GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — One of the City of Mount Holly and Gaston County’s oldest buildings will get new life as a rum distillery, restaurant and bar.

The Mount Holly Cotton Mill, which was built in the mid-1870s, used to be one of the area’s many textile manufacturers. Now, the building is roughly halfway through a $4.5 million renovation.

“The building’s already here, and it’s awesome, and it tells a story. So, why not re-use it?” asked Robbie Delaney, the mill’s new owner. 

Delaney is also the owner of Muddy River Distillery in nearby Belmont. The distillery opened in 2011 and was the state’s first legal rum distillery, eventually outgrowing its space on the banks of the Catawba River.

In April 2024, Delaney plans to open his new restaurant and bar, along with a new factory space, at the 17,000-square-foot mill. 

“Instead of repurposing a factory that already wasn’t big enough,” Delaney said about Muddy River’s current location. “We came here, and we’re building a front of house and back of house, all together, in this mill.” 

A trip back to 1874

In 1874, a new cotton mill was approved for building on the bank of Dutchmans Creek in what was the town of Woodlawn.

The new cotton mill, named the Mount Holly Cotton Mill, eventually became the town’s namesake.

“Before Mt. Holly, North Carolina, it was Woodlawn. The reason they changed their name is because of this cotton mill,” Alicyn Wiedrich said.

Wiedrich is the curator of the Gaston County Museum of Art and History. 

The mill began production in 1876, producing cotton yarn for Abel Peterson Rhyne and his brother. It was the fourth mill built in the area, and the first since the end of the Civil War. Now, it is the last remaining mill and one of Gaston County’s oldest standing structures, according to Wiedrich. 

“A lot of times buildings like this do get sold,” Wiedrich said.

The mill changed hands many times in the last 148 years. It was renovated and updated with a new roof in 1919, survived a major flood and eventually became a warehouse when the Great Depression slowed production in the early 1930s.

In the 1950s, it had a revival, hosting “experimental research,” according to documents Wiedrich reviewed. 

“I’m guessing it was probably textile-related [research],” she said, adding it was potentially for the military.

After being sold again, the mill’s history is a bit murkier, with Wiedrich finding little documentation of what it was used for after the 1970s, and no clear date on when it stopped making textiles. 

New life

In the current day, the Mount Holly Cotton Mill has a new roof again as part of this ongoing renovation.

Delaney said he plans to put $4.5 million into renovating and restoring the century-and-a-half-old structure.

“We filled 18 dumpsters just with the stuff that was in here. And then, from there, we demoed the first floor, all the false walls and drop ceilings, all the old HVAC work. Old boilers, things like that,” Delaney recalled, saying demolition and removal took months.

But not all the mill’s interior is headed for the dumpster.

“This textile machine that my father-in-law Peter is working on is a circular knitting machine,” Delaney said, while giving a tour of the interior. “So, picture coming in, this machine will be over here, and I’ll actually — or a host would say, ‘Hey, welcome to Muddy River Distillery in the Cotton Mill.’”

Old floor boards and panels, ripped out of the ground floor, are now being used to make new windowsills. 

“[We’re] putting the building back the way it wanted to be, which included tearing off half the roof, lifting the center of the building 3.5 inches. We lifted one of the roofs to the third floor, about five inches,” Delaney said.

Virtually no floor or space in the building is untouched. Construction crews, wires, tools and new wooden framing litter the 17,000-square-foot mill, with Delaney running from task to task like an energizer bunny.

“This was above our budget and way above my scope of work and tolerance,” Delaney joked. 

Eventually, the space will feature a ground floor distilling factory, second-floor restaurant and bar and third-floor event space.

“We filled in the crawlspace so that we can pour a concrete slab, and that’s cause our new equipment will be very heavy,” Delaney explained.

Red tape renovation 

The work to transform the mill is not without its headaches and challenges.

A previous owner registered the mill on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. 

The application lists the building’s areas of significance as architecture and industry, with an era of significance from 1875 to 1946. 

At the time of the application, the owners were Mr. And Mrs. Robert Friedl, according to the paperwork. The application states, “[It is] the oldest surviving in Gaston County which retains the distinction claimed since the early 20th century of having more textile mills than any other county in the United States.”

