Lowe Mill is a former
cotton mill
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Although some were driven ...
of size approximately located southwest of downtown
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
.
Today, the building is operated by Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment and is the largest privately owned arts facility in the United States. Lowe Mill A&E consists of 153 studio spaces, is currently home to two hundred artists, and serves as a gallery and performance venue.
History
In 1900,
Arthur H. Lowe of
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Fitchburg State University is located here.
History
...
, formed Lowe Manufacturing Company, and began the building of Huntsville's fifth
textile mill
Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...
. Lowe Mill opened in 1901 with 25,000 spindles that helped to turn locally-grown
cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
into woven cloth.
In 1902, Eastern Manufacturing Company built the final large mill in Huntsville, a weaving mill across from Lowe Mill. Lowe Mill and Eastern Manufacturing merged their companies and the two buildings in 1904. The spinning mill supplied yarns for the
weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...
mills, where the highest grade
gingham
Gingham, also called Vichy check, is a medium-weight balanced plain weave, plain-woven textile, fabric typically with Tartan, tartan (plaid), striped, or Check (pattern), check duotone patterns, in bright colour and in white made from dyed cotton o ...
s and
shirting
A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist).
Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. ...
s were made to supply large clothing manufacturers throughout the nation.
In December 1932, Lowe Manufacturing declared
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
, and the factory started back up again under Lowe Mills, Inc. in January 1933, with Donald Comer, head of
Birmingham's Avondale Mills, as majority stockholder. In 1936, Lowe Mill changed hands again when Edwin Greene of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
became the majority stockholder of the renamed Lowe Corporation. In March 1937, Lowe Corporation was dissolved and the plant was sold to Walter Laxson and became a cotton warehouse.
At the end of World War II, in December 1945,
Nashville
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
-based General Shoe Co. opened a shoe factory in Lowe Mill, employing up to 800 people. In 1959, General Shoe Co. became Genesco, Inc. Many US soldiers in Vietnam wore boots made at Genesco's Huntsville factory.
In 1978, Genesco sold it and Martin Industries turned Lowe Mill into a warehouse for residential and commercial heating systems. In 1999, realtor Gene McLain bought Lowe Mill and then in 2001, sold it to Research Genetics founder, Jim Hudson, who is the current owner of Lowe Mill.
The mill currently houses Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment, which provides art studio and exhibition space for over 200 artists.
The mill and surrounding neighborhood were added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2011.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment*
Historic American Engineering Record
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...
(HAER) documentation, filed under Huntsville, Madison County, AL:
**
**
**
**
{{National Register of Historic Places in Alabama
Industrial buildings completed in 1901
Textile mills in Huntsville, Alabama
Historic American Engineering Record in Alabama
National Register of Historic Places in Huntsville, Alabama
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama
Historic districts in Huntsville, Alabama
Cotton mills in the United States