Memories are made of this...

 Memories were made here...if walls could talk....I was glad to see this old cotton mill is being renovated  instead of being razed.  Originally Clifton mill no. 3, it was destroyed by flood in the early 1900's then rebuilt and became Converse Cotton Mill (on US 29 between Cowpens  and Spartanburg). 

When her youngest child was old enough to go to school,  my mother went to work as the Converse Cotton Mill as a "spare". As a spare hand she had to show up for work each morning just in case they needed her that day, and if not, then she went back home.  A friend of the family took her and waited for her just in case he had to take her back home. 

 What a neat town Cowpens was back in the day!  When i was a kid, all the stores closed at 2 pm on Wednesdays, so folks could have time to make it to church that night.  Of course, all stores were closed all day on Sunday. 

Now after being closed down since the late 1970's, someone has purchased the property and is renovating the old mill  into 175 loft apartments.  The renovations will  cost about $50 million and should be finished in late 2022. 

Converse Mill to be converted to 173 Loft Apartments by the end of 2022!

 So glad they did not tear this old mill down!  My mother started her working career as a stand by worker at the Converse Mill pictured here - on US 29 at the Pacolet River.   She had to show up each day to find out if they needed her to work  or not - if not, she went back home.  A friend of the family took her and brought her home each day.  She was glad when she was able to get a job at the Pentex Mill in Cowpens. She retired from there.   

from the Spartanburg Herald-Journal:  

After almost 50 years since operations stopped at the former Converse Mill along the Pacolet River, the site is being converted into 173 loft apartments.

The project has been in the works for the last several years but ran into some delays. Developer Britt Weaver said the $50 million project is set to be finished by December 2022.

"The deal was ready to close in 2019 and was HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) approved when the general contractor pulled out. So we had to start the whole thing over again," Weaver said. "It's been challenging and expensive but we got it done."

A chain-link fence is set up around the property and construction trailers are installed at the site. 

When developers announced the project in May 2017, it was scheduled to be completed by late 2018 or early 2019. The project, called Converse Mill Lofts, on Highway 29 received state income and historic tax credits.

read more at this link...

family roots in Clifton, SC

Since my dad's family grew up in the Clifton area of South Carolina 

(Coopertown to be exact)

I have always found the history of that area interesting.

  

I found some old newspaper articles about the mills of that

area (from the local Spartanburg Herald Journal.) 

I am posting photos below that you can save on your computer as jpg 

and then enlarge to read, etc.   

I did not realize that there were stocks at one time for the mill -

Clifton Manufacturing Company. 

My dad's family originated in North Carolina, 

but many of my grandfather C C Franklin's

family moved to the Spartanburg, SC area to work 

in the textile mills (cotton mills) in the early 1900's.