Granby Mill Village Historic District
National Register Listing
Street Address:
Roughly bounded by Catawba, Gist, Heyward, and Church Sts., Columbia, SC (Richland County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817740101
Description and Narrative:
The Granby Mill and adjacent Granby Mill Village were designed, built and managed by the prominent textile mill designer W. B. Smith Whaley whose firm was one of the Southeast’s most prolific and innovative. Granby, initially constructed in 1896-1897, was the second Columbia mill built by Whaley, the first being the Richland Mill built in 1894-1895. Granby represented Whaley’s first major technological improvement in mill design, being the first cotton mill in the state to be powered by a “remote,” off-site source of hydroelectric power. The mill is a large rectangular shaped, flat roofed, Romanesque Revival style four-story brick building having uniform fenestration with buttresses inserted at regular intervals and two projecting five-story entrance towers on the front façade. The Granby Mill Village depicts one of the best preserved turn-of-the-century mill villages found in the state with some 112 of the 121 originally built dwellings remaining with most retaining a high degree of physical integrity. The Granby Mill Village is architecturally noteworthy because its predominant “saltbox” operative dwelling design based on New England antecedents truly reflects Whaley’s training and experience during his formative years in the Northeast. The Granby Village’s physical neatness, cohesive character, and predominant “saltbox” design present a distinctive and striking visual impact characteristic of the translation of the traditional New England mill village design to a late nineteenth century Southern setting. The village presently consists of the main mill building, the mill gatehouse, the ca. 1902 two-story mill office building, commercial buildings, a Gothic Revival church and operatives’ houses. Listed in the National Register September 20, 1993.
Period of Significance:
1897;1902
Level of Significance:
State
Area of Significance:
Industry;Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
September 20 1993
