This Abandoned Factory used to produce over 15,000 pairs of underwear a day
Chalmers Knitting Mills, Amsterdam New York

Built in two phases in 1913 and 1916, the Chalmers Knitting Mills property was one of the foremost components of the industrial heritage of Amsterdam, helping the city rank second in the United States in textile production at one time. David W. Chalmers and his partners founded their knitting company in 1901 and soon became nationally famous as the makers of the revolutionary and breathable "Porosknit" brand underwear.
The success of Chalmers Knitting Mils was intimately linked to its proprietary use of porosknit, a revolutionary new process developed by veteran Amsterdam knitter Martin Shaughnessy. The process involved the knitting of a fabric in a tight, stable weave, while simultaneously leaving tiny holes at regular intervals. The result was a light, very breathable fabric considered superior to the heavy cotton union suits commonly used in men's undergarments at that time. David Chalmers, John Blood, John Barnes, and Howard Hanson started Chalmers Mills in 1901, leasing a modest factory on Washington Street in Amsterdam. Their workforce numbered less than a hundred and their output of porosknit underwear was estimated at less than 150 dozens per day, but demand was growing as a result of an aggressive national advertising campaign. A 1909 advertisement in the Kansas City Star featured an adolescent boy playing with a ball and hailed the underwear as "clean, cool and sanitary" and as "fit, wear and real summer comfort-Freedom in Action." In the following years, the ads became more sophisticated and larger. An example appearing in The Macon Daily Telegraph (Georgia) noted the superiority of Porosknit to union suits and claimed that the new product "yield[s] to every movement, fit[s] everywhere and bind[s] nowhere...the open texture lets your body breathe and evaporates the hot perspiration." By 1913, the advertisements shifted subtlety but importantly, instead of advertising underwear for boys and showing active young men in their product, the porosknit ads now marketed to full-grown males. For the next two decades, the ads featured athletic young men bowling, boxing, fencing and sprinting clad only in their porosknit underwear. The campaign was extensive: ads appeared in newspapers across the country, in popular magazines like Good Housekeeping and McClures, Chalmers even had a large and costly electric sign right in the middle of New York City's Time Square. Not only were Chalmer's ads amongst the earliest print ads for underwear in what became a Golden Age of American illustration, but undergarment historians also recognize Chalmers' contribution to the future of men's underwear styling, near the end of the 1910s, Chalmers divided the union suit into upper and lower sections, effectively inventing the modern undershirt and drawers.
Chalmers' advertising reached millions and Chalmers Knitting Mills soon outgrew its leased quarters on Washington Street. In 1912-3 the company began construction of mill on Bridge Street in the fifth ward, and by August 2, 1913, the Amsterdam Evening Recorder and Daily Democrat reported that the company began occupancy of "its great new factory building." A short time later in 1916, the company decided to erect a new spinning mill to manufacture its own high-quality combed yarns because such yarns were only available from one source in the entire country.'" The company selected reinforced concrete as the material for the new building and selected the premier contractor in the use of that material, the Turner Construction Company as the builder. The August 28, 1916 issue of the Amsterdam Evening Recorder and Daily Democrat reported "Rapid progress being shown by Turner Construction Company in the erection of seven-story concrete addition to plant of the Chalmers Knitting Company, which is expected to double employment and capacity of plant." The water tower of the new plant would be the tallest structure on the south shores of the Mohawk.
