EDEN, N.C. — The history of the Spray Cotton Mills dates back more than 100 years before Eden was even a city.
It was one of many mills that fed the boom of the Triad textile industry.
WFMY News 2's Hannah Jefferies sat down with a historian, detailing its rich past.
All morning neighbors have come out to see what's left of Spray Cotton Mills.
A couple said this area holds a special place in their hearts because this is where it all started.
Shirley and Billy Stone watched smoke roll off of what was once their workplace. The couple met here, started dating, got married and the rest is history.
Shirley Stone worked in customer packages and as a winder.
"These mills provided everything for their families, it was the income that we needed it was the support that you needed from the community. I mean without these mills we wouldn't have this little, what used to be Leaksville Spray and Draper, we wouldn't have this small community which is now Eden, Shirley Stone said."
PHOTOS: Spray Cotton Mills fire in Eden
The mill, which opened around the 1900s closed a few decades ago.
Area historian, James Ivie says this mill was one of the last to close.
After being vacant for years, crews recently started working to turn it into apartments.
"Well first I saw the smoke, we were coming down the road and you couldn't tell what it was until we came around the circle here and saw it was our workplace and the building that we were working on and it just was a terrible thing and my heart dropped to my stomach when I saw that, I said oh boy," Randall Stacel Project worker at Mills site said.
