John Wilde & Brother, Inc. Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

National Register Description

The following text is courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

The John Wilde & Brother, Inc. mill was established by brothers John and Thomas Wilde in Manayunk in 1880 for the production of wool carpet yarns. The John Wilde & Brother yarn mill is eligible for the National Register under Criterion A for its association with the textile industry in Philadelphia. Owned and operated by the Wilde family for its duration-1880- 2012-and specializing in the production of wool carpet yarns, the mill stands as a testament to the history of the mills that sparked Philadelphia's industrial growth in the 19th and 20th centuries, and to the small-scale, family-owned business type that was the mainstay of Philadelphia's industrial economy. The period of significance begins with construction of the first mill building in 1884 and ends in 1959 with the death of Russell Fawley, John Wilde's nephew, and the decline of Philadelphia's importance in carpet manufacture. The 1884 and 1932 buildings of the John Wilde & Brother mill retain a strong association with the textile milling industry which once dominated Manayunk's industrial landscape.