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Town Center Plan
January 2007
Appendix 2
8. Samuel Horne Mill House
214 Page Street
Across the South, technology was changing the landscape. Beginning
in the 1870’s, textile mills offered poor farming families jobs, reliable
pay, and housing. Many turned away from generations of farming for
the promise of the mills. Morrisville was swept up in this change when
Samuel R. Horne built his knitting mill here in 1910. The factory made
men’s socks in a long single-story structure which stood between Ashe
and Cedar Streets (what is today Franklin Upchurch Sr Street).
Soon after its opening, Horne followed the example of other mill towns
like Carrboro, Durham, and Bynum, constructing housing for workers.
Within the next two years a number of houses were built, nine of which
are still standing. The factory lasted only a decade before closing, and
was finally destroyed in the 1930’s.
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Photo by Ernest Dollar