Less than a year later, the United States entered World War I, and Chalmers Knitting Mills received a government contract to make undergarments for the Navy and Army. Post-war, however, the company suffered a downturn as new fabrics like nainsook challenged knitted fabrics for a cut of the underwear market that Chalmers had so adeptly branded itself into. A 1922 report by the Knit Goods Manufactures of America noted that the American public had been "easily persuaded" into buying cheap nainsook underwear; the authors of the report concluded that a massive educational campaign was necessary to undermine the popularity of the inferior garments. Chalmers continued its print ad campaign but pulled the $3000/month Times Square electric light billboard in 1922. By the 1930s, Chalmers Knitting Mills was facing the economic slowdown of the Great Depression that claimed many industries in Amsterdam and well beyond. Rival companies, based in the American south-where cheaper, non-union labor was available, produced a less expensive product and further cut into Chalmers Knitting Mills' profits. The 1940s saw a brief revival as World War II government contracts brought enough of a temporary infusion of cash and demand to keep the mills running. During the war, Chalmers Knitting Mills employed almost 600 hands, and produced dozens daily, almost ten times the amount produced at the old Washington Street factory. At war's end, David Chalmers sold his mill to Lester Martin and Company. After Martin died in 1959, the property changed hands multiple times until the 1980s when the building became permanently vacant.
History of Amsterdam
Amsterdam was initially slow to develop as a settlement. The Mohawk River valley provided a natural, fertile and reasonably level corridor through the Appalachian Mountain system, but these qualities made the area strategically valuable and placed it at the center of a North American war zone until after the Revolutionary War. In about 1785, a small mill community was established to take advantage of the waterpower afforded by the Chuctanunda Creek at its confluence with the Mohawk River. Situated on the north bank of the Mohawk, the settlement was originally known as Vedder's Mills or Veddersburg, but was renamed Amsterdam in 1804. While it experienced moderate growth in the early nineteenth century, after the Civil War Amsterdam became a leading industrial and commercial center for New York State and beyond. Amsterdam was well-positioned to take advantage of major east-west infrastructure like the Erie Canal and rail service, allowing people and goods to flow into, out of, and through Amsterdam. Driven by the twin catalysts of industry and immigration, the Gilded Age population of Amsterdam rose dramatically. From a village of 4500 people, Amsterdam grew to an incorporated city of over 17,000 in just a few decades; by World War I that population number had doubled again.
The area south of the Mohawk River at Amsterdam initially evolved as a separate community known as Port Jackson. Incorporated as a village in 1852, Port Jackson was a moderately successful center of trade and light industry with a cluster of commercial buildings, worker dwellings, and factories. Although separate in name, Amsterdam and Port Jackson had long been physically linked by ferry service, an 1821 bridge, and by rail service on the West Shore Railroad. In 1888 the city of Amsterdam annexed Port Jackson, the village's 953 residents now constituted part of the fifth ward of the growing city.
Industrial History of Amsterdam
The earliest industrial ventures at Amsterdam were the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century mills sited along the Chuctanunda Creek; a traveler in 1802 noted the presence of "4 grist mills, 2 oil mills, one iron forge, and 3 sawmills". Large-scale industry began to take root in Amsterdam in the mid-nineteenth century when the Kelloggs & Miller Company moved its linseed oil operations to Amsterdam (1851). The city and its industries would grow steadily throughout the nineteenth century. Historian Hugh Dolon noted in his 1980 work Anals of a Mill Town that Amsterdam supported a wide variety of industry-including factories that made soap, clothes wringers, coffins, hubs, shoes, furniture, needles, "mendets" (for repairing kitchen appliances), and sports equipment. Likewise, an entire sector of the city's industry was dedicated to supplying other factories with raw materials, parts, and equipment. There were factories making pumps, paper boxes and dyeing machines, three separate iron foundries (the Amsterdam Iron Works, the Hoel McElwain Foundry, and the Perkins Foundry), and two spring works, including the largest one in the United States. The Industrial Revolution that hit post-Civil War Amsterdam was not limited to steel foundries and sooty factories; commercial farming operations from across the nation fed granaries and breweries in Amsterdam which in turn shipped tens of thousands of barrels of beer and malted beverages across New York State (and watered the more than 60 bars in the city itself). At one point 750,000 bushels of flax yearly made their way into Amsterdam's oil mills via the canal and railroads. The oil mills turned the flax into 1.7 million barrels of oil and 15,000 tons of oil cake annually, almost 200 times the yearly output of Kelloggs & Millers original 1851 mills.
