Flexatile was known as a mining settlement in northeast Bartow County on the Tennessee Road, now U. S. 411 near the intersection of Falling Springs Road. Originally slabs of slate were quarried, sawed into proper sizes and marketed as slate shingles. The Richardson Company, Lockland, Ohio, purchased the property in 1920 through its subsidiary, Flexatile, the name given to the community surrounding the plant. The slate crushed there into granules was used as surface for roofing. They also sold slabs of slate for architectural purposes, and as a by-product sold slate dust for a mineral filler in fertilizer. While operating the quarry, the company experimented with coloring slate and developed a line other than the natural colors. Colored roofing had its origin there. In 1927, the Funkhouser Company, Hagerstown, Maryland, purchased the plant from the Richardson Company and made the green colored surfacing for composition roofing. Mining ceased in the early 1960’s.

Source: The History of Bartow County, Formerly Cass by Lucy Josephine Cunyus; Property owner, David N. Vaughan, Jr.