Old Textile Hall

In 1900, a New York Times correspondent noted that prosperity in Greenville was "evident on all sides" and that mill owners there made huge profits.

[1] By the second decade of the century, South Carolina was ranked second only to Massachusetts in textile production; and Greenville, located between Charlotte and Atlanta, was central to the industry.

The building had load bearing brick perimeter walls that incorporated "horizontal reinforced concrete and granolithic bond beams."

Its auditorium, on the second level, included a stage and a balcony; and the tongue-and-groove maple floors were designed to accommodate operating textile machinery.

[4] From 1917 until 1962, the Southern Textile Exposition held trade shows, usually biennially; and for most of those years, they were directed by W. G. "Bill" Sirrine, a prosperous Greenville lawyer and landowner.