County of marker: Carroll County
Location of marker: Bradley St. & Lee St., old depot, Carrollton
Marker erected by: The City of Carrollton, University of West Georgia & Carrollton Area Visitors Bureau
Sign Text:
The Knitted Road
WEST GEORGIA TEXTILE HERITAGE TRAIL[Map of Trail]
The Carrollton Textile Trail contains five signs within the city. They can be visited in any order, but a suggested route
is presented above. The four other locations are (1) along Adamson Street, (2) along Bradley Street, (4) at
Mandeville Mills, and (5) at the railroad crossing on Maple Street.
Once an unpaved road, Bradley Street became a thriving industrial district that was home to several hosiery mills and cotton warehouses during the twentieth century. With Adamson Square cotton market at one end and the railroad depot at the other, Bradley Street connected two integral places of Carrollton's textile industry.
Cotton and guano warehouses were built along the side streets of then Depot Street as early as 1895, but this road did not develop into a textile-centered corridor until the id-1920s and 1930s. During these years, when hosiery mills began to move south, Carroll Mills, Caroline Mills, and Lawler Hosiery Mills were among others that found success on Bradley. At first, these hosiery mills manufactured women and children's anklet socks, but after World War II, some shifted to producing and shoestrings and braided cords for blinds.
The last two surviving hosiery mills closed in recent decades due to NAFTA and competition overseas. Lawler Hosiery Mills shut down in 1995 and Carroll Mills in the 2000s. Although no textile mills or cotton warehouses still operate on Bradley Street, the buildings left behind remind us of its history.
What does this 1952 Lawler Hosiery Mill publication tell you about the mill's work force?
Women at Work
Lawler Hosiery Mills hired white workers, primarily women, to work as operatives on the machines. As with other southern mills, African Americans did not have equal employment opportunities until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which required companies to hire black workers.
Why Store Cotton?
Bradley Street and its side streets had several cotton warehouses that provided an opportunity for farmers to store their cotton bales while prices fluctuated or until the bales could be transported on the railroad. Warehouses were owned by the mills, cotton cooperatives, and cotton merchants.
In 2005, the City of Carrollton purchased a large cotton warehouse on the corner of Bradley and Mill Streets and repurposed a section of the building for city offices. How do you think the warehouse has changed to accommodate non-textile businesses?
Can you imagine what it was like working around hundreds of knitting or braiding machines? Before air conditioning
became available the employees of Carroll Mills opened windows to help cool down the fast-moving machines.
How much noise do you think hundreds of machines in operation made?
New Mill Life
Hosiery mills did not build village and homes for their workers, unlike older textile cotton mills such as nearby Mandeville Mills. The convenient city location of these hosiery mills and increased use of the automobiles by the 1920s made these workplaces more accessible to employees. Both in the city and the country.
How much money do you think $300,000 from 1937 would equal to in 2012? Over $4,5000,000!
A Blaze of Fire
Would you have guessed that storing bales of cotton could be dangerous? Cotton fibers and lint that filled the air were very flammable. In 1937, a huge blaze destroyed over 4,500 bales stored at the Southeastern Warehouse and Cotton Compress behind Carroll Mills at the corner of Bradley and Mill Streets. In the late 1930s, that cotton was valued at about $300,000! Althoug the fire destroyed much of the building and most of the cotton bales, only three people were injured.