MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. — Muddy River Distillery co-founder Robbie Delaney never thought he’d be able to quit his day job. Now, his rum distillery — the oldest in the Carolinas — is set to more than triple its footprint with a move to Mount Holly.
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Delaney and wife Caroline recently purchased the Mount Holly Cotton Mill for $1.3 million. The mill, built in 1875, is the oldest surviving textile mill in Gaston County. It sits on a roughly 4.5-acre parcel at 250 N. Main St. in Mount Holly.
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“We got a piece of North Carolina that is just irreplaceable,” he says. “We’ve got the building the town of Mount Holly was named after.”
They plan to invest roughly $2 million into the first phase of preserving and transforming the historic, 17,000-square-foot building. A separate, 3,000-square-foot building will be added for barrel-aging storage. The goal is to have the facility fully functional by spring 2024 — though Delaney says it could open in phases. That could mean events and festivals on site as early as this fall, for example.
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