Belton Mill

This shuttered textile mill in Belton was established in 1899 by Ellison Adger Smyth. A proven businessman, Smyth had also developed Pelzer Mill, the Bank of Belton, and Belton Savings and Trust. The Belton Mill manufactured towels for hotels. Smyth went on the organize several other textile mills and other businesses throughout the state and in North Carolina.

Blair Mills – a Belton textile mill formed in 1908 by Enoch Blair Rice, Sr. – eventually acquired Belton Mills. Smyth sold all of his South Carolina real estate holdings in 1925 and moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina. Blair Mills operated until 2008. That year, it sold its mills to 1888 Mills, a textile business based in Griffin, Georgia. The new owner then closed the Belton plant, instead using a foreign manufacturer, as was the fate of most Upstate mills. Today the original Belton Mill facility, seen here, stands vacant, as does the newer Blair Mills plant.