5 replies to this topic

[Spartan]

This event was particularly personal to me because I live very near this mill and I drive by it nearly everyday while I'm at home. I live a good ways away from the mill but i could see flames from my house... this was a massive fire. I went to the mill at 4AM and watched it burn for a bit. I have some pictures on my cell phone and as soon as I figure out how to get them off onto my computer I will share them.

It is also unfortunate because the Mill was about to be redeveloped into condominums, and becuase yet another historic mill is destroyed.

These historic mills in the Upstate are being destroyed all over the place. Many of them could be saved and redeveloped. Most are destroyed because its more cost effective to destroyit and reuse the land than to keep up the current structure.

Unfortunately I can't post pictures on here for some reason... something about dynamic photos, but I highly reccomend going to the link below and looking at some.

Look at the Herald-Journal's pics as well as the ones that were submitted.

The Herald-Journal

Submitted Photos

The only thing not covered by the article is the cause... and it is unknown.
SLED is investigating.

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Mill goes up in flames
By Susan Orr | And JANET S. SPENCER

GLENDALE -- Fourteen-year-old Zach Ivey knelt in the street and put the palms of his hands down, leveling his back Saturday afternoon so his friend, Dustin Roberts, could use it as a platform to photograph the still-smoldering Glendale Mill.

Roberts, 15, snapped a few shots as thick smoke continued to roll from the ruins 15 hours after a fire left only the brick wall outline of the 137-year-old, five-story structure.

"This place is historical," Ivey said when Roberts jumped from his back. "We studied about it in school."

Working their way back up the street, the teens pulled a shiny, red Radio Flyer wagon they had hoped to use for a better vantage point. But when the authorities would not let them take it in, Ivey gave Roberts the boost he needed for the photography session.

"We've been around here watching since 3 a.m.," said Roberts, a student at Broome High School. "At first, we thought it was our friend's

house. We came running down here to be sure he was alright."

The teens were wide-eyed asthey talked about the blaze that gutted the mill, which closed 43 years ago.

"It was terrible. Those flames were just so high," Ivey said, throwing his head back and looking into the sky.

They stood in front of a house facing the mill that was the only other structure damaged by the roaring early morning blaze that sent red and yellow flames high into the air, said Glendale Assistant Fire Chief Eric Alley.

Alley said he was on duty at the station just down the street when the call to 911 came in at 2:26 a.m. Saturday.

In addition to numerous rows of houses, which had to be protected from the heat and blaze, the Post Office is adjacent to the property and its operation was shut down for the day.

Also within a half-mile radius of the mill are the Spartanburg County District 3 school administrative offices and at least five churches.

More than 80 firefighters from the Glendale, Pacolet, Converse and Drayton departments responded and rotated working throughout the day trying to extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading.

A crew of firefighters was assigned to remain overnight to keep the blaze from rekindling. Agents with the State Law Enforcement Division called to the scene to determine the cause waited for what was left to cool so they could begin their work.

"When I pulled in, the back part of the mill – the three-story section -- was fully engulfed in flames," Alley said. "It's a total loss. Everything's gone, except a small newer office addition here closest to the post office," Alley said. "Right now we're just working to keep the hot spots down."

Anderson-based Glendale Development Corp. owned the 250,000-square-foot mill. Several companies were leasing space for storage, according to Glendale Development President Mike Cicora.

Cicora, whose group bought the mill in 2000, said he learned about the fire when a friend called him Saturday morning after seeing a report on television.

He said there were plans to redevelop the mill, possibly turning it into condominiums.

"It may have looked like there was nothing happening, but we had strong interest from several different groups," Cicora said. "There were no immediate plans, but certainly there were plans for developing the property.

"I'm absolutely devastated by this. Three and a half years of my life literally went up in smoke."

The mill was built about 1867, and the site along Lawson's Fork Creek has an even richer history.

It was first developed in 1773, when Joseph Buffington built Buffington Iron Works. But Buffington struggled and eventually lost the facility to William Wofford in a land dispute.

During the Revolutionary War, British soldiers ambushed American forces that had camped out at Wofford's Iron Works on Aug. 7, 1780. The Americans fought off their attackers and the foundry was spared.

A year later, the iron works was destroyed in a raid led by "Bloody" Bill Cunningham. But it reopened after the war as South Carolina Iron works.

James Bivings of Lincolnton, N.C., bought the property and built the Bivingsville Cotton Factory in the early 1830s. It was South Carolina's first cotton mill with more than 1,000 spindles.

The mill went bankrupt in 1855, and Bivings sold it to John Bomar and Co. for $19,500 a year later. Bomar's group hired Edgar Converse to run the operation.

The mill flourished under Converse, and during the Civil War a third of the plant's production went to the Confederate government.

The factory was razed after the war and a new mill – the one that burned Saturday morning -- was built around 1867. The company also had a new name – D.E. Converse and Co. The name of the mill was changed to Glendale in 1878.

