History
Cannon Mills and Kannapolis: A History Beyond the Headline
Ask a longtime resident about the mill and you'll hear about a whole way of life, not just a closing date.
Kannapolis Living Editors · October 5, 2026 · 8 min read
Building a town around a mill
James William Cannon's mill, founded in the early 1900s, grew into an enterprise that employed generations of families and shaped the town's housing, shops and civic life.
Unincorporated for decades
Because the company owned so much of the town, Kannapolis didn't incorporate until 1984 — after the Cannon family era had ended with the company's 1982 sale.
The closure
When Pillowtex closed in July 2003, thousands of workers lost jobs at once. Retraining, pensions and the fate of the plant site became regional questions.
After
The plant site became the North Carolina Research Campus, and the city later bought and rebuilt its downtown. Those are completed facts; what they mean for the city's future is still being written by its residents.
Continue Your Research
History
Kannapolis History
Few American cities were shaped as completely by a single company — and few have had to reinvent themselves so publicly.
History
Cannon Mills
For most of the twentieth century, the mill was the town: employer, landlord and civic patron at once.
Research & Employment
North Carolina Research Campus
Built on the former Cannon Mills plant site, the campus is a public-private research center — not a single university.
History
Downtown Development
When a city buys its own downtown, the result is a decade of visible work. Here's how to read it.