Bellevue Mill

In the chronology

1. 1904–1929 Shepperd Strudwick heads the new Bellevue Manufacturing Company in west Hillsborough The Bellevue Manufacturing Company, Hillsborough's cotton mill in the west of the town, was incorporated in 1904 with Shepperd Strudwick as its first president, and he remained president until 1929. By 1911 the mill ran 5,000 spindles and 200 looms making ginghams.
2. late September 1904 P. C. Collins buys the southern part of the future Bellevue mill site from J. W. Hooker Before the Bellevue company was incorporated, P. C. Collins bought the south half of the mill site near the West Hillsborough depot from J. W. Hooker; a later hand added that he acted as the mill's agent. Collins, a shareholder, passed the land to the company in 1905.
3. 1905 to 1907 Mill engineer Richard C. Biberstein lays out the machinery for the Bellevue mill The new company hired Richard C. Biberstein, a Charlotte mill designer trained in Massachusetts, to plan the arrangement of its machinery; his drawings run from 1905 to 1907. Fifteen years later he designed the mill's weaving room.
4. 1905 Shepperd Strudwick buys Allen Ruffin's land north of the future Bellevue mill Four years before the Bellevue mill was built, Strudwick acquired the tract north of the site from Ruffin, one of the Eno Cotton Mill's founders, probably to build company housing there. People: Allen Jones Ruffin
5. 1909 Shepperd Strudwick builds the Bellevue cotton mill on South Nash Street The Bellevue Manufacturing Company's mill went up in 1909 west of South Nash Street, a short way beyond the town line of the day, backed by local investors and staffed by people leaving farm work. By 1912 it ran 5,000 spindles and 200 narrow looms.
6. between 1910 and 1924 The Bellevue Commercial Block is built as West Hillsborough's shopping street Five one-story brick buildings with seven storefronts on South Nash Street near the old depot became the West End business district for the mill village and West Hillsborough. Over the years they held a drug store, the Cates brothers' general store with a branch post office, a barber, a dry cleaner, a cafe and a movie theater.
7. about 1910 The Bellevue mill superintendent's house is built on South Nash Street The two-story house built for the mill superintendent, with corbelled brick chimneys, a canted bay and a wraparound porch, is the most decorative early house in the surveyed area and stands out beside the plain mill houses next to it.
8. 1912 The Bellevue mill runs 5,000 spindles and 200 looms making dress ginghams Three years after it opened, the Bellevue mill had 5,000 spindles and 200 narrow looms weaving dress ginghams 27 and 32 inches wide, sold through agents in New York and New Jersey.
9. 1913 R. B. Mason's land west of the Bellevue mill is platted as the West Hill Property To meet the need for workers' housing near the two mills, Mason's holdings were laid out in 1913 as a grid of roughly equal lots, bounded by the Bellevue mill village, Eno Street and the railroad, West Hill Street, and Mount Willing Road (later King Street). Most houses there went up from the 1920s to the 1940s, and the section beyond West Hill Avenue was platted in the 1930s.
10. About 1916 Eno Cotton Mill reports 150 women among its 500 workers Reports from the years before the wartime changes count about 500 workers at Hillsborough's Eno Cotton Mill, 150 of them women and 50 children under 16, on a 60-hour week. The top average daily wage for women was $1.75 against $4.00 for men; at the smaller Bellevue mill nearby women's top average was $2.50.
11. 1916 The Bellevue mill is also turning out cheviot cloth By 1916 the Bellevue mill was weaving cheviot, a rough-finished cloth, alongside its ginghams.
12. 1919 to 1926 The Bellevue mill changes over from steam to electric power The mill was built to run belt-driven machinery from a steam engine. By 1919 it ran partly on electricity, and by the mid-1920s it had changed over completely, with individual motors on the machines and the belt-way removed.
13. early 1920s The Bellevue company builds its mill village north of the mill In the early 1920s, as it doubled the mill, the company set closely spaced houses along a narrow loop road reached from West King and South Nash streets, in three plain types; the one-and-a-half-story houses had two front doors so workers on different shifts could come and go separately. All the houses appear on the 1924 Sanborn map.
14. 1920 and 1923 The Bellevue mill is enlarged in 1920 and again in Expansions in 1920 and 1923 were part of a decade of growth in which the mill more than doubled its spindles and looms, and they coincided with the building of much of its company housing.
15. 1926 After its 1920s additions the Bellevue mill runs 10,740 spindles and 592 looms The additions of the early 1920s more than doubled the mill's spindles and looms, and by 1926 the company's capital stock stood at $500,000. In 1919 it had still declared only its original $125,000.
16. 1929 Shepperd Strudwick resigns as president of Bellevue, and L. E. Beard takes over After twenty-five years as president, Shepperd Strudwick stepped down in 1929, the year its stock value fell from $500,000 to $419,600. L. E. Beard succeeded him and his partner Norfleet Webb as president and treasurer.
17. 1945 Hesslein and Company buys the Belle-Vue mill, ending local ownership Belle-Vue Manufacturing Company had been run from Hillsborough since 1904, lately under L. E. Beard. In 1945 Hesslein and Company bought it and spent over half a million dollars on new machinery and on baths for the mill village houses.
18. 1953 The Bellevue mill employs 355 workers on two shifts In 1953 the mill had 355 workers on two shifts, and the company still owned its mill village, whose houses now had indoor plumbing.
19. 1955 The Bellevue company's stock is worth $219,600, well under half its 1926 value Still listed under the Bellevue name in 1955, the company had stock valued at $219,600, with 14,712 spindles and 499 looms.
20. 1958 The Bellevue mill village is platted and its houses sold to private owners After the mill company had been sold by 1956, its village was surveyed into lots in 1958 so the houses could be sold. Unlike the Eno mill houses, which were carried off to new sites, the Bellevue houses stayed where they were, which is why the village keeps its original streets but has irregular lot lines.
21. 1960s The Bellevue mill changes hands and runs as Hillsboro Mills In the 1960s the mill was sold to investors from the Northeast, and trade directories list it as Hillsboro Mills.
22. 1960s The open court in the middle of the Bellevue mill is roofed over for storage For more storage, the owners roofed the space inside the U-shaped mill with open-web steel trusses running from the main mill to the weaving room and closed its east side with a new wall, removing the 1923 stair tower.
23. 1966 Hillsborough makes its first annexations beyond the one-square-mile town In 1966 the town began extending its limits past the square mile platted in 1754, first taking in homes on Cameron and Ruffin streets to the northeast and the Bellevue mill and its village to the west. Annexations have continued since, most of them under ten acres.
24. 1970s The former Bellevue mill is sold again and runs as Falk Fibers and Fabrics In the 1970s northeastern investors bought the mill again; directories list it as Falk, Fibers, and Fabrics, with a dyeing and finishing subsidiary at the same site.
25. 2000 Flynt Fabrics and Finishing closes the former Bellevue mill The shutdown of the Flynt Fabrics and Finishing Company, successor to the Bellevue Manufacturing Company, in 2000 followed the Eno mill's 1984 closing and dealt Hillsborough a second economic blow. The mill buildings still stand between the town and West Hillsborough.
26. June 13, 2002 The Bellevue mill joins the Study List The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Belle-Vue Manufacturing Company mill in West Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
27. August 28, 2003 The Bellevue Manufacturing Company is listed in the National Register On August 28, 2003 the National Park Service listed the Bellevue Manufacturing Company in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.

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