Sibley Mill

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The Sibley Mill was designed by Jones S. Davis and built in 1880 on the site of the Confederate Powder Works Mill along the Augusta Canal, which is part of the Savannah River. The Sibley Mill employed about 800 Augustans and Charles Estes was the head of the mill. In 1923, the Grantiville Company acquired Sibley Mill.

The mill was built by the efforts of Josiah Sibley and his son William Crapon Sibley, Sr., both of whom served as president of the mill. They raised money both locally and in the Northern States to purchase the bricks and property left from the Confederate Powder Works, which the Northern Army had destroyed on its March to the Sea.======================================================================================

FACTS ABOUT AUGUSTA'S SIBLEY MILL

- Its namesake, Josiah Sibley, was a respected Augusta cotton broker whose son, William Sibley, was a partner in the venture. In 1870, they traveled together to New York to recruit investors.

- The Sibleys bought 550,000 bricks that remained after the demolition of the Confederate Powderworks, which was erected there during the Civil War. The purchase price: $5 per thousand.

- William Sibley's daughter Pearl Sibley, laid the first cornerstone during a ceremony Oct. 13, 1880. She also laid the last brick Jan. 27, 1882. The construction cost was $788,452.

- The Sibley family's coat of arms, sculpted in colorfully painted molding over the main entrance, includes a saying in Latin, "Esse quam videri," which means, "To be, rather than to seem."

- The chimney at the mill's entrance is a remnant of the Powderworks and is not part of Sibley Mill. It is maintained as a public monument.

- Sibley Mill opened in 1882 with 536 looms, and expanded to 880 looms by 1885. Cotton consumption increased from 2.1 million pounds in 1883 to 8.5 million pounds in 1894.

- Sibley built entire neighborhoods with mill-owned stores, churches and schools. The last seven mill-owned homes were sold in 1969.

- Citing tough economic times, the mill shut its doors in June 2006, idling its remaining 115 workers.

- Sibley's ornate architecture, with "crennelations" that resemble a European castle, is "one of the finest examples" of a 19th century cotton mill, according to the Historic American Engineering Record, a registry of important industrial structures.

Source: Historic American Engineering Record; Augusta Chronicle archives

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