Henry River Mill Houses

Jane Best

Henry River Mill Houses

For many years, the textile industry was a major mainstay in the North Carolina economy. Henry River Mill, near I40 between Hickory and Morganton, was one of them and housing for the employees was provided by the company. Two of the abandoned houses are shown here. There are several more clustered together here as well as an old two story general store. When the mill and village were built (c. 1905) there were 35 of these houses. About 21 are still there. The mill manufactured fine cotton yarn. Originally the power to operate it came from the river, then it converted to steam, and later to electricity. THe mill closed in the late 1960s.
It is an interesting place to see and though there are NO Trespassing signs all around, one can still see most from the road. For me, it is sort of spooky and sad to see as it represents a cultural and economic history that has been lost. forever.

Henry River Mill Houses belongs to the following groups:

All of North Carolina, Americas ~ Rural, Urban, Wild, Free, Dilapidated Buildings, Landscape Photography, Rural Around The Globe, Rustic and United States Available for sale as

Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints
Henry River Mill Houses by Jane Best
Henry River Mill Houses by Jane Best
  • Grumpy02

    Grumpy02

    Wonderful capture-very pretty, color and composition are just fabulous, well done

  • Jane Best replied

    THank you, Grumpy02. It was an interesting but rather spooky place.

  • Gary L. Suddath

    Gary L. Suddath

    fabulous capture….your work brings life back to these old Appalachian places

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you, Gary, for your kind compliment! I think I read that there were about 39 houses like these there. I saw at least a dozen. WIll do more reading and try to post a little more history about the village and mill.

  • DonnaMoore

    DonnaMoore

    Very nice. It feels like it all could come back in the blink of an eye. This would be a great setting for the being of a movie. Lovely…

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you, Donna. I would like to read more about the history of the village. I imagine at one time it was very lively and busy-but now totally abandoned-a ghost town.

  • FelicityB

    FelicityB

    You have a knack of finding the most amazing places – beautiful find!

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you, FelicityB. I saw at least a dozen houses like this there and seems like I read that there were 39. Was like a ghost town.

  • Joanne Bradley

    Joanne Bradley

    Wonderful capture looking down the hill, it gives the image a great depth of field!

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you, Joanne. THe river is at the bottom of the hill and it supplied the power for the mill. I think it was a cotton mill. I saw several houses and several outhouses too.

  • CraigsMom

    CraigsMom

    Wonderful as ever, Jane. You do such a wonderful job of capturing the feel of your area of the country!

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you, CraigsMom! I am ready to see some Spring colors!

  • jinney

    jinney

    -lovely Jane!
    full of charactor!
    -jinney

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you SO much, Jinny. Yes, I thought the houses had “character” too.

  • Farmncamera

    Farmncamera

    Jane, show me the way….. I want to move in!! Love how the light falls over the image… and gives it the warmest feeling, of home! If there was any other state I would love to live in, besides Tennessee, it would certainly be W. N. Carolina! The most beautiful country on earth.. Well, at least, that I have seen.. :) xx

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you Elaine. I think your area is lovely too and in many ways, similar to Western North Carolina.

  • Angie McKenzie

    Angie McKenzie

    great shot!!

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you, ANgie. Glad you liked this one.

  • Mary Campbell

    Mary Campbell

    NJ has something similar in Allaire State Park, I guess it was the practice in those days to house the workers to get them to come to these mill towns. Lots were young girls, who worked long hours in the mills. Interesting, that China and Japan did this as well in their industrialization phases. With what’s going on here and the mortgage crisis perhaps companies will have to go back to these practices.

  • Jane Best replied

    THank you for commenting, Mary. You might be right-we may be heading back to something like this! Housing the employess must have been a common practice back then.

  • grannyjune

    grannyjune

    I love this, love this, love this! Great capture.

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you very much, grannyjune. Glad you enjoyed.

  • emanon

    emanon

    having spent a wonderful hol in NC in ‘01 these photographs bring back lots of nice memories. I really like this one.

  • Jane Best replied

    Thank you, emanon. Glad you had a chance to visit NC and that you enoyed the state. What parts did you see?

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