The textile mill this antique wood is being recycled from was once called the "largest textile mill of it's kind in the world" when it was built in 1895. Built by Colonel Leroy Springs in Lancaster, SC to be a state of the art textile mill at it's beginning, this mill was a very productive mill for over 100 years.

Recently, this mill was deconstructed by KMAC Services of Birmingham, AL, a salvage company that is skilled in the art of bringing historic buildings down and preserving the building materials. They found that each floor of this mill was built of various size beams that were splined together. Over these beams were two more layers of material. Over the years, these beams held this mill together and supported years of textile work. Some areas soaked up large quantities of cottonseed oil and became impregnated with this oil. This oil has given this wood a unique hue, that when milled produces a look that is hard to replicate with modern wood.

A virgin stand of longleaf pine in the East Texas Piney Woods region, 1908 -Photograph courtesy of Stephen F. Austin University.

This mill was built with lumber from Long Leaf pine (and other southern pine species) that were being harvested from America's vast southern forests. An informative interview with the author of the book "Looking for Longleaf - The Rise and Fall of an American Forest" can be found at the University of North Carolina Press website. Lawrence S. Earley chronicles the history of this massive forest that caught the eye of England and was part of the reason they decided to settle Virginia. Believed to have once covered 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas, now only about 3% of the original longleaf stand survives. These trees were slow growing and as a result had very tight grain and heavy resin content. Some grew to be 500 years old. The harvesting of this vast forest was in full swing when this mill was constructed and so we now have access to this beautiful wood again through the dismantling of this historic structure.

This wood has a great history -from seedling in this vast forest where it struggled to establish it's roots and thrive for hundreds of years, through harvesting and being part of America's textile industry, to deconstruction and now into flooring, where it's inherent beauty can shine forth.