“S” is for Sirrine, Joseph Emory (1872-1947)

“S” is for Sirrine, Joseph Emory (1872-1947). Architect, engineer. Born in Georgia, Sirrine graduated from Furman university. In 1895 he was hired by a New England textile engineering firm to be resident engineer for two Greenville projects. In 1899 the company appointed Sirrine as its southern representative, responsible for all of the company’s textile construction in the region. In 1903 he left the company and opened his own business, J. E. Sirrine, Architects and Engineers. During the next five decades most of the company's business was in textile construction, but it also designed schools, hospitals, tobacco factories, college buildings, and military training facilities. Among its projects were the Poinsett Hotel, Textile Hall, and Camp Sevier in Greenville, and Fort Bragg in North Carolina.  Joseph Emory Sirrine was the organizer and “godfather” of the Southern Textile Manufacturing Exposition.