The End of the Wonder Rug

It sold the so-called Oriental rug to America’s middle class. But after nearly a century, the Karastan factory is shutting down.

EDEN, N.C. — Sounds change with the seasons, of course, but this spring, among the usual mix of bird song and lawn mowers, there are notable silences in this town of 15,000 people. First, the whistle that used to signal the start of three daily shifts at the Karastan rug factory, a brick mill whose smokestack has towered over downtown for generations, isn’t blowing. The work force has dwindled to a few as the operation prepares to close, after 93 years. Inside the mill, it’s quiet too. When the train ran, it drove directly into the factory to pick up goods. The rooms and halls are so large, as James Ivie, a retired educator and preservationist said, “You can drive a Sherman tank down them.” As of March 2021, many of these massive rooms were empty. The remaining employees no longer wear earplugs. Instead of blanketing the place with the percussive din that only a room full of power looms could produce, most of the machines sit silent and still.