The Stephenson mills' end — failure in the Depression, year unpinned

The banked entry's open end, closed at the record's strength

Overextended at the crash: The banked Stephenson entry ends honestly — "the mill's end is thin in the record reached." The company's own National Register nomination of 1995 states the course: the Stephenson brothers were overextended when the crash of 1929 came, "and the company failed." The East Bank multiple-property context study says the same at one remove: the mills "did not survive the depression which followed." No exact closing year exists in any carrier, and none is printed: the house that began in A. C. Staley's woolen mill in 1863 failed in the Depression, on the crash's heels, and its buildings stood vacant for some time after.

The complex after the mills: The documented afterlife is tenancy and then housing. Later occupants of the mill buildings included the South Bend Plating and Polishing Company, Westinghouse, and Opelika; in 1994 Building No. 6 became the Stephenson Mill Apartments, and the complex was listed on the National Register on 28 September 1995 — the nomination that is this entry's own source for the failure.

Sources:

1. National Register of Historic Places nomination, Stephenson Underwear Mills (listed 28 September 1995) — the Stephensons overextended at the 1929 crash, "and the company failed"; the buildings' vacancy.
2. East Bank multiple-property documentation, historic context — "it did not survive the depression which followed."
3. The Alexander Company, the complex's account — the later tenants (South Bend Plating and Polishing, Westinghouse, Opelika); Building No. 6 as the Stephenson Mill Apartments, 1994.