Among all the industries in Amsterdam, five stand out as the city's true giants: brooms, buttons, carpet mills, knitting mills, and the aforementioned linseed oil industry. By 1900, the broom industries at Amsterdam were largest in the world; 800 hands employed at nine factories produced 2,000 brooms per day." Before the decade was out, the daily production would be over ten times that figure. Isaac Lyon's 1907 report on Amsterdam's industries noted that the city made 7.5 million brooms annually, consuming tens of millions of pounds of broomcorn in the process.
Amsterdam had the largest pearl button factory in the world. In 1912, Arthur Chalmer's Hampshire Pearl Button Factory produced over $1.5 million worth of buttons annually. A 2008 Schenectady Daily Gazette article noted "At one time, buttons were so plentiful in Amsterdam that walkways at Jollyland amusement park, now Shuttleworth Park, were paved with discarded buttons.
Amsterdam ranked among the top cities in the world in the production of carpets. The earliest carpet factory was started in 1842, and by the turn of the century, Amsterdam was a carpet city. Philadelphia led the world in carpet manufacturing in 1907, and Amsterdam had the impressive distinction of being second. Amsterdam's 10 million yards of carpets in 1907 was one-eighth of the total for the entire United States, and the city's mills could ship out as many as 20,000 finished rolls in a single month. The carpet industry survived at Amsterdam well into the twentieth century. In 1912, three mills produced almost 7,000 miles of carpeting. In the 1940s, over 5,500 people worked at just one of the mills (Mohawk Mill), at time when the entire city's population was only about 33,000. Dr. Susan Dauria noted in her work, Deindustrialization and the Construction of History and Ethnic Identity: The Case of Amsterdam, New York, that every third person in the city was employed in the carpet industry in the 1950s.
The Knitting Industry
At the height of its industrial power, more people were probably employed in the knitting industry in Amsterdam than in any other single industry. John Maxwell started the industry in Amsterdam when he had the first mill built in 1857. As technology moved away from waterpower and towards steam power, knitting factories correspondingly moved away from outlying creek areas and towards the center of Amsterdam where railroad and canal facilities provided better access for moving raw materials and finished goods.' Amsterdam's knitting industry grew steadily throughout the late nineteenth century and by the 1870s and 1880s, there were dozens of large-scale knitting operations. Among the most prominent were the Riverside Mill of Warner, Deforest, Sugden and Faulds, the Schuyler & Blood Mills, the Spartan Mills, the Greene Knitting Mill, the Yund, Kennedy & Yund Mills, the Gardiner & Warring Mills, the Royal Mills of Van Brocklin and Snyder, and the Park Knitting Mills Company. In 1900 (the year before David Chalmers began the last major knitting milling operations in Amsterdam) the Amsterdam Board of Trade's Official Manual noted that Amsterdam had over thirty knitting mills, giving employment to over 4,500 hands, with an aggregate daily capacity of over 4500 dozens. During the first decade of the twentieth century, the United States ranked first in the world in the production of machine-knitted goods, and in his 1907 report on industry in the city, Isaac Lyon noted that Amsterdam ranked third in the United States, behind only Philadelphia and Cohoes. Cohoes was only $800,000 ahead of Amsterdam, and Lyon was confident that Amsterdam would make up the difference and surpass Cohoes within the decade. By the time of the 1912 Amsterdam Board of Trade annual report, Amsterdam had surpassed Cohoes and was ranked second in the United States; that report noted the city's knitting mills employed over 6,000 people and combined turned out a staggering $10,000,000 in goods annually-beating Cohoes by over a million. As part of the impressive figures given in the 1912 report, the Board of Trade including the following:
Much of the city's success in the cornering of the mesh underwear market could be attributed to the Chalmers Knitting Mills.
