[1] In 1898 the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, based in Lowell, Massachusetts, began to look for a location to build a cotton spinning mill in the Southern United States.

The company broke ground on 1,385 acres (560 ha) near Brahan Spring the following year, and the mill opened in 1900.

[2]: 77  The village also contained a dry goods store, operated by the W. L. Halsey Company, which also had space for community organization meetings.

The first school also opened in 1913, followed by a four-room schoolhouse in 1914 and a larger brick building in 1919, which was later named in Bradley's honor.

Buoyed by profits from high production during World War I, the mill expanded in 1920, adding 30,000 square feet (2,800 sq.

[4] The mill store was greatly expanded the same year, incorporating the old frame structure and adding a gymnasium, theater, two community rooms, and other amenities.

Beginning in 1922, the village houses were wired for electricity, and sidewalks and a sanitary sewer system were added.

[4] From July 17 until September 22, 1934, a strike by the United Textile Workers of America brought violence to Huntsville, as part of a nationwide effort to improve working conditions in textile mills;[5] another strike at Merrimack and Dallas Mill followed in 1937. Business rebounded during World War II, but soon after, facing aging equipment and soft prices due to overseas competition, Merrimack sold the mill to M. Lowenstein and Co. of New York City.

The village is laid out along a grid pattern broken by a Y-shaped street which led to the mill and contained the superintendent's house in the Y.