The Avondale Mills were a system of textile mills located predominantly in Alabama, but also in Georgia and the Carolinas, with headquarters in Birmingham, and later in Sylacauga, Alabama. The Birmingham neighborhood of Avondale was chosen to be the site of the first mill, hence the naming of the company. Founded in 1897, the mills employed thousands of Alabamians throughout its 109-year history until they closed in 2006. Avondale Mills was founded in 1897 by a consortium of investors including the Trainer family of Chester, Pennsylvania, the future governor of Alabama, Braxton Bragg Comer, and a group of Birmingham civic leaders including Frederick Mitchell Jackson Sr.
The mills refined the plentiful cotton from Alabama fields and, at its peak, devoured 20% of the entire state of Alabama's cotton production. The owners and operators of Avondale Mills were noted not only for progressive stances with regards to the overall well-being of their workers, but also for conditions of child labor that, while common at the time, are today considered abusive.
The mills were operated solely in Alabama until Donald Comer released control of Avondale Mills to his brother-in-law, Craig Smith, who helped expand the mills into both Georgia and South Carolina. Walton Monroe Mills Inc. purchased Avondale Mills in 1986. In 1995, the owning firm acquired the textile operations of the Graniteville Company. Disaster struck when, on the morning of January 6, 2005, a train accident outside of the Graniteville, South Carolina, mill caused a large chlorine gas leak from a ruptured tank car that killed 9 people on the train and surrounding area. In 2006, as a result of the Graniteville disaster and increased competition from overseas, Avondale formally shuttered its operations.
History
Creation The Trainer family of Chester, Pennsylvania sought to expand their already successful textile operations into the American South to bring their operations closer to the source of their raw materials. The Birmingham region appealed to them chiefly due to its wide labor pool and proximity to the abundant cotton fields of Alabama, as well as the transportation infrastructure of Birmingham that allowed for easy transport of their refined materials throughout the American south and the United States as a whole.
Southern communities, since before the Civil War, had wanted to introduce new manufacturing facilities as a means of resisting economic domination by Northern industrialists. Industry was difficult to develop in Alabama, particularly, however, due to the states deficit of navigable waterways, a relatively unstable banking system which both combined to discourage widespread investment in manufacturing facilities within the state. Alabama was at the bottom of the list in terms of textile production in southern states. In 1852, There were 40 mills in Georgia operating with 80,000 spindles; Tennessee had 30 mills with 36,000 spindles in operation; and Alabama came in last with only 12 mills and a total of 12,580 spindles. Many throughout the south advocated for the region's favorability in the textile manufacturing industries specifically because the south accounted for the vast majority, if not the entirety, of the nation's cotton production. Thus, locating textile refineries near the sources of raw materials made economic sense. The industry gained a foothold prior to the Civil War as mills began opening. In 1860, 1,312 people were employed in textile mills in Alabama. That number plummeted, however, following the war. By 1870, only 744 people were employed in textile mills.
The family contacted the Birmingham Commercial Club, that would later become the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, "...which had been organized in 1887 to encourage trade and create more economic diversification..." in the extraction focused Birmingham region. The Commercial Club agreed to invest $150,000 (~$4.5 million adjusted for inflation), and civic leader Braxton Bragg "B.B." Comer, having been recruited to serve as president of the mill, offered $10,000 (~$300,000 adjusted for inflation) as an investment. B.F. Roden, owner of the Avondale Land Company, provided the land for the mill under the condition that the mill be named "Avondale Mills". Comer's experience as a banker, miller and cotton farmer made him an ideal candidate for the job. Shortly after he assumed the presidency, The Trainer family abandoned the project before the mills had even opened, and Comer bought out the family's shares and assumed majority control. Through their efforts, they created the first cotton cloth manufacturing plant in Birmingham.
Initially, financing the construction of the mills proved troublesome. With high interest rates and scarce available capital, Comer and the Birmingham Commercial Club took out loans from noted Wall Street banker DuMont Clark, and secured funding from J.M. Lewis of Talladega, Alabama who took out $100,000 in bonds for the construction of the mills.
Early years The early days of the mill were troublesome for Comer and the other principal operators. The first sale of refined materials, placed through a designated selling agency, priced the fabric at 2¢ per yard. The program for the sale of refined cloth from the mills allowed for sales to be made through sales agents without approval or permission of the mill president. Comer demanded that the scheme be halted, and mandated that no future sales would be honored without his prior approval. The selling agents balked at his demands and called a meeting of the mills' stockholders to demand Comer's removal from office. The efforts of Frederick Jenks, of Fales and Jenks Machinery Company, kept Comer in office.
