Dan – my name is Larry Farr from Spartanburg, SC. I ran across the History of Hopedale, Massachusetts website, and I had a chance to review some of the different pages on the site. It is very interesting. I worked for Rockwell-Draper in Spartanburg as the general accounting supervisor of four years (July 1977 – July 1981). Of course, when I went to work there, consolidation from Hopedale was well underway. Prior to my joining the company, there had been a lot of work at the Spartanburg plant upgrading the foundry there. Interestingly, I left Rockwell-Draper to go to work to its main competitor at the time Sulzer. I was with the company for 23 years advancing to controller and VP of Finance until it was bought out by ITEMA, the Italian loom manufacturer that owned Somet and Vamatex. It was a good run at Sulzer, and I was sorry to see my time end there, but the US textile industry was in major decline in 2004.
At the Spartanburg plant, there was the foundry, machine shop, and distribution warehouse that was moved to Greensboro between 1980 and 1981.. I don’t recall the exact time. It was before I left the company because I remember going to several meetings in Greensboro. The loom sales office was located at a different office that was rented. At one time, the sales office was in a different building in a different section of town. The plant was referred to as East Spartanburg. I recall many of the Hopedale people referring to our offices at the plant as East Spartanburg. I recall Dan Breen, Ray Grant, Mike McGrath. Dan Breen trained me in my job for month end closing when his function transferred to Spartanburg. Leonard Baird, who wrote a little history, worked for me during my time there.
I read Mike Cyr’s article about the Draper Location in Spartanburg. Unfortunately, much of his information is not correct. The Draper facility was located at 951 S Pine Street, Spartanburg, and is still there. It is occupied by a company named Grace Management Group. They are a leading home manufacturer of fragrance products like potpourri, scented candles, etc. They sell internationally in 90 countries under the names of Greenleaf, Fresh Scents, Bridgewater Candle Company, and Votivo. The Drew’s Greenhouses in the picture is across the street from the plant. The Wade’s restaurant building across the street is now their corporate headquarters. When I worked at Draper, that was their restaurant building, and I ate many lunches there. At one time, there were two Wade’s Restaurants in Spartanburg, and when the decision to close this one, they made that facility their corporate office. They are an excellent meat and three restaurant that has always been very successful. The guy who started Wade’s was named Wade Lindsey and his wife was Betty. Wade was an employee of Draper, and I think he originally had some sort of “dope wagon” at the plant and later came the restaurant. The second and third generation of the family are now running the business.
With only four years, and at the end, I don’t know a lot of the history. I enjoyed my time there, but there was always the cloud that the company was not going to make it. I hope you find this info helpful. If I can be of any other help about the Spartanburg office, let. me know.
Thank you.
Larry Farr