Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein

Concord Woolen Mill in Heritage Park

Cobb County, Georgia

The Concord Woolen Mill site is endowed with a powerful sense of history. Despite the forces of nature and man, the remaining stone walls of the mill buildings have stood for almost 150 years as reminders of how late 19th century men, women and children worked and lived in harmony with nature, building the mill with indigenous materials and powering it with an adjacent stream. The standing walls represent the main mill building (actually two buildings connected end-to-end) and an annex structure, which probably served as office and storage space. These remnants represent the working mill portion of the community, with housing located down stream. The roofs and floors of the wood-framed buildings deteriorated many years ago, as evidenced by the growth of fairly large trees inside the building.

The mill was constructed during the 1840s and 50s for use in producing woolens. In 1864, the mill was torched by the Union Army because of its role in making uniforms for the Confederates. Five years later, the building was reconstructed of stone, but in 1889 it was again ravaged by fire. In 1890 the mill was once again reconstruction, and remained in use until 1912. For almost eighty years the mill deteriorated, until the land the mill sits on was acquired by Cobb County Land Trust as the site of the new Heritage Park.

Client: Cobb County Land Trust

Completion: 1996

Awards:
   Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, 1997