Louise Cotton Mill
(ca. 1897)
Charlotte’s largest 19th-century textile mill and anchor for Belmont, the city’s first blue-collar neighborhood.
1101 & 1111 Hawthorne Ln, Charlotte, NC 28205
Developed and constructed by local entrepreneur and textile pioneer Captain Hubert S. Chadwick (1856-1899), the Louise Cotton Mill was Charlotte’s largest textile mill when completed in 1897, serving as a symbol of the city’s emergence as the focal point for the New South’s textile industry. Named after his wife Blanche Louise, the mill included a village of some 87 mill houses, providing the basis for the Belmont neighborhood, Charlotte’s earliest working-class community. The Louise Cotton Mill continued operations as a textile plant until the 1960s.
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Having already established himself as a successful merchant with his Charlotte Machine Company, Chadwick became president of Pineville’s Dover Mill in 1892. Shortly thereafter, he decided to construct his own mill. Upon its opening, the Louise Cotton Mill boasted 7,000 spindles and 368 looms, but Chadwick did not experience the full success of his venture. Shortly after the mill’s opening, he joined the volunteer militia to fight in the Spanish-American War, only to be discharged a few months later for “medical reasons.” Following a stint in a sanitarium and his return to Charlotte, Chadwick committed suicide in 1899 while on a business trip to Boston, leaving the mill to his wife.
Despite that family tragedy, the Louise Mill thrived, adding a unique “U” shape annex that brought the mill up to 20,000 spindles and 522 looms. Further construction saw the addition of a cotton warehouse, a 280,000-gallon water storage tank, and a spur line from the Seaboard Air Line Railroad ending at the mill’s back door. By 1900, the mill’s workforce numbered more than 450 employees, many of whom lived in the adjacent mill village, which featured such amenities as two churches, a school, pharmacy, café, barber shop, and club house, all within sight of the mill’s entrance.
Family ownership of the Louise Mill ended in 1908 upon its sale to the newly-formed Chadwick-Hoskins Mills Company (named in Captain Chadwick’s honor). Subsequent owner Textron Southern operated the mill until 1955. Two printing companies – Creative Textile Printers and Printmatic – occupied the property during the 1960s, followed by Hanford’s floral supply company from the early 1970s to 2001. Various entities – including Eckerd’s Drugs, Jack’s Cookie Factory, and the U.S. Justice Department – have since used the buildings on the property for warehouse space.