Old Lindale Mill nearing new life with weddings, concerts ... and who knows what else
Weddings ... concerts ... and who knows what else
The old mill in Lindale has literally been a major piece of the fabric of the community for more than a century. It opened as Massachusetts Mills in 1896, an 80-foot by 500-foot cotton shed. It grew and grew and grew, changed names a couple of times before South Carolina-based Greenwood Mills closed it in September of 2001.
A decade went by before Joe Silva and his family purchased the building under the corporate name of Arimathea Holdings LLC. They bought it from Page Family Properties LLC of Tennessee.
Last month, the Floyd County Commission approved a specialuse permit for the mill property which will allow Joe Silva and his wife Dani Silva to market the mill for a variety of alternative uses.
Silva said that for a while, there appeared to be a lot of interest from filmmakers in the old mill and it got to where he was hoping that the mill could attract at least one major motion-picture or television shoot a year. That, however, hasn’t quite panned out even though the property is still getting a lot of looks.
“I do a lot of smaller stuff (independent films) but you know Hollywood pays the most,” Silva said.
He had two Hollywood locaters back at the site in July but nothing has been locked in yet.
At that point he and his wife started to think about what else they could do with the property to generate revenue.
One of the first ideas that surfaced was the creation of an outdoor wedding venue.
Lately, a lot of their work has involved cleaning up the mill grounds.
“By clean up what I mean is being able to mow the lawn without running into a brick,” Silva said. “Originally we weren’t too concerned about what it looked like.”
Now they are focused on little things that Silva considers necessities. Silva said he has already had seven wedding inquiries, but the property is still not quite ready. Just this week he has purchased strong lights for the wedding venue and hopes it will not be too much longer before he can entertain brides and grooms.
The wedding venue would be in an area the Silvas call “The Mill Ruins.” The area is between the creek and the old boiler building.
“It just sets up perfect,” Silva said. He has just poured approximately 20 yards of concrete to help level the area off so there are no trip hazards.
One of the benefits of having an old mill property is the abundance of bathrooms. “We have 12 bathrooms on site,” Silva said. Of course they need some work and the couple is working in that direction.
They are also considering the same general area as a venue for outdoor concerts. Grass is already growing in that location, and on the west side there is the foundation of an old building that was taken down by the previous owners, which Silva said sets up perfectly for a stage.
“You can see the stage all the way to Park Avenue,” Silva said. “You could fit eight or nine thousand people.”
The mill property also has ample parking for big events.
Once they get the outdoor venue going, the couple plans to start looking toward the interior of the old mill building itself.
Tim Reynolds, president of Restoration Lindale, said he was excited about the potential for re-use of the old mill.
“We’ve sat dormant basically since the closing of the mill and they’ve come in and hit the door running with a lot of great ideas,” Reynolds said. “The previous owners had some plans but never really put them into play. We support them 110 percent.”
The Rome Floyd Chamber has been marketing the mill for potential use as a brewery for the last several years. Chamber Economic Development Director Heather Seckman has said the old mill site would be attractive to brewers because it still holds a permit to withdraw up to 1.5 million gallons of water a day from Silver Creek. The facility also has a couple of pump houses which are able to draw water from artesian springs on the 23-acre property.
The springs, according to Silva, could produce another 2 million gallons a day.
“It (a brewery) has always been on the back of our mind,” Silva said. If a microbrewery doesn’t work, a plain and simple water bottling operation might. Tests, done on one occasion by a representative from Nestle water, revealed that the water at the plant is extremely clean.
The Silvas like the microbrewery idea and that is one of the many uses they are eyeing for potential reuse and revitalization of the property in the future. They can foresee the main three-story remnant of the mill used for a wide variety of purposes, from a microbrewery and restaurant, to a myriad of other retail uses.
For a brief period of time, a dark and humid section of the old mill was used by Adam Parker of Atlanta Gourmet Mushrooms to cultivate designer mushrooms for some of Atlanta’s upscale restaurant clients.
Of course the twin smokestacks at the mill are still the focus of the entire community around Christmastime when the Star of Lindale, hung between the two smokestacks, is lit for the holidays. The original star was salvaged by community leaders and is also displayed during the holidays from its new home, a tower on Eden Mountain that overlooks the community.
The Silvas came to Rome from Seattle. It was originally their thought to take down everything that remained of the old mill, sell what they could for salvage and then head back to Seattle. Then something called Southern Hospitality intervened and drew the family cross-country on a permanent basis.
Recently, Silva has also been entertaining the thought of rehabilitating the old mill administration building. He has had a contractor out to look at the building to get an idea about what would be involved in making it attractive to new users.
“It needs a lot of lipstick on the inside,” Silva said. “We’ve called Realtors out here and they just don’t know how to put a value on it. It’s a 1920s office and the bones are great.”