Muscogee Manufacturing Company

Muscogee Manufacturing Company (Muscogee Mills)Description from National Register Application 1978
(Please note: Muscogee Mills are no longer standing. The campus of TSYS stands where Muscogee Mills once stood. In accordance with a programmatic agreement between city, state, and national preservation interests, certain architectural elements and styles are still present and/or depicted in Muscogee Mill Plaza on the Chattahoochee Riverwalk at 14th Street.)

"The Muscogee Mill complex faces onto three different streets: Front Avenue, 14th Street, and Broadway. Between the Chattahoochee River and Front Avenue are Mills #1 and #2, an addition to Mill #1 and #2, an addition to Mill #1, and addition between Mills #1 and #2, an old power house, a long shed-like building, and L-shaped building, and a white wooden shaft. Facing 14th Street are Mills #4, #3, #5, in that order going east down 14th Street.
The back of Mills #6 and #7 can be seen from Broadway, and at the northernmost end of the Muscogee/Columbus Mill property is an old public library which has been incorporated into the mill complex. There is an opening between Mills #4 and #3 on 14th Street leading into a courtyard. In this space are: the Mott House, (Mott House is still standing in 2003), a filter plant, a concrete smokestack, and various metal enclosures and buildings which join the buildings together. A metal gantry connects Mill #6 with the Mott House. There is a pump house (behind Mill #4) located beside the river, which curves around this open space that is enclosed by the mills on two sides.

Mill #1 is now enclosed by newer buildings on the street side (east). It is built of brown variegated brick. The main building is four stories high with a deep foundation. Its wing, or addition, which gently angles along the river bank, is three-stories high with a deep rubble foundation. In the foundation are inlets for water which are no longer used. The wing has a slanting roof. The main building has a hip roof with two dormers, rectangular windows topped by two straight rows of bricks, and metal rods running through the building, north to south. The ends seen on the outside of the building are in the shapes of stars and diamonds. The brick pattern is American-Bond. The east and west walls of the building have stepped parapets with stone coping. On the front of the mill there is a 4-story square tower topped with a belvedere. The belvedere has doric pillars and a geometric-open-work wooden railing on all four sides. The bellcase hip roof is topped with a weathervane. Four brackets per pillar support a cornice. The belvedere contains the old factory bell which is no longer working. In the tower there are wooden pediments over the doors; both doors and windows are rectangular, the windows having one row of vertically placed bricks over them. Near the top of the tower is one tiny aperture that is semi-circular at top and outlined in one row of brick. There are open elevators with wooden slat doors in Mill#1. Wooden catwalks which are roofed, supported by metal poles and metal brackets, connect Mills #1 and #2.

Mill #2 is built of rust-colored brick set in American-Bond pattern. It has segmented-arched windows, evenly spaced, with two small rows of brick set on end around the tops. It is five stories tall and extends from Front Street almost to the river. The front of the building has a tall parapet wall with a good bit of vertical brick adornment (brick used to form vertical decoration), plus rows of bricks following the edge of the parapet. Five evenly spaced rectangular windows with flattened wooden arches over them are divided by brick "pilasters". Radiating voussoirs of brick over windows; each has a wedge-shaped stone in its center featuring one letter of the alphabet. Reading from left to right, beginning with the 5th story and working down, the letters spell out "Muscogee Mills Company." A door on the second floor is topped with a glass-segmented transom; it is the same height as the windows, but wider. Windows have brick sills. Brick trim continues all around the windows. Parapet has projecting eaves, arrow-shaped indentations in facade, with a large stone set flush with the facade right in the center. Doors on the first floor are wood and paneled. The building has metal rods running north to south with large rectangular metal rods on them.

Between Mills #1 and #2 (seen from the river side) is an addition which runs lengthwise between the two buildings, but is of the same orange-colored brick as #2. The narrow end of it, facing the river, is all shingles. Windows on long side (north) are filled in with wood and are rectangular in shape like the windows in #1. This addition may be attached to Mill #1.

At the southwestern corner of the mill property, sitting on the rubble construction of the mill race is the old powerhouse, now used only for storage. It appears to have a shed roof and has stepped parapet walls from river up to the land. There are two rows of curving bricks over the windows. The mill race, which extends downriver nearly to 12th Street, begins here and provided the power for old Mill #1. No production takes place in Mills #1 and #2.

The old powerhouse is attached to a long, low brick building with rounded roof which, in turn, is connected to an L-shaped building that extends onto Front Street. It is made of variegated brick and has a slightly pitched gable over the doorway. There is a pediment over a bay on the second floor. Immediately under that is a small shed roof which projects over a large entry way. The building has rectangular windows filled in with wood. Next to Mill #2 there is a wooden paneled door flanked by two windows with a wooden triple arch that extends over all three openings. From Front Avenue the catwalks can be seen projecting above this building as well as a white, square, wooden shaft of some kind, but these are in reality behind the building.

Across 14th Street and facing onto it is Mill #3. It is a five-story building of variegated brick laid in American-Bond pattern. It has five windows across, in a 2-1-2 pattern, many closed in with shingles, with a curved hood-molding over the segmented arches. The building has a hip roof with a stepped gable topped with stone coping. Clusters of miniature turrets are at the upper corners of the facade. Facade is further trimmed with stone inserts and brick trim. On the east side of the facade there is an attached tower. It has a flat roof and is 6 stories high (one story extending above the roof enclosing an old water tank, formerly for use in case of fire.) Tower has stone coping, brick indentation and brick string courses. There is a large stone numeral "3" on the facade. The bays are flanked by round windows outlined with raised bricks and have filigreed metal grills.

