Survey Committee Agenda – August 2020 | Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission

The Survey Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 19, 2020, will be a virtual meeting. Please note there will be no accommodation for any in-person attendance. If you need special accommodations, please contact the HLC office at 980-314-7660.

August 19, 2020 – 6:00 p.m.

1. Staff Report: Jack Thomson and Stewart Gray

2. Consideration of Placement on the Study List of Prospective Historic Landmarks

a. Larkwood-Chadbourn Hosiery Mill, 451 Jordan Place, Charlotte, N.C.

Polaris Map of Property

Additional Photographs of Property

Statement of Significance: Larkwood Silk Hosiery Mills – Chadbourn Hosiery Mills possesses special industrial significance as one of Charlotte’s largest and longest-operating hosiery producers. The enterprise’s contribution to the local economy as a manufacturer, employer, consumers of local goods and services, and taxpayer was enormous from late 1929, when Larkwood Silk Hosiery Mills’ plant commenced operations, until Chadbourn Inc. ceased production in 1978. The two-story redbrick 1929 mill features Art Deco elements such as a full-height cast-stone stepped primary entrance bay and cast stone pilasters, sills, and lintels framing large windows. The 1935 addition designed by architect George N. Rhodes and erected by Wadesboro Construction Company almost doubled the building’s size. After purchasing Larkwood Silk Hosiery Mills in February 1945, Burlington-based Chadbourn Hosiery Mills moved its headquarters to Charlotte. The concern commissioned the construction of additions in 1946, 1949, and 1962. By 1965, Chadbourn had become one of the United States’ leading hosiery producers, with an annual capacity of ninety-million-dozen ladies seamless stretch stockings. Three years later, the firm bought two neighboring Charlotte plants—Hudson Hosiery Company and Nebel Knitting Mill—resulting in a 2,500-person Mecklenburg County workforce. Although the previous owner demolished the 1946, 1949, and 1962 additions, the 1929 mill, 1935 addition, boiler room, and smokestack maintain integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and association.