill)
This was one of my favorites. The houses with the double front doors were built with 'shift workers' in mind. This was done so the whole family would not be disturbed when the worker came in from a late shift while the family was sleeping.
A few of the houses were torn completely down and rebuilt to replicate the original mill houses. However, most were restored from houses like this.
Only the supervisors were allowed to live in a house with a wrap around porch.
I have many more pictures of the houses, but wanted to show you these few. These houses sit very close to the street and if the families were sitting on their porches, they could talk back and forth to those around them. I'm sure it was a very hard life, working in a mill for very low wages. But the history and nostalgic side of me just loves this area and would be proud to live in one of these houses today.
There was a museum (which was the original old general store) that housed a lot of memorabilia from Glencoe Mill. The weaving looms were amazing. Not only their size, but the fact that someone had to mastermind all those bits and pieces and how they would work together to make fabric. Some women had looms in their homes and made fabric for the mill as a cottage industry. (for very little pay)
These are some of the plaid fabrics that were made at Glencoe Mill. Click here to read more about the museum.
This quilt was made by locals to represent the mill houses. Isn't it beautiful?
A little girl's dress made from flour sack fabric. It was an embarrassment to most people to have dresses made from these fabrics. Who knew we would someday pay big $$ to get our hands on some of it?
An interesting bottle tree in someone's yard. Click to enlarge to see better detail.
I like this mailbox, but was surprised that it was 'allowed' to be decorated this way in a historical village. (posted this for you Ancient One)
More feedsack/ flour sack fabric
A pretty quilt (I think it was made with fabric from the mill)
It was a beautiful day and so much fun to get out and do something different.