Comer's staff initially consisted of himself and two other men. Comer wrote his own letters in long-hand script and personally bought, weighed, classified and sold all of the cotton for the mills.
By 1898, Avondale Mills employed nearly 400 people as spinners, weavers and mechanics and, additionally, realized a profit of $15,000 (~$450,000 adjusted for inflation). in 1906, Comer was elected Governor of Alabama, however he retained presidency of the mills. By 1907, under the management of Comer's son, Donald Comer, the mills had generated $55,000 (~$1.5 million adjusted for inflation) in profit.
The success of the Avondale Mills, and the potential tax revenue that it included, proved critical in passage of the "Greater Birmingham" movement that incorporated many of the outlying suburbs into the city limits of Birmingham. Following an earlier defeat decades before, the "Greater Birmingham" initiative came in 1911 before Governor Comer, who subsequently agreed to the majority of its provisions. Birmingham, in one fell swoop, saw its population swell to 132,685 and saw its land area increase to 48 square miles. With the passage of the bill, the city also adopted the commission style of government used until 1963. The improvements to many of the seven outlying suburbs that were incorporated into Birmingham included added transportation infrastructure, better access to social services, and increased sanitation.
Avondale Mills had a dramatic effect on the demographic landscape of Birmingham and the surrounding regions. As the price of cotton fell in the latter half of the 19th century, many Alabama farmers found themselves searching for new means of income. Avondale Mills provided steady paychecks and plentiful working hours. While typical farm labor could provide a family with $400 annually (~$10,500 adjusted for inflation), a single person working at the mills could earn up to $700 annually (~$18,500 adjusted for inflation). With the availability of work for all members of the family, income possibilities rose even more. Impoverished black and white workers flocked to the city to work in Comer's mill.
Working and living conditions
Notable among Avondale Mills' achievements were the numerous, uncharacteristic amenities offered to employees and their families. As president of the mills, B. B. Comer continued his tendency towards what has been described as "plantation-paternalism" by maintaining his involvement in many of the daily, domestic activities of his employees. While many mill owners throughout America provided their workers with housing at that time, the facilities provided by Comer surpassed the standard in terms of both quality and quantity.
Mill village
Mill workers generally lived in the Avondale Mill's worker's housing communities, worshiped at the on-site church, and sent their children to the on-site school. B. B. Comer established a kindergarten at the mill, run by his daughters, Mignon, Catherine and Eva. The educational facilities provided by Comer at Avondale Mills far surpassed those offered at other mills throughout America. His schools would often accept children from the surrounding community whose parents did not work at the mills. Comer also established night schools for workers with assistance from the Alabama Department of Education, called Opportunity Schools. Children of employees also received no interest college loans that were generally forgiven if the student graduated.
The mill village Comer provided, consisting of 129 houses in Birmingham, was also notable for the quality of its conditions. While most other mill villages in America provided workers with outhouses either behind or between worker houses, Comer introduced interior sanitation facilities. B.B. Comer's son, Bragg Comer, supervised the construction of the Drummond Fraser Hospital, a 35-bed facility, that provided medical care for mill workers. Additionally, workers were charged 75¢ each week in rent, while salaries averaged anywhere between $12 and $20 per week. The mill village also included a dairy and a poultry farm for the benefit of the workers. Home ownership in the mill village was available to families. As of 1947, fully 1,100 Avondale employees had bought their own homes, the majority of which owned them without debt of mortgage.
Mill workers were paid in cash, but they could also opt to be paid partially in company scrip to be used in the company store. Truly unique for its time, Avondale Mills offered employees $1 of scrip for only 80¢. This, effectively, gave employees a 20% discount on all goods bought at the village store as the village store matched its prices with those of stores in downtown Birmingham.
Recreational resorts for mill workers
During the summer, mill workers could enjoy paid vacations at the Panama City, Florida resort purchased by Comer for his employees. Comer closed the mills at different times throughout the summer in order to allow his workers to enjoy the vacation resort at their leisure. In a move truly exceptional for a white business owner in the deeply segregated American south, Comer even provided for his African-American workers to visit the resort, albeit not when white workers were present. Known as Camp Helen, the resort included a large main building and several guest cottages strewn about the property.
Avondale Mills also provided Camp Brownie, a recreational facility on the Coosa River for workers to enjoy boating and fishing in their off-time.
Access to amenities
Avondale Mills was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal landscape of race relations in Birmingham. Out of 8,500 employees in 1947, fully 12%, or about 1,020, were African American, all of whom received equal access to the amenities provided by Comer. The mills' African American workers were noted for being "...on exactly the same basis industrially as the white workers...with the same opportunities to share in profits, to own homes and farms, to enjoy recreational and school facilities and to save their money."
Working conditions