Tallassee Mill Coming Down...

In 2005 I produced a long-form "For The Record" about the old mill buildings sitting empty in various parts of the state, including one of the grandest of all in Tallassee. Unfortunately, the mill is about to be razed...as the Alabama Historical Commission's Bob Gamble reported in this letter:

I’m prompted to contact you in order to report the pending demolition of one of the great pre-Civil War landmarks of Alabama. In fact, when erected in the 1850s, it was probably the largest building in the state except for the Capitol here in Montgomery.

I am referring to the great stone textile mill that stands on the bank of the Tallapoosa River in Tallassee. (If you’ve ever eaten at the Hotel Talasi, then you’ve probably seen the mill.) Even though the interior was cannibalized by an out-of-state entrepreneur some years ago for its great heart-pine beams, the five-story windowless stone walls still make for a picturesque and arresting sight as one drives into Tallassee over the bridge from East Tallassee. Indeed, few towns in our region have such a memorable approach as one glimpses the high stone walls of the mill from the high, curving bridge. (Incidentally, I understand that some of the masons who laid up the castle-like stone walls were brought over from Italy especially for this project.)

This week the Tallassee Historic Preservation Society, which has owned the property for several years, voted to sell the ruins to a salvage company who will then raze them. The proceeds will be used to finish restoring a slightly older (1844) though much more modest mill structure next door which is revered because it was turned to the manufacture of Confederate carbines during the Civil War. (Cloth for Confederate uniforms was -- if I recall correctly -- manufactured in the large mill about to be torn down.)

From the standpoint of Alabama history -- industrial or Civil War or architectural --- the destruction of the Tallassee mill is, as one of my colleagues noted today, the worst landmark loss our state has suffered in a long, long time. And it’s ironic, in that the loss is precipitated by the action of a local historical group.

Earlier, a Mobile developer had unsuccessfully attempted to put together a package that would’ve adaptively rehabilitated the building for condominiums. Some people had also suggested that the mill simply be cleaned out and the walls stabilized and retained as a romantic, roofless stone ruin. If it were the center of a pocket park, it would still make for quite a sight. In fact, Georgia’s Sweetwater Creek State Conservation Park near Atlanta has been developed around the roofless ruins of another, though much less imposing, 1850s mill.

Perhaps you will agree with us that the loss of an historical monument of such stature and significance is a story worth writing. Anyway, I pass this news along for your consideration.

Robert Gamble
Senior Architectural Historian
AL Historical Commission

I have to concur with Mr. Gamble. It is a significant loss, not the first nor the last. Remember Terminal Station in Birmingham.