EPISODE 1
Bonus Vault Content
fulton bag and cotton mill - circa 1881
Episode 1 of Catlick opens with a group of men in hard hats assessing the shuttered Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill in 1985. The plant was in operation for 97 years. This is how it looked in its early days, circa 1881.
from episode 1…
“Affixed to the inside of the door was a disintegrating scrap of paper. The only legible words were RECEIPT, CITY TAXES, ATLANTA, 1892.”
To this day, this weathered scrap of paper still clings to the vault door. If you look closely you can make out the words. Today the vault houses a tanning bed which is located inside the gym of the apartments at the old Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill.
old hand bills
like this one were preserved in the cache of documents.
spy report - operative #115
Among the most interesting documents found in the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill collection are spy reports like this one. At various times in the mill’s history, its management employed a vast network of spies who reported on unrest within the factory’s work force.
VIDEO: In 1999, as the mill was being renovated, a fire broke out in one of the buildings and began to spread rapidly. The Atlanta Fire Department responded quickly. However, a local man became trapped in a crane, high above the blaze. The daring rescue was shown live on both local and national news.
documents from the “original” vault
When the men entered the old executives’ suite, they discovered a large vault, filled with documents from the company’s past. The documents were removed and turned over to the archivists and research team at Georgia Tech. This image shows a tiny sampling of those documents today.
fbc&M sales memo from 1930
blue prints from the mill’s 97 year history
B.T. Harman studies collection of documents at Georgia Tech.
VIDEO: This is the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill as it looks today. It still sits near an active rail line. The high-rises of downtown Atlanta are to the west, about 2 miles.
In the late 90’s the abandoned mill was rehabilitated as a loft and apartment community.
2008 tornado
In 2008, a tornado descended upon downtown Atlanta and began to move east. The Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill was a direct hit.
From the National Weather Service, “A supercell thunderstorm moved into downtown Atlanta Friday evening March 14, 2008, and produced a deadly tornado. One person was killed in a building collapse, and at least 30 others were injured by debris. This tornado was rated EF2 by a storm survey team from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, GA. Maximum winds were estimated to be 130 MPH.”
All the lofts damaged by the storm were repaired.
at home in the mill
B.T. Harman and his husband, Brett, at their home in the mill in 2019. To see more photos of their loft, click here.