Top of west facade states "PETER WOLL & SONS FEATHER CO" (2007).
Peter Woll & Sons, c.1891
Berks and Mutter Streets, Philadelphia PA 19122 (between Mascher and Hancock)
© Carmen A. Weber, Irving
Kosmin, and Muriel Kirkpatrick, Workshop of the World (Oliver
Evans Press, 1990).
From 1880 until the present,
this family firm has been engaged in the Curled Hair
business and its offshoots, such as feathers. Gopsill's
city directory for 1880 listed a number of Wolls, but it
is not known if they were the same family. They all lived
in West Kensington, but the firm of Frederick and
Christian Woll was in Germantown; they were listed as
being producers of brush manufacturer's materials. Peter
Woll Jr., a bookkeeper, lived with Peter Woll on Howard
Street.
An 1888 Baist atlas located an unnamed Hair Factory on
the site although there was no building there in
1875. 1
The Woll firm,
one of two in the 19th and 31st wards, was mentioned in
Blodget's Industrial Survey of 1882 as an employer of 185
persons. 2
Unlike the Woll
works, earlier Curled Hair firms also produced glue and
Freedley praised the industry saying:
"The
refuse and offal from tanneries, morocco factories, and
slaughter houses, [are] used by Glue and Curled Hair
manufacturers...and without consumption in this way,
would be troublesome to remove or prove nuisances to the
community." 3
A number of such establishments were located in
Kensington, even today there is one at Coral and Hagert.
One family name, Delaney, was mentioned as early as 1859,
and survived in the area at least until 1916, employing
188 people. 4
Four blocks south
of the Woll firm, the Delaney Curled Hair and Glue Works,
across the street from Joseph Hacker's Morocco Factory,
showed work areas associated with the unpleasant tasks
mentioned by Freedley. There were cattle sheds, slaughter
houses, lime vats, glue drying on the roof, and separate
raw hair and curled hair storage rooms.
5
Some buildings of
the Delaney works were built as early as 1844, and they
were still on the same location in 1887,
6
making the
operation contemporaneous with that of Woll. Today this
corner of the street is a public park.
The Woll name is associated from 1891 with the five story
brick building with corner towers on the north side of
Berks Street. Architectural details on the building
appear to make it a twentieth century structure, yet the
building outlines and the office on the corner of Berks
and Hancock conformed with the 1891 Hexamer insurance map
and an advertisement of the firm from circa 1895.
7
By 1891 the firm
had expanded, taking over a four story building across
Berks Street at the corner of Hancock. In 1916
8
Peter Woll and
Son were joined by Woll and Sons, Feather Company at 169
Berks. In 1922, an atlas showed the firm had moved to the
corner of Berks and Mascher, half a block east, and they
occupied a two story building across the street,
surrounded by other businesses. 9
By 1945 their
former buildings were occupied by other industries. The
1944 industrial directory shows an F.P. Woll Company in
Tacony, still listed today. The larger building became a
paper warehouse and today is the Globe Paper Company. The
building across the street seems altered with one or more
stories removed; there are signs on the Mascher Street
side for the Rapid Electric and Penn Scale manufacturing
companies; both were listed in the 1944 industrial
directory. 10
Woll structures
on both sides of Berks Street carry clearly visible
painted signs of the family name and occupation.
1 Maps: Baist, 1888; and
Hopkins, 1875.
2 Lorin Blodget,
Census
of Manufactures, (Philadelphia, 1883), p. 78.
3 Edwin T. Freedley,
Philadelphia and its Manufactures (Philadelphia, 1858),
p. 218.
4 Freedley, p. 218; and
Department of Labor and Industry, Pennsylvania, 1916, p.
1218.
5 Baist, 1888; and
Hopkins, 1875
6 Hexamer General Survey #1088 (1877)
"Delaney & Co's Curled Hair & Glue
Works."
Hexamer General Survey #2744 (1894) "Star
& Hampden Mills, Arrott Steam Power Mills
Co."
7 Philip
Scranton, Proprietary
Capitalism, p. 400.
8 Department of Labor
and Industry, Pennsylvania, 1916, p. 1370.
9 Bromley, 1922.
10 Chamber of Commerce
and Board of Trade, Philadelphia, pp. 86, and 98.
Update May
2007 (by
Torben Jenk):
Survives.
Northeast corner
of Hancock and Berks Streets (2007).
"PETER WOLL &
SONS MFG. CO. CURLED HAIR" on building on the south side
of Berks Street.