Hexamer General Survey #1410 (1879), "Blantyre Mills, Sevill Schofield."
Blantyre Mills, 1847
4312-4372 Main Street, Philadelphia PA 19004
© Sara Jane Elk, Workshop of
the World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).
Perhaps the oldest mill
remaining in Manayunk stands at 4312-4372 Main Street,
fronting along the canal at Cotton Street. Actually a
complex of buildings, the earliest of the structures was
begun in 1847, and represents the second generation in
construction of mills in Manayunk as the machinery was
driven by steam rather than water power. Built by James
C. Kempton as a cotton mill, the earliest portions
probably appear much as they were built, although the
complex represents a succession of construction.
James Kempton began a successful career producing cotton
in Manayunk in the 1830s while managing one of Manayunk's
first generation cotton mills, one which stood between
the canal and the river at the foot of Cotton Street. In
1833 he acquired the large water-powered mill from its
owners, John Joseph Borie, Pierre Laguerenne and Jerome
Keating, the threesome that had pioneered the production
of mechanized textiles in Philadelphia. With the
construction of their four-story cotton mill in 1828,
fully equipped with 4,500 spindles and 120 powerlooms,
Borie, Laguerenne and Keating, had signaled the beginning
of large-scale manufactory in Manayunk.
1
Kempton, as had
his predecessors, produced cotton cloth. His specialty
was a variety of weaves such as checks and
stripes. 2
Particular
notoriety came his way in 1830, when as the manager, he
installed a new powerloom made by Alfred Jenks for the
weaving of colored checks. 3
Handloom weavers
from across the city in Kensington, opposed to the
labor-saving devices which threatened to destroy their
livelihood, marched on the mill with the intention of
burning it. The intervention of an "armed force" turned
the Luddites away before a fire was lit.
4
The erection of the Blantyre Mills in 1847 marked
expansion for Kempton, as he built directly across the
canal from the earlier mill, which by then he had renamed
the Schuylkill Factory. The construction of the new mill
increased his holdings to three factories and required a
workforce of 600. By 1840, he operated as one of the
largest textile concerns in Manayunk. 5
Kempton continued
to pick, dye and weave in his mills until 1851 when he
retired. Maintaining ownership of his property, he leased
the Blantyre Mills to Archibald Campbell and Company,
also a manufacturer of cotton cloth. When a fire
partially destroyed the mills in 1854, Kempton restored
the damage and A. Campbell and Company continued in
operation. 6
Archibald Campbell and his brothers, William and John,
achieved significant success producing cotton cloth in
the mills of Manayunk. By 1857, increased demand for
their goods necessitated the expansion into two more
facilities; the Schuylkill Factory, which they also
leased from Kempton, and the purchase and conversion of
the Crompton Steam Mill, a paper mill along the canal
north of Green Lane. 7
When Jerome
Kempton died in 1862, Archibald Campbell and Company
purchased the Schuylkill Factory from Kempton's estate
and continued to lease Blantyre Mills from its new owner,
Sevill Schofield. 8
J. Leander Bishop described production in the
company’s mills:
“14,270
cotton spindles, 1560 wool spindles, and 1236 spindles
for doubling and twisting—in all 17,000 spindles
and 652 looms... The average product of each loom being
about 25 yards a day, the aggregate annual product is
over five million yards-consisting of principally of
pantaloonery ginghams, striped and plaid osnaburghs, etc.
The Cottonades made here include all grades of
exclusively fast colors (the demand for low-priced or
fugitive colors having almost entirely ceased), and
extend to the very best qualities, such as command a
higher price than any other in the
market.” 9
The firm had a retail outlet located at 425 North 2nd
Street in 1855 and at 125 Chestnut Street in 1866, within
the textile warehouse district in Center City
Philadelphia. 10
At the time of the Hexamer General Survey of 1866, A.
