3737 Main Street, Philadelphia PA 19004
© Sara Jane Elk, Workshop of
the World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).
John Wilde and Brother, Inc.,
remains as a family owned woolen carpet yarn mill in
continuous operation at this location since 1884, giving
it the distinction of the oldest American carpet yarn
company still in existence. 1
The complex of
three buildings stands at the lower end of Manayunk, once
a part of an industrial landscape that included the
Pencoyd Iron Works, later the American Bridge Company,
and the Wissahickon Plush Mill. Surviving as the last of
these, the Wilde mill now serves as the gateway to
Manayunk from the south, as proclaimed in the sign
painted on the Main Street mill.
In 1882 brothers John and Thomas Wilde started the
construction of a mill on Cresson Street near the
intersection of Ridge Avenue. 2
This effort came
two years after they had purchased two sets of cards and
a mule, and had begun a carpet yarn business, spinning
wool on the fifth floor of S.S. Keely's Enterprise
Mill. 3
The Wilde's new
mill, oriented toward Cresson Street, bares a significant
resemblance to the pattern of mill construction prevalent
throughout Manayunk toward the end of the nineteenth
century. With its rubble stone walls and red brick trim,
the mill follows the type built by S.S. Keely. Having
been tenants of Keely, it appears likely that he would
have constructed their mill. When completed two years
later, the date 1884 was laid into the brickwork of its
smoke stack where it is still clearly visible from Ridge
Avenue. 4
The process of spinning carpet yarn from wool stock has
not changed much over the years, with the exception of
the introduction of labor saving devices and the
evolution of improvements to those machines.
5
At John Wilde and
Brother the acquisition of such machines led, in part, to
the expansion of the mill. In 1932 the reinforced
concrete and brick mill on Main Street was constructed
down the rocky hillside from the earlier mill. Its
structural system required fewer interior piers which
resulted in more open space to accommodate larger, more
modern machinery. Presently this mill houses the carding,
twisting, spinning, and winding machinery. The carpet
yarn process at the Wilde mill currently takes place in
three buildings, the last one added in 1983; designed by
Reshetar Architect, Inc., the reinforced concrete
structure embellished with terra cotta tile, stands atop
a rubble rock foundation (of the earlier Wissahickon
Plush Mill) next to the first mill and serves as a
warehouse.
Bales of scoured wool from a variety of world markets
arrive at the Wilde mill and are delivered to the
warehouse, maintaining the inventory necessary to
anticipate and fill its orders. 6
From there the
bales are fork-lifted into the top floor of the 1884 mill
for blending. As much of the finish product of the mill
consists of natural colored yarns, an assortment of wools
makes up the inventory. The technique of blending the
various colors achieves the distinction in the yarns. On
this same floor six large Lumming feeding machines
combine different types of wool to make a homogeneous
blend layers, or the blended wool. Next the wool travels
to a baling machine. Forced air blows it down to the
floor below where it is compressed, strapped and stored
as bales. To insure a good blend, the wool is put through
this process three times. On one of the passes, a
lubricant is added to aid in the processing and a
pre-carder opens the fibers in preparation for carding.
The spinning of a customer's order begins when the bales
leave the old mill and slide on an enclosed incline down
the hillside between the two mill buildings, landing near
the carding machines. Situated on the top floor of the
new mill, six large Davies and Ferber carding machines
use toothed rollers to comb the fibers of the wool
straight. With accurate measuring devices these machines
weigh the raw wool before carding to establish the size
of the finished yarn. 7
The product of
carding, called roving, looks like finished yarn but has
no twist and no strength. Wound on large spools, the
roving leaves this floor for the one below where it is
placed on continuous ring spinning machines to add the
twist. The machines stretch and twist the roving as it is
wound onto smaller bobbins. Twisting machines fitted with
several bobbins of different yarns twist them together to
achieve the desired number of ply. The Wilde Mill has a
Saco-Lowell overhead creel twisting machine on the second
floor of the newer mill and Whitin twisting machines on
the ground floor of the same mill. The final process
before shipping, involves moving the finished yarns on a
winding machine from the mill’s wooden bobbins onto
paper cones or tubes for shipping and use by the
customer.