Building Description
Chalmers Knitting Mills occupies a large (2.5 acre) lot at the corner of Bridge St. and Gilliland Ave. in the City of Amsterdam, NY, and is bordered to the north-northeast by the Mohawk River. The intersection of the two streets and the spatial relationship to the Mohawk River had an impact on the overall footprint of the property, which was the result of two distinct construction phases. The earlier (1913) block consists of a four-story brick building with an "L" footprint; the interior angle of the "L" however, is not a perfect 90 as the building was aligned with the angle of Bridge Street. The later (1916) block consists of a seven-story reinforced concrete addition attached at matching angles (i.e. not 90) to form a truncated "U" which gives the overall footprint of the building the shape of an offset box or trapezoid, wrapped around an open-air courtyard. On both the concrete and brick blocks, the roof is flat and coated in asphalt and the foundation is poured concrete.
The earlier block is brick over a frame of structural steel girders and beams with timber support columns; the 1916 addition is a steel frame structure with reinforced concrete walls and supports. The building fronts along Gilliland Ave. for 310' and along Bridge Street for 235' and is approximately 50' wide, giving an overall square footage of almost 240,000 ft.
Fenestration varies by bay and elevation, but all the window types are stylistically similar in the 1916 block. All windows in the concrete block are recessed, set into metal frames, and have concrete sills with concrete panels underneath. All the windows on the concrete block are made up of varying combinations and patterns of small, standardized rectangular lights of wire glass. The use of standardized panes, coupled with the overall grid pattern of the building, means each individual "box" of the grid can be no more than five lights high and thirteen lights wide. In almost all cases, each box contains a tripartite arrangement of central 3 x 5 light hopper-action window flanked by two 5 x 5 light windows (which do not open); the three windows are separated by robust steel mullions that frame in the central window. In bays containing (the stairs nearest the corners of the buildings), the fenestration changes slightly. Instead of the tripartite arrangement, these bays usually have a paired set of hopper action 3 x 5 light windows, separated by a robust steel central mullion. Concrete panels infill the rest of the space in the boxes. The footprint of the building is not square, but rather offset at angle to conform to the existing street configuration. The short axis "ends" of the concrete block building were thus angled and the regular grid became more squat as a result.
The Bridge Street elevation is constructed entirely of brick, being on one of the two short axes of the building; however, because the later (1916), reinforced concrete structure is taller than its earlier brick counterpart, the southeast (courtyard) facade of three stories of the concrete building is visible on this elevation. This protruding section reads as an elevation more properly described as a courtyard elevation and thus will be described under a separate heading for ease of description and understanding. The southeast elevation of the brick addition is thus composed of two blocks. The primary block is a four-story (plus one more below ground), sixteen-bay continuous facade, expressed as a grid of red brick with large windows as the infill. Fenestration is the dominant visual feature of the elevation. The windows consist of sixteen rectangular lights divided from each other by narrow wooden mullions and separated into a four-part effect of two sets of 1 x 1 above two sets of 2 x 4 by a large cross-shaped mullion in the center. The windows are set into wooden frames, are slightly recessed, and have cast stone lintels. Many of the lights have been broken and lost since the building was abandoned in the mid-1980s. Detailing includes a treated cornice with elaborate corbelled brackets, stepped courses, and dentils. The secondary block on the southeast elevation is a two-story brick structure formerly used as office space. It is five bays wide and expresses a similar brick grid pattern with window infill. Window openings are roughly the same size as the primary block, are recessed, and are set in identical wooden frames with cast stone lintels. The only difference is the size and number of lights, the office windows having six larger lights, separated into a four-part effect of two sets of 1 x 1 above two sets of 2 x 2 by a large cross-shaped mullion in the center. The corbelled cornice effect is exactly the same as already described. A pair of wooden, paneled doors in the first bay completes the fenestration for this elevation.
The northeast elevation is visually divided into three parts. Looking from east to north ding the elevation reveals the northeast elevation of the two-story office block, the long axis of the four-story brick block (1913), and the short axis of the seven-story reinforced concrete block addition (1916).
