Slobot About Town VI:

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Slobot goes to Glendale Mills!

You, too, can visit Glendale Mills!

  1. Take South Pine Street / US-176 / SC-9 to SC-S-42-47 / Country Club Road.
  2. Turn left on to Country Club Road and drive 3.1 miles.
  3. Continue on Stifell Road for 0.1 miles.
  4. Go right on Glendale Ave. for 0.1 miles.
  5. Turn left at Broadway Street for 0.1 miles.
  6. Park your car at the bridge.

The origins of Glendale Mills can be tied as far back as 1773 when the Buffington Iron Works were established on the site.

It would quickly change hands and become Wofford's Iron Works. The iron works would be destroyed in a raid led by "Bloody" Bill Cunningham during the American War of Independence.

James Bivings later bought the property. In 1830 the original building of the Bivingsville Cotton Factory was built. It would become South Carolina's first cotton mill.

The mill was sold to John Bomar and Co. in 1856. Dexter Edgar Converse was hired to run the operation.

During the Civil War a third of the plant's production went to the Confederate government. The factory was razed after the war.

A new mill, run by D. E. Converse and Co., was built around 1867. In 1878 the mill's name changed to Glendale. It would expand throughout the years and, like other Spartanburg mills, rebuild in the wake of the 1903 flood.

The mill would change hands in 1946 and 1957. The mill homes were sold to employees in 1955.

It would close in 1961.

After closing the former Glendale Mills was used mostly for storage.

An investment company was interested in developing it into apartments or condominiums.

But it burned down Sunday March 21, 2004.

What remains is scorched.

Scorched and crumbling.

 

Slobot would like to thank the Spartanburg Area Conservancy, Inc. (SPACE) for maintaining the Glendale Shoals Preserve!