Dartmouth Spinning Company, 510 Cottage Street, Augusta Canal, Augusta

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA,123-AUG,51-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

One of two yarn mills built on the banks of the Augusta Canal, the Dartmouth Mill still stands as one of the few remaining physical examples of Augusta's quest to become the "Lowell of the South." Architecturally, the mill represents the only remaining cotton mill in Augusta which has retained its original character by not bricking up its windows, thus retaining the visual relationship between the interior and exterior.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA,123-AUG,51-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Robert C. Jorgensen , It is understood that access to this material rests on the condition that should any of it be used in any form o.r by any means, the author of such material and the Historic American Engineering Record of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service at all times be given proper credit. Dartmouth Spinning Co HAER GA-6 (Page 2)

Dartmouth Spinning Company

Eleven years after the enlargement of the Augusta Canal it was still felt that proper care and promotion would continue to make the canal Augusta's largest wealth producing element, [lj Therefore, satis- faction was publicly expressed in the Augusta Chronicle when Edward H. Coates of Philadelphia decided to build a yarn mill on the canal's first level, below the Enterprise Manufacturing Company further adding to the prosperity of the community. It differed from the exist- ing mills in that no Augusta capital was invested in it. [3] The Dartmouth Spinning Company was incorporated in with a capital of [4] Charles A.

Maxwell, later to become Augusta's city engineer in performed the duties of architect, drawing up the plans and super- vising the mill's construction during By mid-November, construc- tion was nearing completion; only the coffer dam and machinery installa- tion remained unfinished. Thomas served as the contractor with the brickwork contracted for by the Bricklayers' Union. [5] The three- story building (this included the partial basement) was valued at One hundred workers, earning a total annual wage of manu- factured only yarns, the sizes ranging from number 8 to number 26, The factory's annual production had a value of Charles Maxwell stayed on as the mill's general manager after its completion, Charles Claghorn acted as president, and Edward H.

Coates and Company of Dartmouth Spinning Co HAER GA-6 (Page 3) Philadelphia were selling agents. [6] MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT "...No mill is more perfectly built and equipped than the Dartmouth Yarn Mill," [7] bragged the Augusta Chronicle in and indeed it did house fine machinery. The second floor (Photo No. 1) contained the spinning, spooling, and twisting operations, spindles, one pair of mules, a spooling machine, and a twister located there. The spinning equipment was operated by an 18-inch belt wrapping around a gigantic overhead pulley (Photo No. 2), which in turn was driven by the main driving in the narrow belt way. Twenty Whitin self-stripping cards were placed in the carding room, the main room on the first floor (Photo No. 3).

Also on this level were 15 40-inch English self-stripping roller cards of two heads, four draw- ing frames, three slubbers, one intermediate and six fine frames, along with the warping and bailing operations. The basement contained a machine shop and later warping and winding operations. An automatic sprinkler system was connected with a 6,000-gallon water tank in the central tower. The mill also had public telephone connections.

Power System

Water was channelled through an underground flume from the first level to the wheel pit. It was then discharged into a covered tailrace, becoming exposed at the northeast corner of the mill, and finally emp- tied its contents Into the canal's second level. A 200-horsepower double turbine wheel made by R. Wood and Company of Philadelphia was Dartmouth Spinning Go HAER GA-6 (Page 4) housed in the wheelhouse. Th.e main shafts of the mill building were connected with this power source by 3G-inch-wide belting, manufactured by the Eoyt Seather Belting Company, running a distance of 50 feet (Photo No. 2). [8] The company operated its own dynamos, the power being obtained from the turbines, and was lighted by the United States electric light.

Inspection of the site and examination of fire insurance maps leads the author to assume that by the mill no longer used hydro- mechanical power but was buying electricity from a power company. [9] The headgates are the only existing evidence that indicate the mill did use water power at one time; the tailrace is completely covered. ADDITIONS AND ALTERATIONS The original mill building (Photo No. 4) consisted of two floors, a basement beneath the northeast half of the structure, and a one-story picker house at the southeast end. The wheelhouse was connected to the mill building by a narrow corridor which served as the belt way.

