Wake County Genealogical Society Blog: Wake Wednesday: Historic Glen Royall Mill Village in Wake Forest

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Wake Wednesday: Historic Glen Royall Mill Village in Wake Forest

The Glen Royall Mill Village, established in 1899-1900, was a self-contained community built around the Royall Cotton Mill in Wake Forest, North Carolina. This historic district encompasses approximately 45 acres and includes 82 contributing buildings. It is "roughly bounded by N. Main St., E. Cedar Ave., CSX RR, and Royall Cotton Mill, Wake Forest, North Carolina" according to Wikipedia.

Glen Royall Cotton Mill image at Wake Forest Museum

The village is significant today for its status on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It was awarded its status in 1999. It is recognized as the only surviving mill village in Wake County outside of Raleigh.

Glen Royall fared much better than the last NRHP location that I wrote about. Unlike the defunct historic Maiden Lane neighborhood across from the NC State University campus that is replaced by apartments and parking lots, you can still walk the streets of Glen Royall Mill Village. This village is a reminder of an important important time in our historical past of early Southern industrialization, labor history, and the social dynamics of mill communities in the early 20th century.

Many of the original building still stand. There are a mix of original houses distinctive in the styles of the era - pyramidal cottages, triple-A cottages, and shotgun houses, new homes built to historical guidelines and original mill buildings converted to apartments. It is a sought after residential community within the town boundaries of Wake Forest. You can see examples of the original houses in the Historic Preservation document that was created for the NRHP nomination process.

The village was built around the Royall Cotton Mill By the mill owners to serve the needs of their "operatives" (employees) in the paternalistic system that characterized mill villages of the era. Wages were low and the self-contained community included a commissary, church and school. The residents maintained vegetable gardens and raised animals to supplement their income.

If your ancestors lived and worked in a mill village in the area, you may want to visit Glen Royall and have a walk through. Listen for the whispers from the past. We are so fortunate that this site has been preserved and protected by its NRHP status.