Cliffside: Portrait of a Carolina Mill Town

Cliffside was a model town, lauded and envied like few others of its kind. It was the dream of its founder, Raleigh Rutherford Haynes, a home-grown tycoon who created an entire industry along the Second Broad River in Rutherford County. More than a town, Cliffside was a way of life. It was a society shaped by Haynes’s respect and concern for his workers and neighbors, by his unwavering sense of justice and fairness, and by his insatiable desire for perfection. Even now, long after his death in 1917, his legend and his principles live on in the people of this once-bustling little town. In recent decades, Cliffside, like many other mill towns in the south, has struggled to survive the decline of the textile industry. These photographs portray the gentle and loving nature of Cliffside and the generations of people who have called it home.