Complex Cloth
Welcome to Complex Cloth, an ongoing project—a work-in-progress—woven from multiple histories related to the University of Georgia, the UGA School of Social Work, the profession of social work in Athens, Georgia, and the historic mill building that the UGA School of Social Work now occupies at 279 Williams Street.
What is Complex Cloth?
The University of Georgia School of Social Work sits on the banks of the North Oconee River at a site called Cedar Shoals. Cedar Shoals, a rocky area in the river, was used by generations of Muscogee and the Cherokee people as a river crossing and fishing spot. Daniel Easley, an early white colonist in Athens, used the power of the shoals to power a grist and lumber mill beginning around 1796. Later, the waterpower generated at the shoals was harnessed for industrial purposes by the “Athens Cotton and Wool” mill, which began producing thread and cloth in 1833. The mill investors reorganized themselves as the “Athens Manufacturing Company” in 1835, but the Williams Street mill was always known locally as the “Athens Factory.” During its first 25 years in business, the Athens Factory was re-built three times after fires and floods, and the current brick building, erected in 1857 after a devastating fire, now houses UGA School of Social Work.
Complex Cloth is a project that investigates the history of the Athens Factory in the context of social work. What does it mean for a School of Social Work to be located on Indigenous land? And in a cotton mill—almost certainly built by enslaved labor—that was established to turn slavery-produced cotton into wealth for white mill owners? How do social work students reflect on common practices at the Athens Factory—like slavery and child labor—that were legal and considered ethical in their time? And how can that reflection promote more ethical social work practice in the present?
Complex Cloth also explores Athens’ first social work experiments, several of which—The East Athens Night School & Neighborhood House, the Bessie Mell Home, and the Hiawassee Settlement—were developed to serve the white mill workers and their families; and looks further to investigate how Athens’ Black community was meeting its own needs through mutual aid, land clubs, and advocacy.
Complex Cloth seeks to tell these stories and many others.
The Athens Factory and the School of Social Work: From 1832 until Today.
Map of 55 acres that William Dearing, John Nisbet, Augustin Clayton and Abraham Walker purchased from William Carr for $8,000 in 1832. The map shows the existing pre-industrial mills on the east side of the river that had been operated by Daniel Easley and others. The Athens Factory was built across the river from those pre-existing mills.
Chicopee Manufacturing Company (Athens, Ga.) records, Hargrett Library, UGA
The Athens Factory and its dam on the North Oconee River are clearly visible in George Cooke’s View of Athens from Carr’s Hill (1845). In this period, the mill workforce comprised free white and enslaved Black laborers.
Hargrett Library, UGA
This 1874 map shows the expanded footprint of the Athens Manufacturing Company. After 1870, the company ran cotton mills on William Street (now UGA School of Social Work) and also upriver at the former armory (now UGA's Chicopee Building).
Hargrett Map Collection, Hargrett Library, UGA
This Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the factory as it operated in 1885. In 2023, only the central buildings remain: the Social Work Dean’s office, our larger classrooms, and the bulk of faculty offices are in the “(Cotton) Spinning & Carding” building; the “Wool Carding & Spinning” building houses smaller classrooms, offices, and the computer lab; and the student lounge occupies the area where the turbine wheels once spun.
Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for Georgia towns and cities, 1884-1941, Digital Library of Georgia
David Earnest’s photograph of the Athens Manufacturing Company (c. 1890) captures the factory building and the dye house (with cupola on top). The dye house has since been destroyed.
David Lewis Earnest photograph collection, Hargrett Library, UGA
This photo (from ~1910) captures a young boy fishing on the east bank of the North Oconee, the factory dam, the Athens Factory, the outlines of some factory housing and the steeple of St. Mary’s Church. The factory dye house no longer stands.
Oconee Hill Cemetery records, Hargrett Library, UGA
The Athens Factory after a 1918 flood.
Georgia Photograph File, Hargrett Library, UGA
Photograph (May 1978) of the top floor of the Athens’ Factory’s “cotton wing,” taken as the mill was undergoing renovation. This third-floor space is now hosts Social Work professors' offices.
Patricia Irwin Cooper papers, Hargrett Library, UGA
The old mill re-opened as O’Malley’s Bar in 1978, and it was a popular UGA drinking spot in the 1980s and 1990s. This photo of O’Malley’s in the snow is believed to have been taken in the 1980s.
Hargrett Library, UGA
The UGA School of Social Work moved to the old Athens Factory in 2015. This view of the School can be seen from the east bank of the North Oconee River.
Photograph (2022) courtesy of Jane McPherson.
The University of Georgia School of Social Work.
Photograph courtesy of UGA School of Social Work
Complex Cloth Films
Written, produced, and directed by Jane McPherson and Stephen Turner at UGA School of Social Work in 2024.
The Athens Factory: From Cotton Mill to a School of Social Work
Mill Life and Social Work: A Historical Look at Athens, GA
Complex Cloth on Instagram
Follow Complex Cloth for events and wonders from the archives. See the research evolving in real-time before it hits the website.
Complex Cloth is the project of Dr. Jane McPherson at UGA School of Social Work. This project is ongoing and under construction. If you have information to add to the website or if you have questions, please contact Dr. McPherson at jmcpherson@uga.edu.
Annabel Bunton (MSW, MPH 2024) helped initiate and maintain this project from 2022-2024. Complex Cloth reflects Annabel’s good humor, her patience, and her excellent sense of design. Her contribution has been immeasurable.
