Threads of the past woven into Glen Alpine's future
Glen Alpine resident Chad Wykle’s family owns the old Glen Alpine Knitting Mill. He is developing the building into a space for small businesses to grow.
Glen Alpine Knitting Mill with employees, ca 1934. The mill manufactured hosiery. This image was submitted by Joyce Lanier Strachan to Picture Burke, a digital photograph preservation project of Burke County Public Library.
Tea Tree, which originated in Glen Alpine, has moved to the mill, with a section on the top level and a section on the bottom level next to Peak Fitness and Physical Therapy.
A portion of the lower level of the old Glen Alpine Knitting Mill is home to Rebecca Wykle’s Peak Fitness and Physical Therapy. The Wykles are making finishing touches on the space before opening.
A building that was constructed more than a century ago, made lively by hundreds of hands working to manufacture hosiery, is now the focus of new development in Glen Alpine.
From a long-standing ministry that helps women earn supplemental income, to a space for fitness and physical therapy, resident Chad Wykle’s family is transforming the mill into a space for small businesses to grow.
Like many towns in the foothills of Western North Carolina, Glen Alpine has a rich and proud history, Wykle said. The old Glen Alpine Knitting Mill is a large part of that history for the town, having employed a couple hundred workers at its peak. The mill was established around 1920 by N.O. Pitts and Clarence V. Lael.
Chad and Rebecca Wykle moved back to Glen Alpine with their two children, Gabe and Nora, four years ago after living in Chattanooga, TN for more than 20 years.
Their house, located near the old Glen Alpine High School, now Glen Alpine Elementary School, is the house where Rebecca grew up and the house where they lived before moving to Tennessee.
“She and I were, at the time, totally engulfed with rock climbing,” Wykle said. “We loved climbing and so we cut our teeth here in the Linville Gorge. This was our stomping grounds for climbing and in the High Country of North Carolina.”
Living in Chattanooga for a while, Wykle said, gave him perspective when it comes to development and the value of older buildings that can be reused. Now, Wykle said everything has come full circle with their return to Glen Alpine.
“North Carolina’s in our blood,” Wykle said. “We’re glad to be back.”
Wykle said throughout he and Rebecca’s years in the town, they have seen the building have many different lives. From the original knitting mill to a winery and an old antique mall, Wykle said he has always admired the building.
In March of 2022, the Wykles and Rebecca’s father Tim Abernathy bought the mill, knowing that there’s a lifetime of work still to be done. The plan, he said, is to slowly work on the building, which is what they have done so far, removing a structure to add a gravel parking lot and changing all the HVAC units inside.
“Everything that’s on the building, at some point, is going to have to be replaced,” Wykle said. “It’s old, but it’s a brick building, so the bones on this thing are incredible … you know that old adage, ‘They don’t build things the way they used to,’ this building is well put together, and has stood the test of time.”
To own an old building, especially one as old as the knitting mill, Wykle said it’s a labor of love, “especially if you’re detail-oriented, because there’s always nooks and crannies of it that need fixed.”
THE BUSINESSES
The old mill is now home to three different businesses. Tea Tree, created by Tammy Taylor, has a long-standing reputation in Burke County for its ministry, home decor, and handmade goods. The ministry helps women earn supplemental income by becoming vendors and selling their own products.
Jean Pitts, a local seamstress, has also set up shop on the second floor of the mill next to Tea Tree and stays busy with projects for her clients.
Wykle’s wife Rebecca will be opening her business, Peak Fitness and Physical Therapy, on the bottom floor of the mill, which will be accessed from the side of the building facing U.S. 70. She started her business in 2011 in Chattanooga and will soon open her new location in Glen Alpine. She specializes in services for young athletes.
“It’s already fully equipped. It just needs a little more wiring work done and then a facade put on that side of the building,” Wykle said.
Every space, except for an undeveloped space with short ceilings downstairs, has been rented. That space, Wykle said, will likely be used as storage.
Another small business could soon be opening on the second floor of the building in Tea Tree’s area. A bar sits in the middle of the area, left over from the winery, which Wykle said could soon become home to a coffee shop.
He has been meeting with a group that hopes to open their own coffee business in the mill.
The next project, Wykle said, is working on parking expansion, which will help customers access the bottom level of the building easier. Wylke said he owns a piece of land across the road from the mill where there could be additional parking but would work with NCDOT to see if there could be a crosswalk installed.
Although it won’t be an easy project, Wykle said he would like to install a staircase in the building so that customers could access the bottom level of the building without having to go outside and walk around to the front of the building.
On the top level of the building, Wykle said he’s hoping to improve the natural lighting by refurbishing the windows facing the gravel lot.
Another idea, he said, is to create a coffee window where people can walk up and purchase their coffee through the window.
The development of the building, he said, is all part of supporting synergy among businesses in Glen Alpine, hoping to make the town comparable to Old Fort, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, and other mountain towns along the Interstate 40 corridor.
Wykle said he believes it’s possible because of the interest in small Southern Appalachian towns and the proximity to Lake James and the Southern terminus of the Linville Gorge.
“I think this town is ready for a revival,” Wykle said.
Madison Lipe is the municipal reporter for The Paper. She can be reached at 828-445-8595 or madison@thepaper.media.
