The records from the Alester G. Furman Company consist of files documenting the sale of real estate, primarily residential housing, by textile manufacturing companies during 1945-1970. The Furman Company served as the broker for the sale of real estate which, with respect to the residential housing, in most cases was sold to the mill workers. Furman handled the loan applications, insurance, and all other matters related to the sale. The textile manufacturers involved in these sales had their factories located in the Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. This collection documents one of the most significant turning points in the history of the textile industry. The sale of the mill villages changed the relationship between the mill and its workers while at the same time providing capital for the renovation of the mills. The workers became home owners and could sell the homes if they so desired, thus changing the nature of the closely-knit mill communities. Perhaps equally important, the collection includes plats of the mill communities at the time of their sale

The records contain correspondence, records of financial disbursements, and sometimes insurance and other material related to the sales. Most of the sales and the bulk of the records are from the 1950s and 1960s. There is an individual folder(s) for each mill community which often contains detailed listings of the names of the purchasers of homes and the amount of the purchase, method of payment, and status reports related to the liquidation of all properties and transfer of funds held in account. In the case of the J.P. Stevens Corporation, there is considerable documentation from the mid-1980s related to the sale of Stevens property after the purchase of that firm. In most cases, there are plat maps of the mill community or other property at the time of sale, although some plats may have been drawn up several decades earlier. The plats and sale information provide a snapshot in time of the mill communities at the very moment when they were to be forever changed.