Olde Hickory Mill Park

MHAworks assessed and renovated two abandoned 1930s textile mills: Olde Hickory Mill and Lyerly Full-Fashioned Mill. Located parallel to each other, these mills were restored to create a unified campus for Transportation Insight featuring office spaces, meeting rooms, a full-service cafeteria, and athletic fields for community use. The goal of this renovation was to preserve as much of the buildings’ history as possible while creating a welcoming space for employees to engage with their work each day. Every effort was made to keep or match the original materials found in these buildings. More than 90% of the original wood used in this project was reclaimed and refinished to its original state.

Prior to renovating, neither mill was on North Carolina’s historic registrar. MHAworks assisted Transportation Insight in getting the Lyerly mill registered as a historic building so that they could get the necessary funding and tax credits to complete this project. The client chose to not register the Olde Hickory Mill as historic so that they could construct additions to the mill including new entrances to improve wayfinding around the campus and a cafeteria.

The property was designated a local historic landmark by the City of Hickory in 2007 and received the 2016 North Carolina Main Street Award of Merit for Best Historic Rehabilitation for the Lyerly Full Fashioned Mill.