The History of Riverdale Cotton Mills

Coinciding with the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Southern Textile Revolution, the Riverdale Mill was built in 1866 along the banks of the Chattahoochee River, where it flows between Alabama and Georgia – serving as the state line. This four-story textile mill harnessed the power of the Chattahoochee River to manufacture textiles from cotton.

The River View Mill underwent several ownership changes and subsequent name changes, reorganized for a third and final time as “Riverdale Cotton Mills,” as a subsidiary of West Point Manufacturing Company. In 1936, production was converted from duck to toweling.

Amidst the change that transpired between construction in 1866 and acquisition by the West Point Manufacturing Company, the Riverdale Mill also grew in size, adding several additional buildings to the site.

19th Century Wood

The wood harvested in the construction of the Riverdale Mill was by far, the finest available at that time and is now extinct in nature.

In the years before 1870, large virgin-growth trees were available in Alabama. Pine, although biologically classified as a “softwood;” appears to be a misnomer, when looking at the dense, hard, heavy, early 19th century pine.

Pine of this vintage generally displays 15 to 25 growth rings per inch, whereas modern “dense pine” is classified as six (6) growth rings per inch. No such wood still exists in forests, in any significant quantity, therefore every effort is made to preserve this now-extinct, remarkable wood.

The Riverdale Mill utilized this archaic wood in the construction of its flooring, walls and structural beam-work. These majestic woods are just now seeing light for the first time in nearly two centuries.

Old Hudson Flooring is pleased to offer these exclusive woods to the public. Once these limited supplies are sold, consumers will not find wood flooring of similar vintage and quality anywhere.