Tallapoosa · World War II home front
The Wartime Work Inside Tallapoosa’s Vacant Buildings
In November 1942, Tallapoosa began making camouflage nets for the World War II effort. The work found room in the town’s vacant buildings. [1]
In this story
Work far from the battlefield
Camouflage nets helped conceal military equipment and positions. Making them was one way people far from a battlefield could contribute to the war effort. In Tallapoosa, the work also gave available buildings a new purpose.
According to the town’s National Register historic-district nomination, the operation eventually employed as many as 400 people and used many of the city’s vacant buildings. The account says production continued until the war ended. [1]
Four hundred is the nomination’s reported high point, rather than a count reconstructed from individual payroll records. Even with that qualification, the account identifies a substantial local undertaking whose work could easily disappear from memory when its temporary use of a building ended.
A new use for available space
The nomination names B. F. Mitnick, W. H. Wright and M. A. Greene as recipients of a 1942 contract for camouflage nets. It separately identifies a shell-crate contract awarded to R. C. Greene. [1]
These were different products and operations. Together, they show how wartime demand reached beyond a single familiar factory. The net-making account is especially revealing because it describes work spread through available buildings.
The account does not identify those buildings or the individual workers. A building name on a pay record or the background of a family photograph could make this part of the town’s history much more recognizable.
A town changing during the war
The net operation was part of a wider period of change. The same historical account dates the American Thread Company’s purchase of the cotton mill to June 1943 and the start of its mill operations to January 24, 1944. It also places the dismantling of the old Lithia Springs Hotel in 1943. [1]
These developments overlapped: a landmark came down while industrial buildings were being repaired and vacant space was put to work. Tallapoosa’s wartime landscape was changing through both loss and renewed use.
The camouflage-net workers deserve a place in that picture. The surviving account gives us an opening month, the kind of work, its reported scale and the buildings’ temporary purpose. What it does not yet give us is a face.
Sources and research notes
This brief account relies on the National Register nomination, a later researched history. Original contracts and payrolls have not been inspected. Worker identities, wages, specific buildings and military destinations remain unconfirmed.
- Tallapoosa Commercial Historic District, National Register nomination, printed page 30
Downloaded and visually checked November 10, 2026. Reports the contract recipients, November 1942 start, employment of as many as 400, vacant-building use, operation until war’s end, thread-mill chronology and hotel dismantling.
Read another local story
- When the Post Office Was Inside the General Store
When Tallapoosa dreamed of becoming an industrial cityPublic-domain 1895 map; UGA Libraries / Digital Library of Georgia.
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