This is the only image here not taken by me, showing tornado damage from 2008
On this date last year, I was shopping around for a new place to live. I knew that I was not happy where I was at Wheat St Towers Senior Living because of factors such as lack of security, lax maintenance and the sheer noise, homelessness and volume of street activity; parties and (illegal street) racing.
Since the rent was income based, and mine had just gone up significantly, I knew I was not going to pay 1/3 of my income for a one bedroom on the 10th floor.
So since I liked the convenience of living deep in the old city, I began searching nearby.
source
The cotton mill was only about 1.5 miles away, but located on a curve in the street (so no street racing) and there are no bars immediately nearby (no street parties) I went to investigate (I had been curious about the place all along)
This is just inside the main gate and the entrance to the leasing office.
But some history first (this is from Wikipedia)
Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills is a formerly operating mill complex located in the Cabbagetown neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. Construction of the complex began in 1881 on the south side of the Georgia Railroad line, east of downtown Atlanta, on the site of the Atlanta Rolling Mill. The site now includes separate phases of multi-family dwellings including for-rent apartments (called The Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts) and for-sale condominiums (The Stacks).
That is also just inside the waiting area. Someone had to break free and come to give me a walking look at the only apartment open at the time, a studio.
I wanted a one bedroom.
The Studio consisted of a fairly adequate space, about the size of a motel room, with a kitchenette, small bathroom and storage and the livingroom/diningroom area.
The "bedroom" was in the loft. I didn't go up there so I have no photos and I seriously doubt there were additional restroom facilities up there, meaning to get up in the middle of the night meant a trip down the spiral stairs and back.
↑↑(The main apartment door is back to the right of the stairs in this image)↑↑
↑↑ This is the outside wall of the factory, the upper window was strictly for light↑↑
↑↑ The view from the lower window looking North ↑↑
↑↑Again, another view from the window↑↑
So out in the hallway, this was the rather plain view (it WAS a rehabbed Factory after all)
The beginnings of the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills can be traced to Atlanta in 1868, when Jacob Elsas, an immigrant of German Jewish descent who had recently arrived in Atlanta from Cincinnati, began work in the city in the rag, paper, and hide business.
Elsas soon recognized the need of his and other area businesses for cloth and paper containers to house their goods.
Within two or three years Elsas had switched to the new business of manufacturing cloth and paper bags and had joined forces with fellow German Jewish immigrant Isaac May.
In January 1872, the new company became known as Elsas, May and Company.
Located in the former Atlanta slave market house, the company expanded during the 1870s; by the end of the decade, the firm consisted of a bleachery, print shop, and bag mill, and it employed between 100 and 160 workers, including women and children.
source
The rent was way more than I was going to pay for such small spaces and even though it was picturesque, I just couldn't go for it.
Nice history lesson though.
"Fulton Cotton Mills"
by
Jerry E Smith
©07/15/2020
These .gifs were created for me by 
