Hillside
History of Hillside
The Hillside community in southwest LaGrange has been an integral part of the city since the early 1900s. The neighborhood, which originally consisted of several mill villages under the Callaway Mills umbrella, developed as the 20th century unfolded—when rural farmers began their trek into town, believing the new industries would provide better lives for their families. Farmers flocked into the unsettled area of Southwest LaGrange in pursuit of textile jobs as first Unity Cotton Mills, and soon after, Elm City, Unity Spinning and Hillside mills, opened for business.
Hillside Cotton Mill was constructed in 1915 with its accompanying mill village situated, as the name implies, on a slightly higher elevation than surrounding neighborhoods. Following the format of its sister mill villages, Hillside grew in the paternalistic pattern favored by the company’s founder, Fuller E. Callaway Sr., who believed paternalism kept workers satisfied while maintaining social order. Because of its size and location, Hillside enjoyed an even greater level of mill paternalism than surrounding villages.
Circling the mills at Hillside were workers’ homes and boarding houses. Front gable cottages with Craftsman detailing were prominent along Lincoln Street; Craftsman four-squares were popular for supervisors on Forrest Avenue. The Martha Washington Inn was built for young women who came to work for Callaway; the Benjamin Franklin Inn was constructed for men who were elderly or disabled but could still be productive in the mills. Both were two-story, wooden dormitories for single employees while families lived in houses rented from Callaway Mills.
The company not only built homes for its workers but churches for the community as well as schools and even a hospital. Callaway Mills provided recreational outlets for workers and their families, including a Y.M.C.A. with a swimming pool and gymnasium, Callaway Park, playgrounds, and a Boy Scout hut and camp. A community greenhouse welcomed workers to keep plants and borrow landscaping supplies. Eventually, a football stadium and library were added.
The sense of community was strong. On July 15, 1935, approximately 10,000 people gathered for the Fuller E. Callaway Memorial Day celebration, which featured a parade, barbecue, concerts, baseball games and tug-of-war contests at Callaway Stadium.
The Hillside business district was centered along Lincoln and Jefferson streets where, in the 1930s, a commercial block was designed with classical detailing. The business district boasted three grocery stores, two general merchandise stores, two cafes, a drugstore, shoe store, furniture store, beauty shop, barber shop and theater.
“Encompassing the Southwest LaGrange area, Hillside was a lively place to live and work,” says Kaye Minchew, executive director of Troup County Archives.
The Mill Village Declines
Hillside was not unlike other mill villages of the mid-twentieth century; as the textile industry declined, so did the surrounding mill villages. The same families who, two generations earlier, had moved away from the farms to seek work in the city began to move out of the city and into the country.
"If you could afford to, you moved to the new suburbs which began popping up around 1950," says Minchew.
Most of the original community buildings at Hillside were replaced or demolished during the 1950s and 1960s. Callaway Mills began selling the mill houses; workers were allowed to purchase their rental homes, but many were sold to outside investors. New residents often had no connection to the mills that had been integral to the community for half a century; often these renters only lived in houses for a year or two, never putting down roots necessary to grow a community.
As a result, the house conditions began to decline by 1980, according to Minchew. "Maintenance of individual homes became a major issue since one home in decline could bring down an entire block or street," she says. "By 2000, some areas of Hillside were in very poor condition and the neighborhoods were becoming unsafe."
"As the population got older, they could not continue to invest in their communities, and the area began its decline," says Ricky Wolfe. "The characteristics of bad neighborhoods, such as crime and drugs, began to fill that void, largely because people had no vested interest in their community."
It's a phenomenon happening throughout LaGrange and other cities across the country, according to Wolfe.
Former DASH Board Member Ted Beason studied the housing situation at Hillside. "We're fighting a real battle here," he says. "Each year there are more houses in disrepair. We have a lot of work to do to bring the housing here up to code."
Success at Hillside has begun as DASH continues to rehabilitate old and build new homes.