david allio

Abandoned Mill Wheel – Gilreaths Mill Series | ©2015 David Allio

The rusting remnants of Gilreath’s Mill water wheel straddle Shoal Creek in Greenville County, South Carolina. According to a placard affixed to the adjacent wooden structure, the mill was entered into the Register of National Historic Places on May 28, 1976.

For over a century mills represented the primary industry of Upstate South Carolina. Corporate textile mills blockaded waterways with dams that are now either slit-clogged or abandoned sites. Most family-owned grist mills met with a similar fate. The black-and-white images of the Gilreaths Mill Series contain complex codes urging the viewer to reconsider the past, present, and future context of historic places.