Kannapolis: A Model City?

When I asked the trendy young women at the salon in Kannapolis to suggest a good breakfast spot, they looked at each other, shrugged, and tried to come up with options. Then they looked back at me and one said, “There isn’t any place to eat around here, believe me.” My husband and I assumed that they just hadn’t been able to come up with any unique suggestions; there had to be some place to pick up breakfast around here. The salon itself, Cora Bella, seemed proof enough to me that the town must have amenities; I had just received a wonderful massage in this attractively appointed salon spa.

We drove around looking for either a quaint downtown café or a greasy diner on the side of the road. Instead, we found streets of trim and tidy homes. When we stumbled upon the authentic art deco Gem Theater, I was thrilled. In addition to sporting a gorgeous façade of its own, it was surrounded by red brick buildings with cream trim and mullioned windows. The entire downtown area looked like a neo-colonial 1940s movie set of a small town’s bustling business district. Only, it wasn’t bustling. As we drove up, down and around, we did see some business signs. Most seemed to be for professional offices, and we couldn’t quite tell if they were still in operation. We drove around the impressive campus of new buildings signed North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC), with their traditional architecture, red brick and stately columns. People must work here, we thought. Ok, so where do these people have lunch? (We were a bit single-minded at this point!)

Just as we were about to give up and head elsewhere for food, we came upon a café that was just opening for lunch. As we ate, we kept talking about this beautiful little town that we just couldn’t figure out—Stan called it “a living ghost town”.

All we knew was that Kannapolis had housed a textile mill no longer in business. The houses we had seen looked occupied, well kept and attractive. Churches seemed to be active. So, we wondered, where do the residents eat out? Go to the hardware store? Buy groceries? Where do they all work? At the Research Campus?

After we ate, we took one last lap to try to find out more about this mysterious (to us), endearing town. We like old stuff, so an open antique store both surprised and beckoned us. After we browsed around, I asked the man at the front desk for some background about Kannapolis. He was nice enough to oblige us with his thorough knowledge, and the history that unfolded fascinated us. My much-abbreviated, over-simplified version follows, colored by my own opinions…

Turns out, Kannapolis is the ultimate company town, originally founded and owned by the Cannon family, the founders of Cannon Mills. To encourage surrounding farmers to work at the mill, Cannon Mills built modest “mill houses”that they offered up to workers for virtually little to no cost. At its height, Cannon employed 25,000 workers throughout the area at various mills, and the town swelled to a population of 36,000. Cannon owned the entire town, with the exception of the churches. The town existed purely to people the mill’s employment needs,but was organized so well that it was considered a model city. Cannon built the schools, police and fire departments, hospital, water and sewage treatment system and the largest YMCA in the country at the time (1908).

Similar to other booming family-owned industries, Cannon Mills underwent many incarnations through the years. Through industry and economic changes, the company ultimately changed hands several times in later years. Finally, in 2003, the mill closed permanently, and all the remaining 7,650 employees were laid off in one day (the largest permanent layoff in the history of the state).

Stan wonders about those who may have carried that knowledge in the days preceding the shutdown. Was there a foreman sleepless in the nights prior, knowing that he, his friends and neighbors were soon to be out-of-work and out of options? When everyone in a town works for one employer, and that employer owns every resulting business and civic entity, what happens when that industry fails? Everything we had seen was starting to fall into place for us. We couldn’t stop thinking about those who had dedicated their working lives to the mill, and those who live there now.

The future of Kannapolis has certainly been made brighter by the promise of the North Carolina Research Campus, built on the site of the demolished mill. This valiant effort is the vision of David H. Murdoch, the owner of Dole Foods, who is making every effort to restore a viable economic future to Kannapolis, including using over one billion dollars of his private funds to create the campus. The 350-acre campus is home to the research operations of seven UNC System universities and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

Kannapolis is looking forward to its future as a biotechnology hub and prides itself on having more to offer than a blighted, storied past. It’s the hometown of the Earnhardt racing family, boasts a minor league baseball team and plans to build on the reputation of the NCRC.

I can’t help but think of other “company” or one-industry towns, whether mill, mining, or sheetrock (like Empire, Arizona, which recently met a similar fate) and what the future may hold for them.

Cora Bella's Salon and Spa

Gem Theatre

City of Kannapolis

North Carolina Research Center

Cannon Mills