Twin Pillowtex stacks to be imploded Aug. 10
The most visible sign of Kannapolis' textile past -- the twin smokestacks at the former Pillowtex mill complex -- will be imploded Aug. 10 to clear the way for a biotechnology center.
The 200-foot-tall stacks have stood for decades, reminders of the might and the misery brought by Pillowtex and its predecessors over the past century.
The Cannon family that founded the town 100 years ago and created Pillowtex predecessor Cannon Mills also built the stacks. The structures also bear the name of another Pillowtex precursor, Fieldcrest Cannon.
About 85 percent of the downtown Kannapolis complex has been demolished so far for billionaire David Murdock's $1 billion North Carolina Research Campus.
"I think it'll really be a monumental day when they drop those stacks, because it'll look like a real construction site, and it will be very symbolic," said Lynne Scott Safrit, campus project manager.
For many in the area, the stacks evoke the pain Pillowtex caused in 2003 when the company abruptly closed, throwing 7,650 out of work nationwide, including more than 4,000 in Cabarrus and Rowan counties. It was the worst mass layoff in state and textile history.
Local historian Norris Dearmon, who once wanted the stacks to stand, said he is resigned to their fate.
"People are still talking about it a lot. They hate to see them come down ... for sentimental value," he said. "But I'm getting over it. There's no point fretting about it."
A power plant in front of the stacks is being demolished, providing people with an even better look at the smokestacks before they permanently disappear.
The stacks likely will be imploded in the morning and will take less than 10 seconds to fall, said David Griffin, vice president of D.H. Griffin Wrecking Co. of Greensboro.
Logistics still need to be worked out, he said, although the blast will be much smaller than the one in March that leveled two Pillowtex buildings covering 1.1 million square feet. Collapsing the stacks will require less than 10 percent of the 4,000 pounds of dynamite used in that implosion, Griffin estimated.
He said the stacks will topple like a tree being cut down.
There's also a chance another long-standing landmark could fall that day: the nearly 261-foot-high, red-and-white checkered water tower the Cannons built in 1941.
At the time, mill owner Charles Cannon supposedly had heard that the world's tallest water tower was in Japan, and he ordered that his tower be one foot taller, Dearmon said.
If it is not imploded with the smokestacks, Griffin said, it may be another
couple months before the tower comes down.
Griffin expects all demolition and cleanup to be finished by year's end.
Construction is ongoing on the first biotech building to open at the 350-acre campus, the centerpiece Core Lab, which should debut in November 2007.
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