"Star & Crescent Mills, Frank Leake & Co." (1887), Hexamer #2047.
Star and Crescent Mills, 1879
North side of Lehigh Avenue between Hancock Street and Mutter Street, Philadelphia PA 19133
© Carmen A. Weber, Irving
Kosmin, and Muriel Kirkpatrick, Workshop of the World (Oliver
Evans Press, 1990).
This beautiful mill building,
with large sawtooth roofed weaving shed, has been
excellently maintained and the entire block is currently
available for reuse. The main building was built in 1879
and the date is emblazoned on the roof pediment facing
Lehigh Avenue; it was enlarged in 1884 and not surveyed
by Hexamer until 1887. 1
The mill produced
turkish towels (perhaps indicating how it got its name),
terry cloth, and chenille curtains. In connection with
using cotton to manufacture curtains John J. Macfarlane
boasted "It was Philadelphia manufacturers who discovered
the value as a decorative adjunct, and conceived and made
into beautiful textures a vegetable fiber formerly
unknown in decoration." 2
Compared with the Craven and Dearnley spinning
operations, which employed mostly girls, textile
production at the Star and Crescent Mill required a
different organization based on their employment of 225
hands, two thirds males, one third females, and no
boys. 3
In both firms the
number of employees was quite similar but the
distribution of their age and sex varied
considerably.
The Star and Crescent Mill was listed as late as
1925; 4
sometime in the
1930s it was offered for sale at $75,000, with an
assessed value of $80,000 in 1932. At this time the Star
and Crescent name was still affixed above the date on the
pediment, today it is gone.
1 Hexamer General Survey #2047 (1887) "Star
& Crescent Mills, Frank Leake &
Co."
2 John J.
Macfarlane, "Growth
and Extent of the Textile Industries of
Philadelphia," Made in Philadelphia:
Textile Industries of Philadelphia, (Philadelphia,
1910-11), pg. 11
3 Hexamer General Survey #2047 (1887) "Star
& Crescent Mills, Frank Leake &
Co."
4 Bromley, 1925
Update May
2007 (by
Torben Jenk):
Demolished.
See
also:
Hexamer General Survey #1770 (1883) "Star
& Crescent Mills, Geo W. Ennis & Co., Lehigh
Avenue [north side], Hope and Front
Sts."