Glencoe Mill Village Preservation Celebration

Join Preservation North Carolina (PNC) for this fun tour of the Glencoe Mill Village in Alamance County! We are excited to celebrate the newly restored Glencoe water towers with this special event that will feature a number of mill village sites:

• The Chairman's Retreat, a special events venue in the former Dye House, will host an open house with refreshments!
• The Textile Heritage Museum, located in the former Glencoe Company Store, will open its doors as well as the Supervisor's House!
• The Preservation Burlington Salvage Shop, located in the WWII-era Quonset Hut, will be open for shopping all their wonderful "old house parts" and fun finds!
• Several restored private homes will be open to tour!
• Water Tower ribbon cutting at 2pm!

In 1997, nonprofit preservation organization Preservation North Carolina acquired the historic Glencoe Mill and Mill Village in Alamance County. The nationally significant 105-acre property consisted of 32 vacant houses in varying stages of deterioration and about 85,000 square feet of vacant mill buildings. Incorporated in 1880 by James H. and William E. Holt, Glencoe Mill was the last water-powered textile mill developed by the Holts and employed as many as 500 workers at its height. The mill closed in 1954 and was a ghost town when PNC acquired it. PNC leveraged nearly $1 million to bring water and sewer to the site and rebuild the streets; the City of Burlington and the County of Alamance each contributed an additional $125,000. 

Today, Glencoe is a thriving historic district. All of the 32 historic houses were sold and have been beautifully renovated by private owners; the mill buildings are in various stages of renovation; and the 30-acre land parcel is now a well-loved county-owned riverside park. The former mill office and store building, and the Supervisor’s House are owned and operated by the Textile Heritage Museum, Inc., which preserves the cultural heritage of southern mill villages.

Through the decades, PNC has maintained ownership of the two historic Glencoe water towers. Built around 1905, these visual icons were renovated by PNC in 2006, but were in great need of repainting in recent years. PNC was fortunate to receive a grant from the State of North Carolina in 2024 to help with the significant cost of repainting the towers, including adding the historic Glencoe logo back to the main tower.