Some of Huntsville’s most recognizable landmarks include its towering Saturn V rocket and the Neo-Formalist architecture of First Baptist Church, designed in homage to the Space Age with a soaring bell tower modeled after the von Braun team’s creation.

The city landscape of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included similarly-shaped spires, created for a decidedly different and much more earthly purpose.

Two notable examples remain of early Huntsville’s industrial landscape, with Lincoln Mill’s buildings and water tower to the north and Lowe Mill’s facility with its smokestack and water tower to the south.

Lowe Manufacturing Company’s yarn spinning mill opened in 1901 at the corner of Seminole Drive and 9th Avenue, the fifth textile mill established in Huntsville. A year later, Eastern Manufacturing Company completed an adjacent weaving mill, using Lowe Mill’s output to produce high quality clothes and linens. In 1907, the companies consolidated to form Lowe Manufacturing, Inc.

Over the course of the early twentieth century, the Lowe mill complex switched hands and underwent physical changes several times, eventually going bankrupt at the height of the Great Depression in 1932. However, it was reincorporated in 1933 as Lowe Mills, Inc.

Despite attempts to save the company, textile manufacturing ceased in 1937. The building remained a cotton warehouse until 1945, at which point General Shoe Company took ownership.

At its prime, the General Shoe Corporation employed as many as 800 people and produced most of the boots made for soldiers during the Vietnam War. The plant continued operations until 1979, when the buildings became a warehouse for Martin Industries commercial and residential heating systems. Developer Gene McLain bought the property in 1999.

In 2001, Research Genetics founder Jim Hudson purchased the Lowe Mill properties from McLain, transforming the complex into its current incarnation as the largest privately owned arts facility in the southern United States.

Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment, which still bears physical evidence of its past lives, now contains 153 working studios for over 250 artists and makers along with seven galleries, a community garden, performance venues, and a theatre. The arts and entertainment venue hosts events such as Concerts on the Dock, Monster Movies at the Mill, outdoor markets, and the International Archaeology Day Fair.

Printmaker Stephanie Flier in her Delta Dogwood Studio

Lowe Mill A&E provides a home for numerous small independent businesses and artists including the nonprofit Cattyshack, a cat rescue and adoption organization featuring a “cat lounge;” the Green Pea Press, the only public-access printmaking studio in North Alabama; and Irons Distillery, maker of handcrafted small-batch whiskey. Tangled String Studios, located in Railroad Room 6/7 at Lowe Mill A&E, creates custom-tailored guitars and mandolins and houses an intimate concert space that has drawn top quality musical artists.

Executive Director Marcia Freeland expressed considerable excitement over some of the arts complex’s newest and coming-soon additions, one of which is a studio named Huntsvillustrated that will open on Nov. 12.

This studio will allow visitors to design and screen print their own t-shirts on the spot. The combined studio, retail, and t-shirt production shop will also host private events such allowing attendees to create their own keepsake apparel.

Artist and owner Hadley Russ, who describes her operation as “a bridge between artists,” plans for her studio to collaborate with other artists in Lowe Mill A&E, such as printmaker Stephanie Flier of Delta Dogwood Studio, to create personalized shirts featuring fine art.

Russ noted that her screen printing equipment produces durable, long-lasting designs that won’t peel off like other methods of printing. In addition, her studio will include an artist wall showcasing Lowe Mill A&E artists’ works.