Free Community Event – Textile Heritage Festival This Saturday!

A Fun Day for the Entire Family
Join the Over 4,000 people who visit Cooleemee each year to explore the history of Southern mill town culture at the 23rd Annual Textile Heritage Festival in Cooleemee, NC from 10 am until 4 pm on Saturday, September 27th, 2014.  Live music, opening of new museum exhibit, textile heritage displays, and lots of fun.

Don’t miss the 3rd Annual Carolina Cornbread Contest.  No entry fee for the Carolina Cornbread Contest which comes with a $100 prize and bragging rights for one year but you must register by Wednesday, September 24th by calling 336 284-6040 or via email to blinky1@yadtel.net.

When:
Saturday, September 27th, 10 AM to 4 PM

Where:
The Zachary House & Grounds
131 Church Street, Cooleemee, NC

Schedule

10 AM:
Gates open to the public
“Cotton Mill Town” Exhibit Doors Open
KIDS AREA– Face & Pumpkin Painting and Pony Rides – all for $5
Company Store & Sweets Shop Opens
Craft Vendors
Fall Mums Sale
Hot Pintos & Cornbread ready to eat!

11 AM:
Stan Bobbitt Band
Carolina Cornbread Contest begins
Cook Shack Opens – Pork Chop Sandwiches, Hot Dogs, Cold Drinks & more

12 Noon:
Cornbread Winners Announced
Hot Pintos & Cornbread ready!

1 pm       
Mill House Museum – Guided tour leaves from main gate

4 pm
Gates close

Carolina Corn Bread Contest!
The Tar Heel State can easily brag about its many fine cooks. We are also known for many food-themed events—the Lexington BBQ Festival, Edenton’s Peanut Parade, a festival each for the pickle and for collards. Now, our state has “The Carolina Cornbread Contest” each year at Cooleemee’s Textile Heritage Festival.

After a three-judge panel makes its rounds to taste all of the homemade cornbread samples, the public will take its turn.

About the Cooleemee Historical Association
With over 330 original mill houses, the Bullhole and dam at RiverPark and the old cotton mill still standing along the banks of the South Yadkin River, Cooleemee is perhaps the best preserved Southern mill village of the post civil-war industrial age.  Cooleemee’s mill, built in 1900 at the height of the South’s mill building era, closed in 1969.

Preserved as private homes, most of the mill houses are still in excellent architectural condition.  The work on RiverPark at Cooleemee Falls has breathed new life into the banks of the river and the dam which provided power for the mill.  The cotton mill is still intact and ready to take on new life as a new economic engine.

This important and historically relevant collection of buildings and geographic features provides the backdrop for the work of the Cooleemee Historical Association which was founded in 1989.  Since its founding, the CHA has established a museum at its Textile Heritage Center and a Mill House Museum one block away.  The CHA also played a key role in the establishment of  RiverPark at Cooleemee Falls.  The Historical Association’s “Discovering Our Heritage” program conducts  a unique class for each grade level at the local elementary school.

The festival is co-sponsored this year by the Town of Cooleemee and Eaton’s Funeral Home.