Washington Mills, Mayodan

For many years, Washington Mills, later Tultex, was central to life in Mayodan, NC.  At it's peak in the 1950's, the mill employed 1,500 in a town of only 3,000.  The mill had its origin in 1896 when Colonel Francis Fries and W. C. Ruffin organized the Mayo Mills Company and built a mill on the banks of the Mayo River producing uncolored cotton yarn, and later adding a knitting mill producing men's underwear in "long-handled" and "red flannelled" styles.  In 1901, the Washington Mills Company was formed with the same management, and a spinning and weaving mill was built in Grayson County, Virginia on the banks of the New River.  By the early 1920's the two mills had merged into the Washington Mills Company.

In 1982, the mill was purchased by Tultex, a Martinsville, Virginia based textile company.  By December of 1999, unable to compete with cheap foreign production, the mill closed its doors and a piece of Mayodan history came to an end.
 

Click thumbnails for larger images 

Opening Room	Picker Room	Receiving Room	Knitting Room	Group Photo	Founders	Workers, c.1900	Stock Certificate
Carding Room	Combing Room	Cutting Room	Spinning Room	Group Photo	Mill Houses	Workers, c.1900	Stock Certificate
Sewing Room	Mayo Mills Band	circa 1950's ad	'Big Row' Houses	Group Photo	Little Spruce	Workers, c.1900	Mill Office
1956 Pay Stub	Badge

Pressing Department
 August, 1931