When it was completed in 1897, the Louise Mill was the largest cotton textile mill in Charlotte. Like most mills of the period, the owners also built a village for its workers and families. Hubert Smith Chadwick of Rhode Island moved to Charlotte and formed the Charlotte Machinery Company  in 1892 and organized the establishment of the Louise Mill. He named the mill after his wife, Blanche Louise Dodsworth, whom Chadwick married in Charlotte in 1896. The surrounding village contained 60 houses in 5 rows, 12 houses to a row. Each house faced a street and had room for a garden. Some of the houses had four rooms while others had three rooms. Each room had a fireplace and a closet.