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Being inside this building was a thrill for me. Mrs. Penegar and I had tried several times to get together but either holidays, weather or other problems kept pushing it back.  However, it was all worth it when she unlocked the door and let us in. Due to time restraints, Mrs. Penegar could only give us a quick tour, but she then left us inside to explore at our leisure, asking only to make sure lights were off and doors were closed and locked when we were through.

Finding unusual items in a mill has always been a wonderful part of the process. Here, Ted and I found a monitor sensitive to vibrations in the floor. I can only imagine what this would have shown when the mill was active!

Here you can see a box that held a stretcher and the fire hoses. The equipment is no longer there, of course, but the storage boxes were still in excellent shape. The caution sign says "Hearing protection must be worn in this area".
As mentioned before, the Loray Mill is six stories tall. Though we could have examined the higher levels, we were told that the third floor is the best because of the natural lighting that can come through the windows. This is looking across the third floor of the mill from her east side to the west and you can see exactly how large the mill is. The floor would have held rows upon rows of looms.
Again, this is part of the third floor. You can see some of the damage to the wood flooring. With several of the windows broken, rain and moisture have gotten to those areas closest to the windows. The white on the floor are chips of paint that have fallen from the ceiling and walls. Being an old building, the paint contains lead, so we made certain to clean up when we got home so we didn't track it into our house.
I'm generally not a person who likes to have my picture taken, preferring to be behind the camera rather than in front, but to me this was a special occasion. Again, we are on the third floor and I'm standing beside one of the weight and pulley doors. These were hard to open because of age and lack of use but Ted managed to muscle them open and closed for us.
This is one of my favorite shots. I wanted to take this one because of the two firehoses, one that's uncovered and beyond that, a covered one. Having the columns neatly lined up also adds to the picture, giving it depth.

This was the first big mill crawl we took with the new camera. My old Canon (Powershot S30) was having trouble holding a charge in its batteries, and was also several years old. For a combination birthday/Christmas present, Ted let me buy a Canon S5 IS, again one of their Powershot series, but with better imaging quality and features. It's been a learning experience with this camera ever since. We bought a tripod for it which was probably one of the best purchases we made.

In May 2008, Fort Mill had its first Springfest, and they sponsered an amateur photography competition. I thought I would give it a try and entered two of my favorite photos, including this one. I'm proud to say that The Firehoses at Loray Mill won third prize in its division!