Berks and Howard Streets, Philadelphia PA 19122
(southeast corner, east to Hope Street)
© Carmen A. Weber, Irving
Kosmin, and Muriel Kirkpatrick, Workshop of the World (Oliver
Evans Press, 1990).
The mills on this block were
continuously operated in the textile industry from the
mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. According to
a Hexamer insurance map of the mill in 1877
1
the buildings
were erected about 25 years earlier, placing them at
mid-century. On the earliest survey, undated,
2
the main mill
building was of brick, one story with a central
clearstory, running over 200 feet along Howard Street.
The picking and carding rooms were smaller, separate
buildings in the back. The owner was Thurlow and Sons and
the mill produced woolen goods, with carding, spinning,
weaving, and dyeing operations.
On the 1877 3
survey Paul
Thurlow was listed as owner and the structures had
changed little. However, there were six tenants in the
building as well as Chatham Mills. There was the Asbestos
Fibre Company, Ltd., employing three men who used a
circular saw to make boiler covering and packing; and
five tenants producing cotton and woolen yarns, one also
knitting hosiery. Harpst and Montague, who would shortly
own the building, had a small operation with 21 hands who
made cotton carpet yarn. In 1878 the main mill structures
were raised to three stories, the name changed to Clifton
Mills, and Harpst, Montague, and Company became the
owners. 4
There were still
six tenants, but all were in the textile industry, mostly
producing yarns. In 1880 Blodget indicated the main mill
building burnt down in March and by May of the same year
had already been re-erected. 5
That same October
the Hexamer Company again surveyed the mill.
6
The number of
tenants increased to eight, all producing a variety of
textile yarns and materials. Thomas E. White replaced
Harpst as co-owner with Montague. In 1891 the Clifton
Mills were solely in the hands of White,
7
who retained
ownership until 1910. 8
However, the
following year, the names of Clifton Mills and Thomas E.
White were not listed in Philadelphia Commercial Museum's
textile directory. 9
In 1922, an atlas placed the factory of David McDowell on
this corner; a P. Mc Dowell had produced ingrain carpets
here in 1891. 10
In 1943
11
the offices of
Andrew Michie and Sons were located at this corner. At
the same time they operated the Alva Tape Mills at
Columbia and 5th, but in 1945 12
they moved their
textile operations to Berks and Howard. At present
Pa-Cor, Inc., producers and distributors of commercial
and industrial insulation, occupies the premises.
1 Hexamer General Survey #1137 (1877)
"Chatham Mills, Paul Thurlow,
Owner."
2 Hexamer General Survey #39 (1866) "Chatham
Mills, Thurlow & Sons."
3 Hexamer General Survey #1137 (1877)
"Chatham Mills, Paul Thurlow,
Owner."
4 Hexamer General Survey #1315 (1878)
"Clifton Mills, Harpst, Montague &
Co."
5 Lorin
Blodget, The
Textile Industries of Philadelphia
(Philadelphia,
1880), p. 16
6 Hexamer General Survey #1485 (1880)
"Clifton Mills, Montague &
White."
7 Hexamer and Son,
1891
8 Bromley, 1910
9 The Philadelphia Commercial
Museum
10 Hexamer and Son, 1891
11 Chamber of Commerce
and Board of Trade, Philadelphia, p. 37
12 Sanborn Map Company,
Insurance Maps of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Volume 8,
revised to 1950, (New York, 1945)
Update May
2007 (by
Torben Jenk):
Converted to live/work studio spaces.
See
also:
Hexamer General Survey #2202 (1888)
"Clifton Mills, Thos. E. White."