YMCA at Proximity Mills, ca. 1925

Like many turn-of-the-century industrialists, Moses Cone was a practitioner of corporate paternalism. As part of this, he built on-site housing for his employees, as well as mill stores, recreational facilities, schools, and churches. The recreational facilities included two YMCAs, one at Proximity Mills (shown below), and another at White Oak Mills. The programs organized for YMCA members ranged from swimming and diving lessons to classes on woodworking and birding. 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.