Two other machines, which survive from earlier days of
textile production are still in use here. A picker, used
for picking spun yarn, returns it to the appearance of
the raw wool. This mill uses the picker for its small
pieces of yarn called hard waste. The other machine, a
willow or duster, removes short unusable fibers from
waste known as fly, also returning it to pre-combed wool.
Both the willow and the pickers were manufactured
by W.M. Schofield of Manayunk and patented in 1929.
John Wilde and Brother, Inc. and Robert Krook, Inc., 4120
Main Street, survive in Manayunk among the stiff
competition of corporate giants, paralleling the recent
history of industry in America. Within the last twenty
years in Manayunk, six yarn mills have closed, the last,
Blankin Yarn Company, as recently as two years ago.
1 Interview with Russell
Fawley, Jr. and Larry Mason, October 26, 1989. Notes
located at the Philadelphia Historical Commission,
Philadelphia, PA. Mr. Fawley, great grandson of James
Wilde and the present owner of John Wilde and Bro., Inc.,
and Mr. Mason, manager of the mill since 1978, related
that six woolen carpet yarns mills remain in production
in the United States and two of those operate in
Manayunk. The other, Robert Krook, Inc., now at 4120 Main
Street, started in the Philadelphia neighborhood of
Kensington in 1899.
2 Russell Fawley, Jr.,
"The Wilde Affair," Call
of the Wilde , (Fall, 1985), p. 4. John
and Thomas Wilde emigrated from Manchester, England, in
1860 with their father James Wilde. The records and
family recollections appear sketchy, but it is probable
that the thriving textile center of Philadelphia
attracted James to Manayunk to work in the textile trade.
Family records indicate he may have had prior experience
spinning in textile mills in England.
3 Fawley, p. 4. Cards
comb the fibers of wool straight to enable spinning. A
mule, now a dinosaur, drew the carded wool out and added
a twist, producing yarn. More advanced spinning machines,
such as the continuous ring spinning frame, required less
space and eventually replaced the mules. Lorin Blodget.
The Textile Mills of Philadelphia, 1880, pg. 37, lists
the Wilde Brothers with two cards and 600 spindles,
occupying the fifth floor of 50' x 180' in Keely's
Enterprise Mill, spinning wool carpet yarn. Although the
brothers' names are not listed, it is safe to assume
their identity. This Keely mill appears to have been
built for speculation as it was fully occupied by textile
tenants. Robert Wilde, another carpet yarn spinner in
Manayunk, has a separate listing, spinning in another
location.
4 The location of this
mill was described in early documents as Wissahickon
rather than Manayunk. The earlier form of Ridge Avenue
may not have created as distinctive a barrier between the
contemporary community known as Wissahickon and the mill.
Both Wilde brothers resided on Sumac Street in
Wissahickon.
5 Mason interview.
6 Mason interview.
Scouring removed the grease, or lanoline, from the
sheared wool, as burring removed the vegetable and plant
matter left in the wool from the animal's natural
encounter with its environment.
7 According to Mason,
this method of determining yarn size in known as the
Philadelphia system.
Update May
2007 (by
Sara Jane Elk):
John Wilde and Brother, Inc., Blankin Yarn Company
(converted by Dranoff Properties as part of Venice Lofts
in 2007) and Robert Krook, Inc. (4120 Main Street, now
retail), survived in Manayunk among the stiff competition
of corporate giants, paralleling the recent history of
industry in America. Within the last twenty years in
Manayunk, six yarn mills have closed. By 2000, Blankin
and Krook were gone, leaving John Wilde as the last
survivor.
See
also:
Wilde Yarns - corporate
website.