Another section was added in 1890, and another expansion occurred in 1902.

By 1907 it had more than 37,000 spindles.

Stifel and Sons of Wheeling, W.Va., bought the mill in 1946. Stifel remodeled the mill village homes and sold them to the employees in 1955.

Indian Head Mills bought the facility in 1957. Four years later, the looms stopped running for good.

Neighbors and motorists following the smoke continued to gather and watch the activity of firefighters throughout the day.

Several people reported hearing large booms that awakened them.

Witnesses said it took firefighters two or three hours to get the blaze under control, and as late as noon an isolated patch of fire could still be seen amid the rubble.

Ray Price, a firefighter and photographer for the Glendale Fire Department, said the mill's size and condition made this the worst fire he had ever seen in his 30 years of photographing fires for documentation and training purposes.

Many people walked around surveying the scene and documenting the mill's demise by shooting photos and video images.

Broadway Street resident Tim Williams learned of the fire at 2:35 a.m. when a neighbor called him. He soon got an up-close look at the blaze when he helped a friend move a dump truck and other vehicles the friend had stored behind the mill.

Driving on an access road behind the mill, Williams saw burning embers falling through the air and bricks flying out of windows.

"It looked like volcano rocks falling down," Williams said. "I had my (vehicle) windows up and my air conditioner on and it was burning my face, it was so hot."

But Williams said the only damage to his vehicle was some soot marks.

Donald Hughes, another Broadway Street resident, lives a block or so from the mill and he said the flames were so intense that they lit up the darkness.

"I live on the top of the hill and when I walked outside it was like broad daylight," Hughes said.

Hughes believes that if the wind had not shifted and blown flames away from the mill village that many mill houses would have succumbed to the blaze.

The fire was especially threatening to Hughes' mother, Dee Bryant, who lives on Glendale Avenue right across from the mill.

She woke up around 2 a.m. when she heard a loud explosion, and when she looked outside she saw towers of flames.

"I was freaking out," Bryant said.

Once the fire spread to the part of the mill closest to her home, the heat was so intense that it began to melt her vinyl siding.

Neighbors tried to wet her home with a garden hose, but the water pressure was too low so Drayton's fire department had to come and spray Bryant's house in order to save it.

"Thank goodness for Drayton," she said.

John Bishop of Duncan Street, a lifelong Glendale resident who worked at the mill as a teenager, said he was sorry to see the mill gone because of its history.

"It went down in a hurry," Bishop said. "In about two or three hours, it was down."

http://www.goupstate.../403210361/1051

[Spartan]

This is just a follow up to the previous article.

Cicora (the site owner) just says that redevelopment is likely and will incoporate the towers which still remain.

--------------------------------------------------------
Mill's owner still sees a future in property

By Dudley Brown | Staff Writer

Mike Cicora said he'd have to go back and add up how much money was spent on renovating Glendale Mill, but he wouldn't be surprised if the figure is in six digits.

There, however, is no price tag that could be placed on the labor and sweat equity invested in the property, said Cicora, president of the Anderson-based Glendale Development Corp., which owns the 20 acres of land that includes the 137-year-old mill's ruins.

The mill is only left with a brick outline, but Cicora said it's not completely lost.

Cicora said the excitement and peacefulness provided by Lawson's Fork Creek is still there and he continues to see potential for the property.

"It's still sort of an idealistic place," said a weary Cicora Sunday night after being interviewed about 20 times. "Because of that, it's not over. Because it's been hurt doesn't mean it's dead. It's taken a blow, but I don't think it's a lethal blow."

Cicora said before the fire there were plans of eventually using the mill for loft-style apartments. He still sees that as a possibility for the site.

He said he would like to use as much of the brickwork as possible in the future. He also would like to keep the towers, which still stand. He said that for the past nine months work had been done to the mill's roof and lots of cleanup had been accomplished.

Cicora said he plans to clean the site and have any walls that could fall and pose a danger torn down.

He still aches while preparing for the mill's future.

"I'm sort of hysterical about the whole thing," Cicora said.

"There's a lot of things lost. Not only is it a magnificent spot on the water, but there's a lot of history that's dear to everyone's heart."

[Allan]

It's too bad that it burned.  Those old mills catch fire very quickly.  At least there are still development plans for the site.  A community near me just lost an entire block of 19th century buildings to a large fire...unfortunately none of it is salvageable.  At least here they will be able to reuse parts of it.

[Spartan]

Thats true. At least it will be somewhat salvageable.

Its horrible to loose historic buildings, but especially when they are such an imporant part of a community.

[monsoon]

[Spartan]

Technically no, but Glendale is in Spartanburg County and is more or less a suburb of Spartanburg. It isn't technically an incorporated town or census area so it doesn't show up on the map like Converse, Boiling Springs, etc.


Glendale is approximately to the top right of the US176 emblem to the SE of Spartanburg.

Edited by Spartanburger, 23 March 2004 - 04:00 PM.