Two mills on two creeks, and the cottages that housed the workers
Little Rockfish Creek's water power drew a sawmill, gristmill, and pottery works by 1766, with permanent settlement organized on the creek by 1789. The 1839 Rockfish Factory cotton mill grew into North Carolina's largest by the mid-1840s before Union troops burned it in March 1865; rebuilt in 1872 as the Hope Mill and joined by a second mill on Big Rockfish Creek in 1888, the settlement took the name Hope Mills in 1885 and incorporated in 1891.
Mill-village cottages and their original window openings
The worker cottages built around Hope Mills Number One and Number Two in the 1880s and 1890s used smaller, standardized window openings typical of mill-village construction — often narrower than what modern replacement lines default to. Getting an accurate measurement on these older openings before ordering avoids a mismatch between historic framing and contemporary window sizing.
Starting a window project near the mills
What to check before we measure a Hope Mills home
Tell us the approximate age of the home, whether it's one of the original mill-village cottages or later construction, how many openings need attention, and whether you've noticed drafts, sticking sashes, or rot around the frames. Mill-era openings sometimes need custom sizing.
Fayetteville's civic programs, and Hope Mills' own town hall
The neighboring City of Fayetteville runs a stormwater program and identifies historic districts through Development Services, but Hope Mills is a separate incorporated town — check with Hope Mills directly on any exterior-alteration or historic-designation question before assuming Fayetteville rules apply.