May we introduce the home of Captain Otis Prentiss Mills.
Captain Mills’ home once stood at 13 Mills Ave. (which is now 11 Mills Ave., home to InStep Piedmont Podiatry). The home was originally built in 1900, converted to apartments in the 1940s, and eventually torn down.
An NC native, Mills moved to Greenville around 1865 after serving in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Shortly after relocating to the Upstate, he met + married Susan Cordelia Gower, daughter of the Hon. T.C. Gower (another familiar + famous Greenville name) and had five children.
Mills and his wife accumulated 300 acres in Greenville, which included today’s Otis Avenue, Prentiss Avenue + Mills Avenue.
After the war, Mills established Millsdale Dairy (1870), the SC Cottonseed Company (1872), the Greenville Fertilizer Company, and Mills Mill (1895). The mill had 5,000 spindles and 200 employees. Today, it’s the Lofts at Mills Mill.
