Danville, Virginia, was once known as one of America’s great textile cities. For more than a century, textiles shaped nearly every aspect of the city’s economy, neighborhoods, architecture, and culture. It was a moment in Danville history that should not be ignored.
From tobacco to textiles
During the late 1800s, Danville’s economy was built on tobacco. Recognizing the region’s access to water power, railroads, and an available workforce, six local businessmen founded the Riverside Cotton Mills in 1882 along the Dan River. The company expanded rapidly, eventually merging with the Dan River Power and Manufacturing Company in 1909 to become Riverside & Dan River Cotton Mills, the foundation of what later became Dan River Mills. Encyclopedia Virginia +1
The rise of Dan River Mills
By the mid-20th century, Dan River Mills had become the largest textile company in the South and one of the largest single-site textile operations in the world. At its peak, the company employed more than 14,000 people, producing millions of yards of fabric each year for clothing, home furnishings, bedding, and industrial uses. The Alexander Company +1
The company became famous for:
Apparel fabrics
Knit velours (like the Lucern advertisements in your photo)
Bed linens and home fashions
Upholstery fabrics
Fashion textiles sold throughout the United States
A company town
Dan River didn’t just employ workers—it built an entire community. The company developed Schoolfield, a mill village with homes, schools, churches, stores, recreation facilities, and healthcare for employees and their families. For generations, multiple members of the same family worked in the mills.
Innovation and advertising
Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, Dan River became nationally recognized for sophisticated advertising campaigns. The Lucern advertisements in your photograph are excellent examples. These ads promoted luxury knit velour fabrics with bold typography and high-fashion photography that appeared in magazines such as Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker. They helped position Dan River as an innovative American textile manufacturer producing fashionable fabrics entirely in the USA.
Decline of the industry
Beginning in the 1970s, foreign competition, automation, and changing consumer markets gradually weakened the American textile industry. Dan River struggled through mergers, bankruptcies, and ownership changes before textile production eventually ceased. The final major operations closed in the early 2000s, marking the end of an era and moment in Danville History that had defined it for over 100 years.
A new chapter
Today, many of those historic mills are being preserved and transformed rather than demolished. The most famous example is Dan River Falls (formerly White Mill/Mill No. 8), a massive 650,000-square-foot textile mill built in 1920. It has been redeveloped into apartments while preserving its industrial character, making it one of the centerpieces of Danville’s ongoing River District revitalization. danriverfalls.com +1
For many Danville families, the textile industry isn’t just history—it’s personal. Parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents worked in these mills, making fabrics that were shipped across America and around the world. The city’s current renaissance builds upon that remarkable industrial legacy.