History
From Tobacco to Children’s Clothing: The Old Spencer Factory
In 1926, J. H. “Jimmy” Crossingham came to Mount Airy in Surry County, North Carolina, from Pennsylvania and helped establish the Mount Airy Knitting Company with local partners. It began in a former tobacco leaf house with just 12 employees, 12 knitting machines, and 31 sewing machines making union suits and other underwear.
After World War II, the company shifted much of its production toward infants’ and children’s clothing— a move that helped it grow dramatically. In 1958, Mount Airy Knitting employed 705 people, 686 of whom were production workers, and made nearly 1.6 million dozen garments. The company changed its name to Spencer’s Inc. in 1962. “Spencer’s” referred to the “Dr. Spencer’s” sanitary knitted underwear associated with Crossingham’s family business; the “Dr.” was dropped because of rules about using a nonmedical doctor’s name on medical-related products.
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A symbolic brick-and-granite carving: "The Mill Worker represents the thousands of hardworking people who worked in the local mills to support their families.”
What local residents call the old Spencer’s factory is really a group of industrial buildings, not one single mill. The Mount Airy Knitting Company expanded them into a large clothing-manufacturing campus.
Spencer’s kept expanding, adding buildings and buying neighboring properties. It became a major U.S. producer of infants’ and children’s wear, with knitting, dyeing, finishing, packing, and shipping operations.
Spencer’s kept expanding, adding buildings and buying neighboring properties. It became a major U.S. producer of infants’ and children’s wear, with knitting, dyeing, finishing, packing, and shipping operations.
Decline and Legacy
Like much of the North Carolina Piedmont region apparel cluster, the firm faced severe pressure from low-cost overseas production and trade shifts following NAFTA and WTO regulatory changes in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Domestic manufacturing in Mount Airy steadily wound down, with local production facilities permanently shutting their doors around 2006–2007.
Historic Spencer's factory complex.
After World War II, at its peak, it employed around 2,000 people in Surry County. For many local families, the factory was more than a workplace: generations of women and men worked there, making it a lasting part of Mount Airy’s community life.
Spencer’s became one of the largest manufacturers of infants’ and children’s clothing in the United States. It was vertically integrated, meaning it controlled every phase of manufacture: knitting, bleaching, vat dyeing, pre-shrinking, and shipping. It even made its own boxes. Its products included infant shirts, underwear, girls’ briefs, sport T-shirts, frame-resistant sleepwear, creepers, bibs, washcloths and towels, blankets, contour crib sheets, diapers, gift sets, and numerous other items, earning seals of approval from Good Housekeeping and Parents magazines. In addition to its manufacturing plants, Spencer’s maintained offices and showrooms in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It had approximately 3,800 general variety and department store customers (Spencer’s, 33). In 2007, Spencer’s ceased manufacturing apparel.
Spencer’s is a story about Mount Airy’s industrial past: textile manufacturers reused tobacco buildings, expanded downtown, and provided work for generations of local families. The mill buildings remain an important piece of that history and have since been part of downtown redevelopment efforts.
Spencer’s became one of the largest manufacturers of infants’ and children’s clothing in the United States. It was vertically integrated, meaning it controlled every phase of manufacture: knitting, bleaching, vat dyeing, pre-shrinking, and shipping. It even made its own boxes. Its products included infant shirts, underwear, girls’ briefs, sport T-shirts, frame-resistant sleepwear, creepers, bibs, washcloths and towels, blankets, contour crib sheets, diapers, gift sets, and numerous other items, earning seals of approval from Good Housekeeping and Parents magazines. In addition to its manufacturing plants, Spencer’s maintained offices and showrooms in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It had approximately 3,800 general variety and department store customers (Spencer’s, 33). In 2007, Spencer’s ceased manufacturing apparel.
Spencer’s is a story about Mount Airy’s industrial past: textile manufacturers reused tobacco buildings, expanded downtown, and provided work for generations of local families. The mill buildings remain an important piece of that history and have since been part of downtown redevelopment efforts.
The historic 1892 Spencer’s building has now been converted into The Balladeer Hotel (by Marriott), carrying the site’s industrial history into a new use.
So the site’s story is a compact version of Mount Airy’s economic history: tobacco factories, textile manufacturing, a major local employer, and—today—historic reuse.