Dunson

A History of Dunson Community       

Built in 1910 in northeast LaGrange, Dunson Mill eventually became the largest single-unit mill in LaGrange, and the surrounding mill village became one of the premier neighborhoods in the area.  Founded by Joseph Eugene Dunson, his brothers and other local investors, the textile mill originally produced heavyweight cotton goods. In its earliest years, up to 200 mill workers were employed; when the mill closed in 2004, more than 500 employees lost their jobs.  In the century in-between, Dunson Mill was the unifying force of the community around it.

Dunson Mill Company owned 333 houses surrounding the mill.  Known as Dunson Mill Village, its streets were named after major stockholders, and employees rented houses for .25 cents a room per week. Along with providing housing, the company built two churches in the community—one Baptist, one Methodist—where most of the mill employees and their families attended.  The textile company even paid half the pastor’s salary, electric bill, and fees for building and grounds maintenance. The company also provided a kindergarten and elementary school for children of the mill village, as well as recreational and medical facilities for workers and their families.

Dunson Mills was purchased by Pepperell Inc. in the early 1950s and merged with West Point Manufacturing Company in 1965 to form West Point-Pepperell, which later became West Point-Stevens.

As with other mill villages throughout the South, the community at Dunson Mill once enjoyed a tight-knit closeness with picture-pretty houses in safe neighborhoods. But as city residents in the 1950s began to migrate to the nearby suburbs, the face of the community slowly started to evolve. By 1980, housing in the area began to decline and, when the textile factory finally shut down in 2004, the surrounding community also showed signs of demise.

DASH Founder and Board Chairman Ricky Wolfe grew up in the Dunson Mill village where both of his parents worked.  His assessment of the housing and community decline at Dunson led to his forming DASH in 2002 to revitalize this and other historic neighborhoods throughout LaGrange.        

Apartments' namesake recalls life at Dunson

Richard W. Wolfe grew up in the Dunson community where he met and married his wife and where they raised their four children, including DASH Founder Ricky Wolfe. Plant manager at Dunson Mill for 14 years, the elder Wolfe was honored in late 2007 when the renovated Dunson School was named for him: The Richard W. Wolfe Apartments at Dunson School. Wolfe died the following year.

With nostalgic pride prior to the apartments' opening, he reminisced about his youth at Dunson.

“Baseball back then was your social life,” he said. “There was a baseball field behind the school with a grandstand, and every Saturday afternoon we’d have about 500 people there. I played second base for Dunson, and when we played Dixie [a neighboring mill village school], it was a real rivalry.”

The octogenarian vividly recalled the first time he kissed the girl who eventually would become his wife.

“We did all our courting at either Dunson Methodist Church or Dunson Baptist Church,” he said. “With our parents’ permission, we’d go to church where we’d meet our girlfriends. I had a girlfriend I later married, Marian. She was 13 and I was 17 when we first started our puppy love. I was walking her home from the Methodist church one night and when we were about halfway there, I kissed her on the cheek and she took off. I don’t know what she thought... She ran all the way home.”

Marian was enamored. While her boyfriend was serving in World War II, she remained in LaGrange, waiting on him for three years. They married on January 18, 1946—exactly two weeks and four days after his return to the states. They had been married 55 years when Marian died in the year 2000.

During the last year of his life, Richard W. Wolfe often visited the apartment complex that bears his name to reminisce with residents who recalled with similar affection growing up at Dunson.

“Many of them are back in a neighborhood where they have many roots,” he said. “They feel at home.

“I was heartbroken when I heard they were going to push down the old school,” he continued. “It was really a landmark, the center of the community along with the two churches and baseball field. I’m very proud of Ricky and all that he and DASH did to save the school. Ricky never forgot his roots. He wanted to come back to LaGrange and do what he could to make a contribution to his home community, and that’s what he did. He’s been a fine son.”