By a single-story cotton warehouse at the western property line, a four-bay one-story cotton warehouse north of it, and a two-story office addition on the southwest side of the water tank had been constructed. The machine shop had been relocated on the site of the old wheel- house, a waste house was constructed east of tlje large cotton warehouse, and a box house was built near the end of the tailrace by By a large one-story addition with a basement had been constructed at the northeast end of the main mill, covering part of the tailrace. Dartmouth Spinning Co HAER GA-6 (Page 5) A waste picker, a waste house adjacent to the large cotton warehouse, and another addition to the offices adjoining the water tank: tower were constructed, all one story in height.

Today the only buildings standing are the main mill building, its several additions, and the large cotton warehouse. ARCHITECTURE The present architectural significance of the mill building lies not in its design qualities per se, but in the Sibley, Enterprise, and King mills' default to it as being the only remaining mill with windows intact, thus retaining the relationship between the interior and exte- rior and its original character. The old mill's facade takes on a of solid-void-solid-void as the engaged piers and windows alter- nate across it. The additions to the main mill have kept this flowing and have used similar segmental arches in the door and window openings as well as in the ornamental brickwork in the cornice.

Wood brackets support narrow eaves on a shallow pitched roof on the main building; the newer addition sports a parapet wall, some of which is not now present, rising above the roof which is capped by a monitor. The stair and water tank tower spring above the roofline and project out from the building as the central focal point on the front facade. The first two floors of the tower have segmental atfched openings for double doors and a hoisting bar embedded above the second floor door to lift objects up to that level. The tower also exhibits simple ornamental brickwork on the cornice. (Photo No. 4.) Dartmouth Spinning Co HAER GA-6 (Page 6) The main building was originally symmetric about the. tower, each, wing haying bays.

The ends were six bays, wide, and, although the southwestern end of the two-story structure does not have exterior engaged piers, the one-story picker house carries on the The clutter of additions have ruined the symmetry of the facades, but the character of the original 19th-century mill is retained more here than at the other mills because the windows were not bricked in.

Later History

The national financial panic of claimed Dartmouth Spinning Company as one of its victims. On March 19, 189 5, the company was reincorporated as the Sutherland Manufacturing Company. It had a capital of with the capability to increase its capital stock to Graniteville Company of Graniteville, South Carolina, bought the mill in the and retained the name Sutherland. It is the company's waste division, and its main function is the baling and storage of cot- ton waste. The Dartmouth mill was able to make the transition from an indus- trious yarn mill to a waste factory where no machines were producing goods without suffering the fate of other mills lying vacant, victims of vandalism, and waiting for the final blow o the wrecking ball. Dartmouth Spinning Co HAER GA-6 (Page 7) Footnotes 1.

Augusta Chronicle, 7 February 2. Historic American Engineering Record, Augusta Canal Project, Report Number 2, Enterprise Manufacturing Company. 3. Augusta Chronicle> 9 October 4. The incorporators were Charles E. Claghorn, William F. Herring, Edward H. Coates, Joseph H. Coates, Charles A. Maxwell, and George M. Crane. Augusta Chronicle, 29 June 5. Augusta Chronicle, 29 June 13 November 9 October 6. Augusta Chronicle, 9 October 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. After studying the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for and I feel that the wheelhouse was raised, the turbine pit covered with. concrete and addition built on its site. The brick coursing, orna- mental work, and window openings do not have the consistency and continuity one expects to find if the two parts had been constructed at the same time. 10.

It is possible that the warehouses were built at the same time as the main mill building. 11. See footnote no. 9. 12. The incorporators of this reorganization were Edward H. Coates, Robert L. Bloomfield, Charles E. Riley, Harrison B. Schell, Linwood C. Hayne, Jesse Thompson, and William T. Davidson. Charters pp. in the office of the Richmond County Superior Court's clerk. Dartmouth Spinning Co HAER GA-6 (Page 8) Selected Bibliography Augusta Chronicle, 9 October This was the most extensive and detailed source of information on the mill. Several other small articles during the year were helpful also. Most other secondary sources draw upon this article for their information.

Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for the years and were beneficial in establishing the approximate times additions were constructed.