The Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Company, a division of M. Lowenstein & Sons of New York, began operating at this site during the last quarter of 1929, with Archie O. Joslin as its first general manager. Known familiarly as "The Bleachery," the plant provided indispensable employment to the citizens of Rock Hill during the Great Depression. The first building it occupied when it opened in 1929 stood north of this spot and had formerly housed the Anderson Motor Company, a local automobile manufacturer from 1916 to 1925. East of this spot stood the last of the large wooden buildings that were the home of the Rock Hill Buggy Company, a multi-story frame structure built in 1892-93 by founder John G. Anderson and destroyed in the spectacular fire of January 6, 1940.