Columbus Historic Riverfront Industrial District - A National Landmark

Named a National Historic Landmark in 1978, this district begins in the 800 block of Front Avenue and ends at 38th Street. It encompasses five noncontiguous areas of industrial development. Included in this National Landmark District are the Columbus Iron Works Convention and Trade Center, Eagle and Phenix Mills, City Mills, and the Bibb Mills. These have provided the economic basis for Columbus' growth since the city's founding in 1828. The fifth component, Muscogee Mills, were demolished in early 1998. While all mills underwent application processes for National Register Status, the efforts were combined in 1977-1978 to include all mills under one application which received the National Landmark Status in 1978.

Statement of Significance from National Register Application 1978
" The Chattahoochee River thunders across the fall line at Columbus, Georgia, dropping 125 feet within 2 - 1/2 miles and producing a potential energy of 99,000 horsepower. This tremendous power made Columbus one of the earliest major textile centers in the South. The city's oldest three dams (1828, 1844, and 1900) and the five industries associated with these dams on the river - City Mills (1828), Eagle and Phenix Mills (1850), Columbus Iron Works (1853), Muscogee Manufacturing (1868) and Bibb Manufacturing Company (1900) - form the Columbus Historic Riverfront Industrial District. The sites within this district contain rare examples of early technologies utilized to transfer the power of the river to manufacturing. In addition to their engineering importance, these mills have both historic and architectural significance.

Within the South, the best surviving concentration of 19th and early 20th century hydro-mechanical and hydro electrical engineering systems relating to both grist and textile mills is located within a 2 and 1/4 mile area along the banks of the Chattahoochee River from the Eagle and Phenix powerhouses to the Bibb dam. The industries and dams within the Columbus Historic Riverfront Industrial District physically document the evolution the hydro-technology in general and show specifically how it developed along this river. The dam site shared by Muscogee Mills and the Eagle and Phenix Mills dates from 1844 and has been through four different configurations. Some aspects of each stage - old raceways, flume openings, bridges for mechanical drive shafts, and supports for rope drives - are still visible. In 1880, this dam represented one of two major waterpower developments within the South. In the same year, the Eagle and Phenix, using power from that dam, became one of the first industries to use electricity for lighting. The existing powerhouses at the Eagle and Phenix are operating museums of early hydroelectric equipment with nine turbines installed in 1899 - 1900 and electric generators installed in 1907, 1914 - 1915, and 1919-1920 still functioning today.

At the site of City Mills, the original turbines, installed in 1895 and 1897, produced electricity for street cars and are still in place in the Old Columbus Railroad Company powerhouse, the area's first hydroelectric station. Inside City Mills, a large water-powered hurst frame (1908) still operates today and is believed to be the only one of its type within the South. The original dam at the Bibb Manufacturing Company supplied water to two powerhouses. One produced electricity, while the other turned a rope drive system which mechanically powered all the machinery in the initial Bibb Mill. This arrangement continued to operate a portion of the plant until it broke in 1954; the drive shaft and sheaves still remain. Also of technological significance, the Columbus Iron Works was one of the first companies within the nation to mass produce and market ice machine (ammonia absorption.)

The district is historically significant because Columbus ( Muscogee County) was one of the earliest large scale textile centers in the South. Development of textile mills started in the county as early as 1832 and in the city in 1844. By 1860, Muscogee County's textile output ranked second only to Richmond ( Chesterfield County), Virginia. It surpassed both William Gregg's mills in Graniteville, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia. During the Civil War, Columbus supplied more manufactured goods to the Confederacy (including steam engines from the Columbus Iron Works) than any city except Richmond.

Of the four major southern textile producers, only the mills in Columbus were destroyed by the War. Despite the problems usually associated with the period of Reconstruction, Columbus entrepreneurs immediately rebuilt their industries using local investment. By 1880, Muscogee County led the South in textile production. The Eagle and Phenix was the largest textile operation in the South, and it served as an example to "New South" advocates of what could be accomplished with southern capital. From 1880 until 1900 Columbus Mills gradually expanded. Then, with introduction of hydroelectricity, beginning with the Bibb Mill (1900), Columbus and Muscogee County became and remained at least until 1940 one of the two or three major textile producing counties in the South along with Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina. Unlike Spartanburg and Greenville where the mills were dispersed throughout the county, in Columbus all the mills were concentrated within a 1 and 1/4 mile radius.

Several structures within the Columbus Historic Riverfront Industrial District are architecturally distinctive, but its most significant feature is a six block area long the west side of Front Avenue which contains only industrial and commercial buildings. About two-thirds of these buildings were standing during the 1880s and have been modified very little. The remainder - an addition to the Eagle and Phenix (1910), a small railroad freight depot (1902), and part of the Iron Works rebuilt after a fire in 1903 - were constructed by 1910. All of these brick facades are different and yet they form an integral whole, partially because features such as round windows are repeated both in the Columbus Iron Works and the Eagle and Phenix. In between the Muscogee Mills to the north and the Columbus Iron Works to the south are cotton warehouses which incorporated wrought iron and decorative brick work in their design. This long expanse of industrial buildings, located one block from the main commercial street, was atypical within early 19th century southern urban areas. It illustrates the city's commitment to manufacturing and the idea of a "New South."

At City Mills, the corn mill was built by Horace King in 1869. King, a black contractor, learned his trade, while the property of John Godwin. He freed King before the War and they continued to work together until Godwin died in 1859. After the War, King built many covered bridges and some wooden buildings throughout Georgia and Alabama. This structure at City Mills represents the only known surviving building built by this noted craftsman."