Elizabeth City Cotton Mill

Architectural Survey
Building Documentation and Scanning
Historic Research
Historic Resource Documentation
National Register Nominations
Oral Histories and Community History Days

Elizabeth City Cotton Mill National Register Nomination

Location

Elizabeth City, NC

Partners

North Carolina Historic Preservation Office

National Park Service

Client Goals

The Elizabeth City Cotton Mill is a rare nineteenth-century mill that a private developer sought to rehabilitate using Historic Tax Credits. In order to be eligible for these tax credits, CPG was hired to nominate this resource to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

Project Design

CPG conducted extensive historical research, tracing this resource from its current state through one hundred years of eastern North Carolina textile mill history. The project team added detailed historic map analysis to better understand the developmental history of the site. This, combined with the architectural survey that CPG completed, told the story of this Cotton Mill within its regional context.

Challenges & Accomplishments

Due to the long history of the Mill and the limited number of historic documents during the post-World War II period, there were gaps in the Mill's history. CPG utilized newspaper stories of plant workers, an interview with a former mill owner, and comparative history to provide missing information about the building's development and additions over time.