This collection consists of records from two mill operations: the Orr Mill in Anderson South Carolina, and the Chiquola Mills in Honea Path South Carolina, an oversize folder of plant layouts for Pacific Mills and an oversize folder of printed material related to the Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Plant. The Rock Hill Plant was founded by Lowenstein and the Orr, Pacific, and Chiquola Mills came under that firm's control in the 1950s. In 1986, M. Lowenstein was purchased by Springs Industries.

The M. Lowenstein Company began in 1889 in New York City as a small textile importing business. Morris Lowenstein and his sons Abram and Leon expanded the firm by providing cloth directly to small garment manufacturing firms and selling fabics with slight flaws in them. The company was incorporated in 1918 with a net worth of $2.7 million.

During the 1920s, the firm determined that its furture lay in controlling product quality by building its own finishing plant. In 1929, the Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Plant was built. After the Second World War, Lowenstein expanded into the manufacturing of grey cloth by purchasing well-established textile mills in the Southeast. Merrimack Manufacturing Mills in Huntsville, Alabama and Orr Mills in Anderson, South Carolina were purchased in 1946. During the 1950s, Lowenstein acquired further grey goods plants: Aleo Manufacturing in Rockingham, North Carolina; Spofford Mills in Willington, North Carolina; Chiquola Mills in Honea Path South Carolina and Covington Mills in Covington, Georgia. The firm broadened its product line through the purchase of Wamsutta Mills in New Bedford, Massachusetts with its garment, industrial fabrics, towels, and sheet lines and the Pacific Mills in Columbia and Lyman, South Carolina with their sheet, industrial fabrics, and towel lines.

The corporation prospered during the 1960s and 1970s but retrenched during the 1980s by closing some mills, selling off certain product lines such as its urethane plant at Rock Hill, South Carolina and its children's wear fabrics at Rockingham, North Carolina. In 1986, Springs Industries purchased M. Lowenstein and merged its operations with its own operations.

Orr Mills was founded in 1899 by Colonel James Orr Jr. It was the first textile mill in South Carolina to use electricity for all its power. The firm first produced course sheeting for export but then switched to print cloths. John Lyons served as mill superintendent from 1899 through the 1950s. In 1930, the mill employed 750 workers who operated more than 62,000 ring spindles and over 1500 broad looms which made print cloths and pajama checks. During the Second World War, the plant produced wide print cloth.

Orr Mills was acquired by M. Lowenstein in 1946, when it employed 1100 workers. The sale of the Orr Mill village in 1949 followed Lowenstein's policy of providing home ownership at a modest cost to its employees while reducing the corporation's extraneous administrative responsibilities. In 1953, long time Rock Hill Finishing Plant executive, A.O. Joslin, served as president when the firm employed 1300 on 1900 looms and consumed 24,000 bales of cotton.

Developed in 1958, the new Lyons Division of M. Lowenstein produced spun synthetics. In 1957, Leon Lowenstein became the chairman and president of Orr Mills. His title was changed to executive chairman in 1960 and John Lyons served as president. In 1986, the Orr-Lyons Mills division of M. Lowenstein was acquired by Springs Industries. The division employed 660 persons in 1988 and 450 in 1990 at the time that it was closed. The Lyons Division continued to operate.

The Chiquola Manufacturing Company was founded in 1902 and produced coarse sheeting. By the 1930s it had moved into the area of print cloth with L.O.Hammett as President and 650 employees. The mill expanded during the 1940s and produced tobacco cloths, broadcloths, gauze, as well as print cloths with 750 employees. M. Lowenstein acquired the _rm in 1958. It switched to blended sheetings and industrials during the 1970s and in 1970 employeed 800 while consuming 20,000 bales of cotton that year. In 1986, it was acquired by Springs Industries. In 1992, Chiquola employed 500 and consumed 12,000 bales.

The building of the Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Plant moved M. Lowenstein halfway along the way to becoming a totally integrated producer of textiles. The Rock Hill plant bleached, dyed, printed and _nished cloth purchased from a variety of sources, primarily in the South. The rapid expansion of Lowenstein through the acquisition of textile mills produced the raw material for the plant and resulted in its own expansion. By the early 1960s, it grew from a plant with 200,000 square feet to one with more than 2 million which bleached, dyed, and _nished both cotton and synthetic fabrics. New processes such as sanfordizing and the use of Scotchgard permited it to create permanent press cloth during the 1970s. Acquired by Springs Industries in 1986, the plant included 23 roller printers and 7 screen printers.

Pacific Mills was founded in 1852 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It manufactured prints and fancy cottons as well as worsted goods in its woolen mill operations. In the early 1900s, Pacific Mills acquired several cotton mills in Columbia, South Carolina that produced broad clothes and shirting and one in Lyman, South Carolina which produced sheets and pillow cases and included a finishing operation. In 1955, M. Lowenstein acquired the Pacific Mills. In 1992, the Lyman Printing and Finishing Company was a division of Springs and did bleaching, dying, printing, and finishing with seventeen dye machines and seven screen printers. The Columbia Division of Springs included the Granby and Olympia Mills which employed 1300 in 1992 with 134,540 ring spindles and 1450 broad looms.

Information for these histories has been found in Textile Leaders of the South by James and Marjorie Young pp.131, 307-16, and 777-8; The Lowenstein Story, Dockham's Annual Report and Directory , 1903, and the following editions of Davisons's Textile Blue Book : 1930, 1941, 1943, 1947, 1949, 1951-3, 1956-7, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1968-70, 1986-8, 1990-92.