Because of the register, Delaney cannot remove or change items dated prior to 1946 without permission from the U.S. National Park Service.

“We work through the National Park Service on the historic restoration. So, I give them my plan, they look through my plan, and then they say, ‘OK, well, I understand it’s an adaptive reuse.’ But, if you’re going to work through the park service, it needs to maintain its historic fabric,” Delaney said, detailing his many calls with a parks service liaison.

The U.S. National Park Service did not respond to a request for comment about the renovation. 

Delaney said Gaston County weighs in too, giving input on the future of the property and its redevelopment. 

“Our oversight is in the outside appearance of the structure,” Robert Carpenter said. “He would need to come to us for a certificate of appropriateness.”

Carpenter, a Gaston County native, serves as a member of the Gaston County Historic Preservation Commission.

“Since it began,” Carpenter joked about his tenure, saying it’s been roughly 40 years of keeping an eye on the county’s historic buildings. There are roughly 40 structures designated as significant historic properties within the county. The mill was one of the first.

“At the time, it was the oldest standing cotton mill in Gaston County. All the older ones had been destroyed or something had happened to them,” he said about the designation over three decades ago.

Now, Carpenter said Delaney is going about the ongoing renovation the right way.

“It is outstanding, it is wonderful, it is our goal,” Carpenter said. “Preserve and get them re-used.”

Carpenter said Delaney has already applied for certificates of appropriateness, based on construction needs so far at the project. 

“I was in that mill probably a couple months ago,” Carpenter recalled. “He’s doing it right.”

The mill’s architectural, economic and historical importance to Gaston County are what landed it on the list of historic places, Carpenter said about the decision. He also said he is glad to see it getting new life once again.

“It will grow fruit for the future,” Carpenter said on a phone call this week. “[I’m] overwhelmed with the job he’s doing.”

All told, the project is a labor of love for Delaney, who had a history restoring old mills before taking up the liquor business.

“I used to work for Rehab Builders, who is the [General Contractor] on this,” Delaney said. “They’re based out of Winston. I was the superintendent, I’d go to old mills and I would convert them into multi-family apartment complexes.”

An opportunity to expand 

Muddy River Distillery was outgrowing its space, according to Delaney.

The distillery’s main factory, pour room and storage complex is on the banks of the Catawba River. The river serves as the namesake for "muddy."

In recent years, Delaney said the state’s quickly changing liquor laws made it impossible to remain in the existing space.

“When we started in 2011, the laws only allowed us to sell to ABC or through the three-tier system,” Delaney recalled, “Unlike breweries, where you see a brewery make its beer and then sell its beer.”

In the dozen years since Muddy River opened, the state’s liquor laws have changed, allowing Delaney to sell bottles directly to customers and even drinks on site, if he wanted. However, Muddy River’s current location does not have a bar license.

That will change in the newly renovated mill.

“We just didn’t have the space,” Delaney said. “We had one toilet in the existing facility. You just can’t do it.”

The current Muddy River Distillery will eventually close its doors to customers, serving as barrel storage for the distillery’s existing stock and purposely aging rum. The new mill will have a full restaurant and bar. 

Reinvigorating city spirit

The mill’s pending rebirth is now a personal passion project for Delaney, while others in the city and county say it’s good to see the mill returning to its roots.

“I think that’s great,” Wiedrich added. “The more ways we can preserve our history, the better.”

Interestingly, Gaston County’s river banks used to be home to many amateur distillers, because of the area’s Irish and German immigrants in the mid-1800s, according to Wiedrich.

“Gaston County was most known for its distilling,” Wiedrich said, before textiles took over. “We have another distiller right off the river again.”

The historic preservation commission noted the same thing.

“Close connection between cotton milling and distilling,” Carpenter recalled. “Many of the early cotton millers had earlier had a job in distilling.”

The mill’s textile history is coming alive again too. The great grandson of A.P. Rhyne, the original owner, visited and gave Delaney and his team a mill coin.

While running from project to project to give input, Delaney said the renovation was a leap he’s glad he took. 

“It’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than the distillery,” Delaney said. “I mean, in two years, we’ll celebrate our 150-year anniversary of this building being around. It’s more than Muddy River now, and that’s really cool.”