In 1929, the largest textile mill in North Carolina became the flashpoint of a Communist-led strike that left a union organizer and a police chief dead — and drew the world's attention to Gastonia.
2000 Loray Mill Dr, Gastonia, NC 28052
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Mill complex now includes apartments and public spaces; history center free to visit
Access
Wheelchair OK
Renovated mill campus with paved walkways and accessible building entrances
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1902 · 1929 Gastonia Strike — most notorious textile labor conflict in NC history · Murder of Ella May Wiggins, labor organizer and balladeer · Fatal shooting of Police Chief Orville Aderholt · National Register of Historic Places, 2011 · International press coverage and significant left-labor history significance
The Loray Mill was built in 1902 in Gastonia, North Carolina, and expanded over the following two decades to become the largest textile mill in the state, employing thousands of workers in the production of cotton goods. The mill's workforce, like those at comparable Southern textile facilities of the era, worked long hours for low wages under difficult conditions.
In 1929, the National Textile Workers Union — affiliated with the Communist Party USA — organized a strike at the Loray Mill that began on April 1. The strike drew immediate national and international attention due to its Communist leadership at a moment of acute American anxiety about radical labor politics. The conflict quickly turned violent. On June 7, 1929, during a confrontation at the mill gates, Police Chief Orville Aderholt was fatally shot. Fourteen strikers and union organizers were subsequently charged with his murder; seven were convicted.
The event that fixed the strike in labor history came on September 14, 1929. Ella May Wiggins, a 29-year-old mill worker, balladeer, and union organizer who had become the strike's most public voice through her protest songs, was shot and killed while riding in a truck to a union rally in Gastonia. She left behind nine surviving children. Five men charged in her murder were acquitted after less than 30 minutes of jury deliberation, despite an estimated 50 witnesses to the shooting.
The 1929 events drew coverage from journalists across the country and prompted visits from activist writers including Theodore Dreiser. The Loray Mill complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 and subsequently developed as a mixed-use residential and commercial site. A public history center interprets the events of 1929 for visitors.
Sources
Unlike many true crime sites that accumulate ghost lore over time, the Loray Mill Historic District's dark history is primarily one of documented historical violence rather than paranormal tradition. The site's significance rests on two deaths: Police Chief Orville Aderholt, killed in a confrontation at the mill gates in June 1929, and Ella May Wiggins, shot while en route to a union rally in September 1929.
Wiggins, whose story is among the most compelling in American labor history, has been the subject of novels, folk music, and academic study — but not of ghost accounts. The mill's subsequent history as an abandoned industrial site and its current life as a renovated historic district have not generated the kind of paranormal investigation tradition that similar abandoned facilities often attract.
The site's resonance for dark-history visitors is grounded instead in the documented record: an acquittal widely described as a miscarriage of justice, a murdered mother of nine, and a strike that put Southern labor relations on the front pages of papers from New York to London.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk the exterior of the 1902 Loray Mill complex — once the largest textile mill in North Carolina — and read interpretive markers documenting the 1929 Gastonia Strike, the murder of organizer Ella May Wiggins, and the killing of Police Chief Orville Aderholt. The site is now a National Historic District with interpretive signage.
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