Campbell and Company occupied the Blantyre Mills. The
survey listed a one-story stone pickerhouse roofed with
tin, with an attached one-story stone blacksmith’s
shop. Located at the corner of Main and Cotton Streets, a
four-story mill built in 1872 now stands in its place,
perhaps incorporating the earlier stone structure into
the first floor. Twenty feet to the south of the
blacksmith shop along Main Street, stood a four-story
stone mill with a slate roof. This building still stands
and appears much as it did then. Weaving and finishing
took place on all four of its floors. Perpendicular to it
and on the canal side, a four-story stone with slate roof
mill held the steam boilers and machine shop in one
portion, with the balance devoted to spinning, carding
and weaving. An addition to this mill in 1878 formed the
corner of Cotton Street and the canal and is also the
portion visible between the mills from Main Street. To
complete the 1866 complex, a one-story stone with slate
roof Dye House stood along the canal. To the south of it
were two frame buildings used as warehouses. These
structures were later replaced with stone buildings.
A. Campbell & Company occupied the Blantyre Mills
until 1869. Extensive expansion at the Schuylkill
Factory and operations at the Crompton Mills evidently
provided adequate facilities. In addition, the growth of
Sevill Schofield's woolen business may have necessitated
more mill space for his enterprise. When surveyed again
in 1879, E. Hexamer listed Schofield occupying two floors
of the five-story mill along the canal and portions of
the other buildings, employing ninety hands (thirty men,
forty girls, and twenty boys), producing "blankets,
coating and pantaloon stuff and carpet yarn". He rented
all of the original four-story mill to Allen and Morris,
manufacturers of jeans and doeskins; the fourth story of
the canal mill to John P. Holt, manufacturer of cotton
and wool yarns; and a one story frame building east of
the Main Street buildings to Moses Wright, manufacturer
of saddles and harnesses. 11
The axonometric
drawing accompanying the Hexamer General Survey depicts
the mills much as they stand today.
In 1880 Allen and Morris transferred all of its machinery
and production to Sevill Schofield. 12
He continued to
operate in Blantyre Mills until hard times in the 1890s
brought James Dobson in to manage the business.
13
Dobson
consolidated the Schofield mills and operated under the
name Imperial Mills. He served as president and Dobson
Schofield, Sevill's son, served as secretary and
treasurer of the firm. 14
The Imperial Mill
complex operated until the Depression, combined with the
death of James Dobson in 1927, ending a regional textile
dynasty. A series of manufacturers have occupied the
mills until they were converted into housing in 1989.
Occupants have included the George Flene Soap and
Chemical Company in 1929 and as the last industrial
owner, Jetronics, a manufacturer of precision machinery.
In 1988 the Mills were purchased by Dover Properties
Incorporated for conversion to apartment units. The
rehabilitation to the exterior included restoration of
the entrances on Main Street, pointing of the stone work
and replacement of the windows.
1 Shelton, p.
58.
2 Edwin T. Freedley,
Philadelphia
and its Manufactures , (Philadelphia, 1857), p.
259.
3 According to Freedley, Alfred
Jenks supplied the first textile power-mills in
Philadelphia and became the largest producer of textile
machinery in the country.
4 Freedley, p.
301.
5 Kempton's third mill was
located in Roxborough, the village up the hill to the
north.
6 Goshow, p.
106.
7 Goshow, p. 56 and
Hexamer General Survey #1027 (1876),
"Crompton Mills, A. Campbell &
Co."
8 Philip Scranton,
Proprietary
Capitalism, p. 64.
9 J. L. Bishop,
A
History of American Manufactures from
1680-1860, Vol. 3 , pp. 53-54, cited in
Goshow, p. 56.
10 McElroy,
Philadelphia
City Directory (1855), p. 76; (1866), p.
125.
11 Hexamer General Survey #1410 (1879),
"Blantyre Mills, Sevill
Schofield."
12 Lorin Blodget,
The
Textile Industries of
Philadelphia, (Philadelphia, 1880),
pg. 1.
13 Scranton, p.
63.
14 Scranton, , pp. 63-64.
Update May
2007 (by
Sara Jane Elk):
No change.
See
also:
Hexamer General Survey #6 (1866), 685
(1873), "Blantyre Mills, A. Campbell &
Co."