Historic Hosiery Mill & Former Farmer's Exchange Gets New Lease on Life

Taking an old, rundown red-brick building in downtown Durham and redeveloping it into a thriving business center with office and incubator spaces, meeting and workshop rooms, and areas for networking and conferences is the ultimate in historic preservation.


The old John O’Daniel Hosiery Mill which also served as the former Farmer’s Mutual Exchange, has been completely renovated and brought back to life as the John O’Daniel Exchange by Lewis and Clark Community Developers, Inc. Already home to several non-profits and small businesses such as Animal Kind, CEF, Carpe Diem Cleaning, Durham Cares, Goodwork and World Relief, the new Exchange celebrated its official grand opening last Saturday.


Located at 801 Gilbert St, the building is nestled among three blocks of mixed residential and commercial properties. The neighborhood is made up of the SEEDS community garden and offices, the North Carolina Food Bank, and about 12 mill-village homes of character.


According to the Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory, the old brick building was originally constructed as the Paragon Hosiery Mill around 1910 but was soon acquired by Julian S. Carr as one of the branches of the Durham Hosiery Mills. Carr named the business in honor of one of his faithful black servants, John O’Daniel, and manned it with black mill workers.


Unlike most of the other Durham Hosiery Mill factories, the original building was considered to be small, taking up just one small city block. It had a one-and-a-half story gabled roof, with a parapet façade that featured recessed and corbelled window walls.


The factory only operated for several years and stood empty until 1930, when the Farmers Mutual Exchange purchased the building. Through the years, this organization was also called the Central Carolina Farmers Exchange and then FCX. This organization came about in the 1920s after the crops of area tobacco growers were destroyed by blight. The farmers needed a way to market and distribute their other produce, including livestock, milk, poultry, eggs and feed.


The first poultry processing plant for egg production in the state was established at the Exchange in 1935; and the first feed mill for distributing grain in North Carolina was built there around 1937, just behind the Exchange’s main building. Later on, both a meat processing department and poultry processing plant were built just northeast of this building. When the Exchange’s original feed mill could no longer keep up with the demand, the old Durham Gas Co., which was located just across Gilbert St., was acquired. And the Exchange built a modern, computerized feed mill according to the standards of the day.