Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Pelzer, SC

Pelzer is an incorporated town in Anderson County, South Carolina, built along the Saluda River.

Pelzer was founded as a mill town around several mill sites on the Saluda River developed by the Pelzer Manufacturing Company; the first, lower mill was completed in 1882, and construction of a fourth, upper mill began in 1896.

The company and town were named for Francis J. Pelzer, who surveyed the river sites and laid out the town, and Ellison Adger Smyth, one of the company's founders, served as its president and treasurer for 43 years.

Pelzer Manufacturing drew power from two dams on the Saluda River fitted with the first generators ever sold by General Electric, and its factory was the first in the country to use incandescent lighting.

Pelzer's Upper Mill was the first mill in South Carolina not built immediately beside its power-generation facility: General Electric strung power lines from a downstream dam and shoals to the mill, a first in the industry, and used the mill as a testing ground for new generators and motors.

When Pelzer was first incorporated, its limits covered only the main street, Lebby Street (now South Carolina Highway 8), and adjacent properties, so the historic mill villages occupied substantially more area than the town itself.

In 2015, area residents voted to bring substantial additional property into the town limits, annexing the Upper and Lower Mill villages, and Pelzer's population jumped from 89 at the 2010 census to 1,344 at the 2020 census.

The 2020 census recorded 521 households in Pelzer.

The Pelzer Presbyterian Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Pelzer Manufacturing was sold in 1923 and the mills changed hands several times; the final operator, Gerber Products Company, made Onesies and other childrenswear in Pelzer from 1986 until it ended operations there in 1990.