Old West Durham Neighborhood Association






| Settlement of Pinhook |
| Ninth Street |
| 1920 Street Map |
| McDonald's Drug Store |
| E.K. Powe School |
| Southside School |
| Old Neighborhood|
|Photos & Memories|
| Grocery Stores |
| Erwin Auditorium |
| 8 mills of Erwin Mills |
| Roads to West Durham |
| Life in the Mill Village |
| Working on "Mill Hill" |
| Faces of "Mill Hill" |
| Child of Erwin Mill Village |
| Erwin Mills No. 1 |
| Erwin Mill No. 2 |
| Erwin Mill Cemetary |
| Cooleemee Mill No. 3 |
| Pilgrim Holiness Church |
| WD Church of God |
| OWD's Faith Community |
| Broad Street |
| Duke in History |
| Duke Stonecutters |
| WPA Interviews |
|Oral Histories of OWD|
| Brookstown & Hickstown |
| Bull Durham |
| Growing up on Hillsboro Road |
|The Depression in West Durham|
| The Erwin Chatter |
| West Durham Memory-Mary Coles |
| Interview with Mill Worker |
| Ellerbe Watershed History |
| Historic Walking Tours |
| Walking Tour in the News |
| Historic Durham |
| Bull City Timeline |
| Other Durham cotton mills |
| Southern Cotton Mills |
|Tommy Hunt: Memories...|
| Wallace's Auto Article |
| Historic Postcards of Durham |
| Main history page |

Go to Depression-era WPA Interviews With Erwin Mill workers

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    Cooleemee Mill No. 3


    Though the faces have changed through the years, JC Sell, Jr. says many things about Cooleemee have stayed the same. For one, townspeople still live in the original mill houses built by Erwin Mills, though many have been renovated, added onto or moved.

    Erwin Mills ran the town when Sell was growing up. Most of the townspeople worked at the mill and lived in houses owned by the mill. The rent was low, and Erwin's employees spent their time away from work enjoying the swimming pool, library and two theaters owned by the company.

    Because most people used the space outside their homes for gardens, Sell says garages provided by the mill were lined up at central locations in town. When they went somewhere, people would park their cars in the garages and walk back home. Most of Erwin's employees walked to work.

    Cooleemee even had its own hotel back then. The Riverside Hotel was owned by Erwin so that company employees had a place to stay when they came in from headquarters in Durham.

    The town also had its own Minor League baseball team, sponsored at times by the St. Louis Cardinals. The ball field was located across from Sell's house where Cooleemee Elementary School now stands, and boys from town would climb the huge walnut tree behind his house to watch the games.

    When Erwin Mills, which eventually became Burlington Mills, closed down, Sell says, "it was like the town´s heart stopped beating." (Salisbury Post, June 12, 2001)

    Directions from Old West Durham to Cooleemee Mills, NC

  • Take I-85/South to I-40/West (towards Winston-Salem)
  • Drive approx 45 miles on I-40 to Exit 174 (Farmington Road).
  • Turn left onto Farmington Road and then turn right onto US-158.
  • US-158 becomes US-601.
  • Turn right onto NC-801/South.

    • The Cooleemee Museum is located at the Historic Zachary House on Church Street (off Hwy 801, 1 mile south of Hwy 601). Estimated driving time from Durham is a little over two hours (110 miles).

    Museum hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 AM to Noon. Saturdays, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Call 704-284-6040 for more information (or a special tour appointment).

    Cooleemee Mill Village

    "Go to church this Sunday, beat the Christmas rush."
    -roadside sign in Cooleemee, NC