This collection contains eighty-two (82) gelatin silver photographs and two small log books. The photographs range in size from 1"x1.5" to 8"x10" with the bulk of the collection measuring 3.5"x4.5". The photographs depict scenes from the Yadkin Falls Development project on the Yadkin River in Stanly and Montgomery county, North Carolina from 1915-1919. It is believed that these photographs were created by an employee of either the builder of the dam, Hardaway Construction Company, or Alcoa. The photographs are shot in a documentary style with focus on work progress, equipment, site characteristics, and damage caused by natural disaster. Subject matter mainly includes construction scenes depi ... (more below)
Marcus Donald Bracey Photograph Collection
PhC.193
circa 1916-1919
English
Unknown
State Archives of North Carolina
This collection is organized into series:
Available for research.
Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.
Processed by archives staff, 2013-2014; finding Aid by Ian Dunn; finding Aid encoded by Aaron Cusick, September 2014
The photographs in the Marcus Donald Bracey collection depict part of the Yadkin Falls Development project on the Yadkin river from 1915-1919 which included the construction of two dams; Narrows dam, and further downstream, Falls dam. The industrialization of this section of the river started in 1898 with the prospect of hydroelectric power. An English mining expert named Egbert Barry Cornwall Hambly was the first to see the area's potential for hydroelectric power noting how, for two miles, the Yadkin River continually narrows causing currents to build speed. Additional sources of electric power were needed for growing industry along the Yadkin River. Eventually, Hambly was successful in recruiting Northern capitalists to invest in his new venture of developing power at Yadkin Falls. Shortly thereafter, Hambly organized the North Carolina Power Company. In 1899, a Pittsburgh financier by the name of George I. Whitney, purchased controlling interest in the North Carolina Power Company which then became Whitney Development Company with Hambly at the helm of general operations for North Carolina. Whitney's plans for a hydroelectric dam on the Yadkin River were the crux of his development plans--which included several mines in the area. Over the next decade Whitney Development Company experienced many setbacks and several tragedies, including an outbreak of typhoid that claimed Hambly, and three mine closures. The continued hardships forced Whitney to sell coal stocks and eventually in 1910 the company declared bankruptcy. In 1912, Southern Aluminum Company purchased the property with plans to generate power for an aluminum smelting plant. Southern Aluminum Company was a subsidiary of the French Company, L'Aluminum Francaise. The company started work on the project in 1913, but chose a different site two miles south for their dam. The half-finished Whitney dam was abandoned. By the next year many of the company's key employees had been called back to France at the start of World War I, and as a result of financial hindrances created by the war, Southern Aluminum Company was forced to sell to Alcoa. Alcoa resumed work on the project, but experienced several setbacks including a record breaking weather event in 1916 that produced 22 inches of rain within 24 hours. The resulting flood severely damaged the site of Alcoa's Narrows dam project. Work continued after the flood and just a few months after the dam was completed on 17 June 1917, it began producing power.
Work began on Falls dam shortly after work was completed on Narrows. The Falls development is located on the border of Stanly and Montgomery counties and was completed in 1919. Considerably smaller than the Narrows project, it acts as a supplemental unit and contains a dam, a gate controlled spillway, reservoir and powerhouse. The neighboring town of Badin was named after Adrien Badin, president of L'Aluminium Français. Badin's roots as a pre-planned company town show in its French influenced architecture and general European style layout featuring curvilinear streets and rock-walled open storm drains. These unique characteristics separate Badin from the typical company or mill town seen in the piedmont region of North Carolina.
[Identification of item], PhC.193, Marcus Donald Bracey Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.
The Marcus Donald Bracey Photograph Collection was donated by the nephew of Marcus Donald Bracey, D. Graham Walters, Jr., on 9 September 2013 and accessioned by the State Archives on 26 September 2013. The photographs were originally contained in two scrapbooks with pages made from black construction paper. Upon accession, the photographs were professionally removed from the pages. No written information was found inside the scrapbooks to aid in identification. Scrapbooks were discarded.
This collection contains eighty-two (82) gelatin silver photographs and two small log books. The photographs range in size from 1"x1.5" to 8"x10" with the bulk of the collection measuring 3.5"x4.5". The photographs depict scenes from the Yadkin Falls Development project on the Yadkin River in Stanly and Montgomery county, North Carolina from 1915-1919. It is believed that these photographs were created by an employee of either the builder of the dam, Hardaway Construction Company, or Alcoa. The photographs are shot in a documentary style with focus on work progress, equipment, site characteristics, and damage caused by natural disaster. Subject matter mainly includes construction scenes depicting work on the Falls Dam and the Narrows dam, the first two of the four dams built in the area. The aftermath of the 1916 Flood is represented in seven 3.5"x4.5" photographs depicting the damage caused to the Narrows Dam construction site. Also included are photographs depicting a train derailment, landscape photographs depicting the area around the site, photographs depicting the aluminum smelting plant, and several exterior photographs of the living quarters of workers. The two small log books, measuring 4"x6.5", were used by Marcus Donald Bracey of the Hardaway Construction Company during the construction of the Falls Dam. The books, bearing Bracey's name, display a daily record of statistics regarding output and general conditions at the on-site concrete plant referred to as "the crusher plant".
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Badin Multiple Resource Nomination, Statement of Significance. National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, 1974), 5-6