Mount Vernon Mill No. 1

In the early 1900s, the former Mount Vernon-Woodberry Mills Cotton Duck Company was the world's largest manufacturer of cotton duck fabric, which was used to make sails, tents, uniforms, and army parachutes. It operated several mills in the area, including Mount Vernon Mill No.1, as well as mills in other states. The Mill No. 1 complex consists of five buildings—the mill, boiler house, picker house, store house, and warehouse—constructed between 1873 and 1920 along the east side of a waterway named Jones Falls. The mill building was originally built in 1873 and expanded in 1881 and in the early 1900s. The boiler house was built as an addition to the mill building c.1920. The picker house was erected in 1879, the store house in c.1881, and the warehouse in 1918. The company owned other nearby mills as well as mills in other states. Mill No. 1 has been converted into a mixed-use site featuring apartments, offices, a restaurant, and an event space available to rent. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

With its many streams that flowed into Chesapeake Bay, the Baltimore area was ideal for mills. One of the earliest was a flour mill in what is now Druid Hill Park built in the late 1700s by prominent businessman and ardent abolitionist Elisha Tyson. Flour mills were prevalent in the area in the early 1800s, but after President Thomas Jefferson imposed an embargo on American exports in 1807, flour mill operators began gradually switching to textile manufacturing. The local demand for textiles was high in Baltimore, given the city's prosperous ship building and repair industry.

One of the first flour mills to become a cotton mill was Mount Washington Flour Mill, which was converted by the Washington Manufacturing Company in 1815. Seventeen years later, businessmen David Carroll and Horatio Gambrill bought the mill and then in 1839 bought the nearby Whitehall Flouring Mill and converted it into a textile mill. They bought another mill in 1842 to keep up with demand. In 1847, Carroll and Gambrill purchased the Laurel Flouring Mill, converted it into a cotton mill, and renamed it Mount Vernon Mill No. 1. It was powered by water as well as steam.

After a fire destroyed the mill in 1873, the Mount Vernon Company, as it had become known by then, built the present Mill No. 1 as a steam-powered textile mill. The mill was also notable for its large size and being constructed of brick, which allows for easy expansion. The previous mills in the area were smaller and built with stone. Mill No. 1 was filled with cotton looms, which were very noisy and produced a lot of excess cotton that had to be constantly swept off the floor to prevent fire. Hundreds of workers, many of whom were children, lived in the area in company-owned housing and shopped in company stores. As a result, the money they earned went right back to the company.

The area's mills formed the Mount Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company in 1899. In 1915, it broke up and became the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Mills, which operated mills in South Carolina and Alabama in addition to the Jones Falls mills. During World War I, demand for cotton duck fabric rose significantly (the company received many federal government contracts) and workers reaped the benefits of higher wages.

After the war, production decreased but the workers' expectations did not. When the company announced in 1923 that the work week would be 54 hours and wages would rise by 7.5%, the workers went on strike. The standoff lasted for months but the company refused to budge, however, despite the efforts of community leaders to mediate the situation. In 1925 the strike leaders were evicted from their homes and the company started selling housing. The company also closed three mills and moved operations to Alabama and South Carolina.

Production picked up again during World War II, with the mills operating 24/7. Women, older workers, and some African Americans worked at the mills as well. Once again, after the war, demand for cotton textiles dropped and decreased even further after the Korean War. The emergence of synthetic fabric also contributed to the cut in demand, although Mill No. 1 was converted to produce synthetic fabric. Company operations in the Jones Falls area continued to decline and by 1971 most mills closed; only Mill No. 1 and No. 3 were still operating. The next year, the company decided to move to North Carolina where labor was cheaper. The company, which still exists, also claimed that the mill buildings were outdated. A developer bought Mill No. 1 in 2012 and began renovating it.

Bird, Betty & Plant, Rebecca. "Mount Vernon Mill No. 1." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. April 19, 2001. https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/NR_PDFs/NR-1266.pdf.

Fisher, Kyle. "Mount Vernon Mill No. 1." Baltimore Heritage. Accessed July 27, 2022. https://explore.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/39.

"Setting Sail...History of Mount Vernon." Mount Vernon Mills, Inc. Accessed July 27, 2022. https://mvmills.com/content/history-of-mount-vernon.html.