ownership of the mills, and the construction of mill-owned housing for workers—all were shared with scores of other mill villages in North Carolina. Beginning with the establishment of its first mill, the community first known as West End grew slowly but steadily. In 1911, the settlement was incorporated as Venable in honor of Francis P. Venable, the president of the University of North Carolina from 1900 to 1914. Two years later, the town’s name was changed again, to Carrboro in honor of Julian S. Carr, on the condition that Durham Hosiery Mills would supply electricity to the small industrial town.54 By this time there were approximately 1,000 citizens here, with the vast majority of adults being wage earners.55

Mill owners commonly provided housing for the mill workers. Proponents of southern mill and mill village construction, suchas D. A. Tompkins, argued that it was necessary to provide immediate housing for the often very poor immigrant to the mill village.5¢ Tompkins suggested that one room per mill worker be provided in houses composed of a series of rectangular rooms raised on piers ora foundation, with a single chimney for heating. Grouped near the mill, the houses would also further support the close association between mill and worker. Several guidebooks for the development and management of a successful cotton mill suggested appropriate sizes, construction, floor plans, and lot sizes for mill housing.5” As a result, architecture in mill villages frequently was standardized. Mill management often was involved closely in village finances and fre- quently provided school buildings and funds for other village needs. Partially philanthropic in nature, this close relationship between management and labor also was sound business. By providing numerous amenities, wages could be kept low and activities outside of the factory could be regulated to encourage high performance at work.

When people began moving from the countryside to take jobs in Lloyd’s Alberta Cotton Mill, the need for housing was immediate. Because the deed of sale of the Alberta Cotton Mill to the owners of Durham Hosiery Mills does not mention any buildings except the mill, it is impossible to determine positively that Lloyd built any houses. It may be presumed, however, that Lloyd followed the estab- lished practice of mill owners providing the necessary dwellings.

According to several long-time residents of Carrboro, the town’s oldest mill houses, believed to have been built at the same time the Alberta Cotton Mill was constructed, were the twelve one-story frame houses that formerly stood in the shadow of the

15

PT 7

Carrboro from circa 1900 to the

1920's by the mills and private ae a ss individuals. Drawing by Scott

Simmons.

A

Plan of the first floor of one- or two-story house built throughout

factory, just west and northwest of the mill in the area that is now a parking lot. These small houses shown in the 1911 series of the Sanborn Insurance Maps for Chapel Hill all exhibited the basic one- room-deep form with a rear ell characteristic of North Carolina’s early industrial housing. While all but one of the houses had a porch across the entire main facade, there was some variety in the size of the rear ell and the overall proportions of the buildings. The houses were heated by a central chimney in the wall between the two front rooms and another in the rear ell. There was no indoor plumbing, but each house had its own privy, and wells were located conveniently among the houses. Each house was placed ona lot large enough fora sizeable garden plot.58

The property included in Lloyd’s sale of his mill to the Carrs was in three contiguous parcels—the mill lot, a tract due west across N. Greensboro St., and another tract south of the second one— totalling fourteen and three-quarter acres.5° Some residents recall that the latter two tracts were at least partially developed by the

SER