The transformation of a historic mill into a second location for a distillery is expected to finish in June, according to the distillery’s owner.
Muddy River Distillery owner Robbie Delaney has been working at the Mount Holly Cotton Mill for more than a year, first gutting parts of the 150-year-old building, then, after receiving the necessary permits in October, beginning an expansive renovation process.
Throughout the process, Delaney has largely stayed true to his vision. The property will include a distillery, a bar, and a spacious event space. Delaney is utilizing materials, like wood, from the original building to pay homage to the history of the property, even as he modernizes it. Some features also point to the history of the area – there are metal polls used for railings that come from the old Sundrop bottling plant that operated in Gastonia from 1917 until 2019.
“They lifted the building about three and a half inches and redid all the footings. And we’ve rebuilt all the windows and the entire building and rehung them, re-glazed them, all up to historic standards,” Delaney said. “And we’ve done numerous other structural repairs: replacing rotten beams and rotten walls and rotten floors.”