Oakland Mill
National Register Listing
Street Address:
2802 Fair Ave., Newberry, SC (Newberry County)
Alternate Name:
Oakland-Kendall Mill
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817736033
Description and Narrative:
The Oakland Mill is significant architecturally as an essentially intact and significant textile mill complex that played a central role in the economic life of Newberry throughout most of the twentieth century. The textile mill employed hundreds of local workers and, along with Newberry Cotton Mills was the financial backbone of the community. Architecturally, it stands as an example of a Romanesque Revival style-influenced textile mill designed and built by the prolific mill-engineering firm of Lockwood, Greene and Company of Boston and Greenville, South Carolina. The building experienced many of the alterations typical of twentieth century textile mills, alterations that reflect changes in industrial technology, processing, innovation, and labor practices. Oakland Mill was built initially between 1910 and 1912; however, successive building expansion campaigns in 1949-1950 and 1950-1951 literally doubled the size and operations of the mill. The 1950-1951 expansion was completed according to plans by Shelby, North Carolina, architect Fred M. Simmons. The design of the 1950-1951 expansion was carried out in an atypical method that duplicated the altered and in-filled window bay and roofline details found in the 1910-1912 and 1949-1950 sections of the building. The complex includes the main mill building and other contributing resources including: a one-story brick office building, a two-story brick boiler house with a brick smokestack and auxiliary building, two masonry and concrete warehouses, two wood-frame auxiliary storage buildings, a railroad spur, two water towers, and a reservoir. Oakland Mill and its successor operations remained in the building until the 2000s. Oakland Mill was the last mill to close its doors in the Newberry area, and is the only extant textile mill in the community today. Listed in the National Register June 15, 2011.
Period of Significance:
1910 – 1951;1910 – 1912;1949 – 1950;1950 – 1951
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
June 15 2011
