Globe Mill, 12th & 13th Streets, 2 & 3 levels Augusta Canal, Augusta

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA,123-AUG,49-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Robert L. Spude, Globe (Blanche) Mill HAER No. GA-9 (Page 2) The industrial complex sprawling across the lots bounded by the second and third levels of the August Canal and and Streets gives the appearance of disarray. Some would call it ugly. Yet, the buildings, when examined closer, reflect the growth of Augusta's textile industry. Inside the four walls of the mill and under its ceiling stand four hidden walls and another roof line. These once housed the Globe Mill, a two-story brick spinning mill constructed during the United States centennial year. This small spinning mill sold yarn and prospered. As other textile mills arose along the canal, the Globe mill expanded into a full-fledged cotton mill, where bales of cotton which entered the mill exited as cloth.

Around the turn of the century, Augusta's textile industry reached an industrial plateau at about the same time the Globe Mill reached its peak size. After World War II, new owners named the mill "Blanche" and added modern equipment. They also installed a new hydroelectric power plant run by water from the canal. During the changes in the textile industry, as well as in Augusta's economic pattern, forced the Blanche mill to meet new restrictions and demands. Unable to meet them, it closed down in - The Clarks' Era - Amos K. Clark, an Augusta flour miller, was one of the few people with capital during the depression of the mid-1870s. His flour mill was one of the largest in the Southeast and in he decided to expand into cotton spinning.

Another cause for this decision was the availability of cheap power, supplied by the recently enlarged Augusta Canal.1 During the mill was erected adjacent the falls between the second and third levels of the canal. An old tobacco factory on the site was removed and, in its place, the new Globe mill went up. Though a small building, a two-story brick measuring feet, it housed spindles and other machinery to spin cotton into yarn and carpet warp. A stairwell tower stood in the center of the building's east end. Water power turned the turbine which drove the belt line mechanism. The turbine sat in a separate building, thus the belt line passed through the air to the main shaft in the mill building.

The company employed 31 operatives.2 A year and a few months after the mill began operation, a fire gutted the building. Undaunted, Clark rebuilt the works as the new Globe Mill and by had increased his work force to seventy.3 The mill remained a small spinning mill through the and An publication listed it as employing 80 hands, had spindles, produced work of "yarn, etc.," annually, and consumed bales of cotton annually.4 Globe (Blanche) Mill HAER No. GA-9 (Page 3) In after the death of Amos Clark, his sons incorporated the mill as the Globe Cotton Mills, Inc. and decided to expand the operation. Capitalized at their plans were not large-scale.5 Joseph C. Fargo, an Augusta cotton factor, entered the firm and became its guiding spirit through the Depression.

A year after the company organized, another fire gutted the mill. The owners were given the opportunity to modernize the entire operation. By they had refurbished the old mill, added spindles, and built a foot weave shed. They placed 114 new looms in the latter.^ The first four decades of the twentieth century saw little changes at the mill. Cotton warehouses composed the major additions.' " The Silvers' Era - In however, Philip Silver purchased the mill and named it after his wife Blanche. The Blanche Mills, Inc. tripled the size of the mill, switched from hydro-mechanical to hydroelectric power, and put in spindles.

The operation produced osnaburgs and employed 350 employees.8 The mill passed to Phil Silver's sons, Hill and David, following his death in and they continued operation until The machinery was sold off or scrapped and the buildings are now rented as warehouse space. The turbine and generator, however, are in their original position. The Globe mill, though a small operation, still stands as an example of the other small spinning mills once powered by the canal but since destroyed the Shamrock, the Russell & Simmons, and the Sterling. These mills all sold their products to local mills as well as to New York markets.

In addition, their operation during the nineteenth century was just part of the grand scheme to industrialize Augusta and make the city the "Lowell of the South." Globe (Blanche) Mill HAER No. GA-9 (Page 4) Footnotes 1 HAER, Augusta Canal Project, Report #1, The Augusta Canal; John L. Maxwell, Pleasant A. Stovall, and T. R. Gibson, Handbook of Augusta (Augusta, p. 33. 2 Sanborn-Perris Fire Insurance Map of August, in Map Room, University of Georgia Science Library, Athens; Daily Chronicle & Sentinel, March 13, February 27, 3 Ibid; Daily Chronicle & Constitutionalist, January 11, 4 Charles C. Jones and Salem Dutcher, Memorial History of Augusta (Syracuse, New York: D. Mason & Co., p. 5 Charters p. Record of the Richmond County Superior Court, Municipal Building, Augusta, Georgia.

6 Textile World, January p. 65. 7 Sanborn-Perris Fire Insurance Maps for Augusta, Georgia, in Map Room, University of Georgia Science Library, Athens. 8 Interview, Robert L. Spude with Hill L. Silver, July 5, Augusta, Georgia 9 Ibid.