Bet You Didn’t Know

The Influence of Mills on the Area

Delburg Street reflects the close bond between Mecklenburg and Iredell

by Martin Rose

Bet you didn’t know that Davidson’s Delburg Street is named for the former Delburg Mill, which operated from 1908 until the early 1960s. The historic building was restored in 1999 and lives on as Davidson Cotton Mill, home of Brickhouse Tavern, shops and offices. The mill gets its name from the last syllables of Iredell and Mecklenburg.

Delburg is a reminder of the close connection that Mecklenburg and Iredell counties share. County borders primarily determine how government operates, but culturally the region’s families and businesses have been closely connected since the area was settled in the 1700s, according to historian Dan Morrill.

A mill village was built along Delburg and Watson streets, at one point housing about 300 workers and their families. Many of those original structures have been demolished or radically altered. To ensure that the county’s mill house history is preserved, the CharlotteMecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission placed preservation covenants on one of the mill houses at 303 Delburg Street recently and found a buyer willing to preserve its historic character.

Industry came to Davidson and other nearby towns with the arrival of the railroad. The Linden Cotton Factory, erected in 1890 on Depot Street, was the first textile plant in Davidson, followed by Delburg Cotton Mills. The opening of the Linden and the Delburg mills reflected the textile boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that shaped the industrial landscape of the region. In 1923 mills were sold to Martin Cannon of Cannon Mills and the name changed to Davidson Cotton Mill.

Other industries that followed the cotton mills include a flour mill, sawmill, roller mill, fertilizer plant and ice plant, all located on the west side of town.

The mill area is cited by historians as an important artifact of Davidson’s industrial history and the once largely working-class west side of Davidson. “The mill and adjacent houses represent the social divide that once existed between the mill workers and the other residents of the town,” the commission report notes.

Unlike the neighboring towns of Cornelius and Huntersville, Davidson pre-dates the railroad, which arrived in the town in 1861. The Town of Davidson owes its existence to the establishment of Davidson College in 1837. Cotton milling and other industries greatly influenced town development, but Davidson’s identity was then and remains primarily linked to the college.

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