Belton Farmers' Gin Coop

The Belton Farmers' Gin Coop, built in 1927, is a rare example of a surviving brick cotton gin in Central Texas. Contextually, it relates to the growth of the cotton industry in Belton and to the wider statewide context of Agriculture. The building meets National Register Criterion A, significant in the area of industry, for its association with the cotton processing industry that was central to Belton's economy from the late 19th century until the Great Depression. It also meets National Register Criterion c in the area of architecture as a rare example of a masonry cotton gin and because it is characteristic of the utilitarian agricultural processing facilities built during the boom years of the cotton industry in Texas.

The Belton Farmers' Gin Coop (1927) was built by an association of local cotton farmers to replace an earlier gin that apparently burned down in the 1920s. Several earlier cotton processing structures occupied the site, including the Ware and Lee Belton City Mills (1885) which burned down in 1891. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Bell County was an important cotton-producing area with Belton as its center of cotton processing, commerce, and shipping. The Farmers' Coop Gin was only one of as many as four gins operating in and around Belton in the 1920s. This building is a rare example of a brick cotton gin in Central Texas; most cotton gins built in the region were frame structures with wood or sheet metal cladding. The cotton industry in the county collapsed in the 1930s and 1940s, and this building is one of the few surviving examples of the numerous cotton processing businesses which once formed a central part of the town's economy. The gin was closed sometime after World War II and has been vacant for some years. The structure is in fair condition but, unfortunately, most of the processing equipment has been removed.