Morrisville Town Center Plan - 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.

Photo by Ernest Dollar

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64 │ Town Center Plan

January 2007