The first site on the map, the old Glendale Cotton Mill is home to the Glendale Shoals Preserve and Wofford College’s Goodall Environmental Studies Center. on March 20th, 2004 a massive fire destroyed the former mill creating ruins of what remained. these two towers and two smoke stacks anchor the landscape, marking both what once was and the power of time. Opening under the ownership of Bivingsville Cotton Factory in 1836, the mill village was the first of its kind in the upstate and the blueprint for many mill villages that came after. the current post office was once the company store. after the Civil War the original mill was torn down, replaced, and renamed Glendale. By 1907 the mill hosted 37,392 spindles, 518 plain looms, and 550 automatic looms. closing in 1961, it was one of the longest continuously operating mills in Spartanburg County.
