TEN OF Til i ll INC 0111*011 \TE»
Town-Studded Gaston
Nine of them have industries and there are
several other unineorp<»rated mill centers.
By PAUL PLEASANTS
When Gastonia was incorporated in
1877. only 263 persons lived within
its limits. But it was a promising spot-
two railways crossed in the center ol
the hamlet — and sure enough, in
1887 the first textile mill was built
there by R. C. G. Love, George
Л.
Gray, J. I>. Moore and John II. Craig.
Within 12 years, six other factories
were erected, the population had
grown to around 5.000 and Gastonia
ha» never stopped growing from that
day to this. In 1911 it became the
county seat.
From 1940 to 1950 the city popula¬
tion gained from 21.313 to 23,069.
(in 1954 to 30.000) but the real story
is in the metropolitan area with the
town as its core. This area gained from
33,4X7
ш
1940 to 49,000 in 1953, an
increase ol 46 per cent
This greater Gastonia reaches al¬
most from Charlotte to Kings Moun¬
tain on U S. 29. and shoves its suburbs
back to East Gastonia, Rank, and
Lowell on N.C. 7, then crosses the
federal highway toward Victory and
Crowder’s. It is a bewildering collec¬
tion. with well-kept factories in the
heart of town, and residential suburbs
engulfing the more distant milk.
All day and sometimes all night the
area hums with the muted noises of
spinning and weaving; the business
sections have a long day. too, because
Gastonia shops, banks and plays in
shifts, just as it works in shifts.
Once the pattern was set. Yarn town
followed it with such fidelity and dis¬
patch that it outdistanced all its textile
rivals. It continued to acquire other
enterprises, but most of these were in
the textile machinery industry.
Then, in 1945, Gastonia Township
took an unprecedented step to broaden
the base of its economy. The people
voted upon themselves a tax to create
and maintain the Gastonia Industrial
Diversification Commission, directed it
to attract new (and s-aricd) industries
and to strengthen those already in the
community. It is the only industrial
agency of its kind in the South.
The Industrial Realty Corporation
built small plants for sale or lease to
new or expanding industry. All of this
space has been filled.
Through this effort, and through a
Chamber of Commerce which is ooc
of the best supported and most active
in the state. Gastonia has succeeded in
building both old and new enterprises.
An example was acquisition of the
area’s first woolen mills — American
Spinner», Inc. Another was Southern
Paper Industries. Inc., financed en¬
tirely by local money.
Recent additions include the new
Pyramid Electric Com pans, Gaston
Chemicals Company, Standard Bum-
ncss Forms and Colonial Neon Sign
Company.
Since 1951, the Industrial Diversi¬
fication Commission has worked with
bringing in new industries, which arc
cither fully staffed or when fully
staffed, will represent an investment of
several million dollars. employing over
KOO persons
Other industries announced, but not
yet operating, will employ an es¬
timated 150 persons.
Before this, however, some diversi¬
fication had started spontaneously,
31
