Proximity Mill, Original Building, n.d.

When Proximity Mills opened in 1895, it housed 7,600 spindles and 250 looms. According to historian Philip T. Noblitt, the mill turned a profit immediately and, within three years, yielded a twenty-five percent return on investment. From Carl J. Balliett, World Leadership in Denims Through Thirty Years of Progress; Dedicated to the Founders of the Cone Mills at Greensboro, North Carolina (Greensboro, NC: Proximity Print Works, 1925), n.p.