North Highland's Mill House on Yadkin Ave

Mill house living was the best way to go in the early 1900s. Workers at the mills worked 6 days a week and returned a large portion of their pay back to the mill owners for them to live in their mill house. It made sense to have as many people as possible working at the mill from your house, just to make sure you had a little extra money at the end of the week.

Southside millhouses were built very quickly, sometimes up to 10 a day. They consisted of 4 rooms-a kitchen, living room, and 2 bedrooms. No closets, no indoor bathrooms. The houses all had a centralized front porch and a very small front yard-front yards were a luxury they had to do without. The backyards were much larger, and the houses were set up back to back on the streets. The backyards were used as farmland, and it was not uncommon to see neighbors trading products. Some would grow beans, tomatoes, and other vegetables, others kept livestock such as chickens, and goats. These would have been some of the first farmers' markets the neighborhood has seen.