Mill #4 is 5 stories high with white brackets under its projecting cornice. It has a flat roof. It is made of orange-brown, weathered brick laid in American-Bond pattern. There are four rows of radiating bricks over the bays which are filled in with shingles. Low bays on street level are filled in with wood. This mill seems to be all windows, except that they are now filled in. The bays on the west side (facing the river) are filled in with brick (though not all the same brick) and there is a brick projection above the roof on this side, like a very plain tower with no windows. (Pictured below is the demolition of the 1880 Mill #2 in 1978. A modern addition took its place.)

Mill #5 is 5-stories high with a flat roof with ceramic tile coping. There is a projecting cornice with brackets. The large bays have segmented arches with four rows of radiating bricks over them. Shorter bays with wood or louvers filling them in are at basement level (or ground level). The brick pattern of this building is 6 rows of stretcher-bond between rows of alternating stretcher and header. At the extreme west end of the building is a metal-roofed portico (one story high) supported by metal posts. It has a decorative "parapet" on three sides.

Mill #6 is a five-story building made of variegated brick with same pattern as Mill #5. It has a flat roof with tile coping. Its windows are bricked in. There is no trim. Mill #7 is even plainer but is too modern to be of historical interest.

Attached to Mill #7 at the extreme northeastern end of the mill property is an old public library (Carnegie). It is two-story building, the bottom floor being partially a basement level. It is built of smooth, dark red brick and has a flat roof edged with brick string courses. About two feet below the roof there is a grey metal cornice with dentils. Wide brick "pilasters" flank the double doors (made of glass and wood and topped with glass transoms with side lights on wither side.) There is a quantity of stone decoration, including two oval stone medallions. There is stone molding around doors and windows carved in a design of overlapping, stylized leaves and berries. There are also wooden doric pilasters. To the right of the doorway is a triple window with stone lintel above, large stone blocks set into the facade below, and stone gibbs on both sides. Stone bas relief in a geometric pattern is set under the windows. The building is completely incorporated into the mill complex, having metal buildings constructed around it, at least partially, and the basement story is sealed in concrete. It is now used as a machine shop. Inside the front door are a tiled entry floor and wide marble steps leading to the main floor. Three rectangular windows on its north side are topped with wide stone lintels.

Inside the courtyard, the extension built onto the Mott House contains offices. It is constructed of smooth, red brick, and has a flat roof with stone coping. It is three-stories high, but part of the first story is open for parking under the building. It has rectangular windows with metal frames; the metal has an Art Deco look. Facade and windows have stone trim: some Georgia variation lintels, some flattened arches over the windows.

The filter plant behind Mill #6 is plain and rectangular. It is made of concrete and brick, and has rectangular windows topped by three straight rows of bricks set on end, one above the other. The concrete smokestack is not attached to any building. It is reported to be 270-feet high.

On the river behind Mill #4 is a square, red-brick, one-story building known as the pump house. It has two intake pumps. It has a flat roof with extended walls on two sides with ceramic tile coping. The foundation is concrete. There are stone sills under the windows and simple brick trim."

Statement of Significance from National Register Application 1978
"Located on the site of the old Coweta Factory, which was destroyed in April 1865 by a Union Army under the command of Major General James H. Wilson, the Muscogee Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1867 with a capital of $157,000, built its first mill in 1868. Under the presidency of George Parker Swift (1814-1897), a New Englander who had operated textile mills in Upson County before the Civil War, the Muscogee Manufacturing Company added Mill #2 in 1880 and Mill #3 in 1887. From about 2400 spindles and 70 looms in 1870 in the original mill, the company expanded to around 26,000 spindles by 1900. In the beginning the mills produced yearn, thread, sheeting, and shirting, but at some point changed over to towels for which the present owner, Fieldcrest, is well known. After the death of G.P. Swift in 1897, his son, Edward W. Swift, was made president and during his tenure, Mills #4 (1904), #5 (1916), and #6 (1926) were added. In 1939 the Muscogee Mill employed between 1300 and 1400 workers and had an annual payroll of approximately $1,000,000. A nephew, George P. Swift, III, became president in 1949; in 1963 the mills were sold to the present owners, the Fieldcrest Corporation.

The Muscogee Mills complex, which consists of seven mill buildings and other structures, built between the years 1867 and 1950, shows quite well the development of textile mill architecture for almost a century. The earliest mill (#1), built just after the Civil War, is the plainest of the old buildings with its rectangular windows topped by only one or two of brick trim, even though its tower, on the narrow front face of the building, is surmounted by a belvedere containing a bell, and its doorways have simple wooden pediments over them. Mill #2, built in 1880, is approximately the same size and shape as Mill #1, but has curved decoration over the windows and a unique design on the eastern facade: "Muscogee Mills Company" is spelled out, one letter per window, above the windows facing Front Avenue. Mill #3 (1887) is the most embellished of these three mills with its clusters of miniature turrets at the corners, round windows with filigreed iron grills, ornamental tower enclosing the water tank, and curved hood-molding over segmented-arched windows.

(Pictured is weave room in Mill #6 at Muscogee Manufacturing, circa 1930. Note the line-shafting and belts driving the looms. Photo courtesy of George Parker Swift IV - HCF's Heritage Park book.)
By the time Mill #4 was built in 1904, textile mills were becoming plainer in decoration and more utilitarian in appearance. This trend continued through the construction of Mills #5 (1916) and #6 (1926), each with less decoration than the one before, so that by the time Mill #7 was built in 1950, there was even a change to a less decorative brick pattern; it has stretcher-bond.

The Muscogee Mill known locally as the Columbus Towel Mill, has played an important role in the economy of Columbus for more than a century." (end of application).