l\
Back in the 1990's, my husband and I were showing my mother around various small towns in North Carolina in the hopes that she might consider moving up here from Florida to be with us. As we were driving on Franklin Boulevard, a large red brick building caught my attention and that was my introduction to the Loray Mill, in turn leading to my fascination with old textile mills. This picture is from 2002

Also called the Firestone Cotton Mill, she is still usually referred to as the Loray. She was once the largest of the textile mills built in the South built under one roof, six-stories tall and 600,000 square feet of space.

This is from the southwest side of the Loray and you can get a good idea of just how big she is.

While looking for pictures and information on this mill, I came across a web page that showed two postcards of the Loray, the original version and the western addition to the building by Firestone. In the Firestone picture, you can also see the original smokestack, no longer present today.

This is the rear (southern) elevation of the mill, also taken in 2002. You'll notice that instead of the brick stacks, she has two steel ones. This might be due to the fact that the mill was shifted to electrical power instead of using a boiler room and the big brick stack was no longer needed.
This picture was taken in March 2006, and you can see the main tower and the Gate 1 entrance in front of it.

Since discovering this mill, I've tried to keep up with any renovation attempts for her, one of which was the attempt to create the Franklin Mills, a combination of condos and shops. We were able to be inside the building as they were showing off a model of the condo. Unfortunately, the project never happened.

In January 2008, we received permission to not only photograph the Loray up close and personal, but we were allowed inside the building itself. Many many thanks to Ted Alexander at Preservantion NC and Lucy Penegar for allowing Ted and I to actually go inside.

This picture is an experiment Ted was working with, letting the sun peek over the roof of the building..

This shot is taken of the exterior of the boiler room from a window in the hallway leading into the main structure. The boilers are gone, replaced by electrcal equipment, but you can see the deailing of the window frames.