The two-story office block is three bays wide, in the same grid pattern already described. The grid on the two first bays contains the same windows already described on the office block, and the third bay has brick infill.
The long axis of the brick block (1913) is twenty-six bays wide, expressing the same grid pattern and window types already described on the previous elevation; the elaborate corbelled cornice treatment continues for the entire elevation as well. There is a six-bay gap in the fenestration where the four-story Drying Building once attached to the brick block as an ell, but this building is now a one-story ruin.
The reinforced concrete block axis is three bays wide, and seven stories tall. The concrete frame is expressed in a light-colored grid on the building exterior with narrow windows and concrete panels as the infill. Decoration consists of a corner unit that houses the roof access from the stairs with parapeted decorative coping and recessed panels. The block also features a frieze band near the cornice with decorative patterned recessed and raised areas of concrete. As noted, the three bays on this elevation are squatter than the other sides and thus have a different fenestration pattern. The windows consist of individual lights of rectangular wire glass, but they have been rotated so the long axis is parallel to the ground. This arrangement allows for fifteen (3 x 5) individual lights in each box and gives the window an overall more square appearance. There are still two robust center mullions creating a tripartite effect, but the center component is only 1 x 5 lights.
The northwest elevation is eight bays wide and seven stories tall. The concrete frame is expressed as a light-colored grid on the building exterior with narrow windows and concrete panels as the infill. All of the windows on this elevation are the standard tripartite arrangement of central 3 x 5 light hopper-action windows flanked by two 5 x 5 light windows (which do not open); the three windows are separated by robust steel mullions that frame in the central window. Decoration consists of a corner unit that houses the roof access from the stairs with parapeted decorative coping and recessed panels and the cornice frieze with decorative patterned recessed and raised areas of concrete. The west corner of the building has been molded into a curve. Slight incised lines from the form are still visible and give the corner a fluted look when examined up close.
The southwest elevation, like other elevations where the 1916 concrete block addition meets the 1913 brick block, is visually divided; in this case, the elevation is divided into two parts. The concrete block is twelve bays wide and seven stories tall. All of the windows in the middle of this elevation are the standard tripartite arrangement of central 3 x 5 light hopper-action windows flanked by two 5 x 5 light windows (which do not open); the three windows are separated by robust steel mullions that frame in the central window. The two end bays (westernmost and southernmost) light the stair tower and contain sets of hopper action 3 x 5 light windows, separated by a robust steel central mullion. Decoration is the same as already described, and consists of a corner unit that houses the roof access from the stairs with parapeted decorative coping and recessed panels and the cornice frieze with decorative patterned recessed and raised areas of concrete. There is also a mission-style parapet centered in the elevation, above the sixth bay. The rounded corner at the western terminus has already been described, and there is a matching rounded corner at the southern terminus, although it is partially subsumed by the brick addition.
The 1913 brick block is four stories tall and seven bays wide, expressed as a grid of red brick with large windows as the infill. Fenestration consists of sixteen rectangular lights divided from each other by narrow wooden mullions and separated into a four-part effect of two sets of 1 x 1 above two sets of 2 x 4 by a large cross-shaped mullion in the center. Detailing includes a treated cornice with elaborate corbelled brackets, stepped courses, and dentils.
The courtyard consists of the open ground space created by the joining of the two blocks, and thus is an irregularly shaped trapezoid. The footprint of the courtyard is further altered in the west and east corners by jogs for stair towers in the concrete and blocks (respectively). In detailing, the courtyard elevations differ little from the exterior facades already described. They are large grids of brick or concrete (depending on block) in-filled with large windows to light the stories. Windows in both blocks are stylistically similar to those already described, there are no unique window styles or decorative elements on either. Practically speaking, the only difference between the courtyard elevations and the outward-facing elevations is the lack of a cornice treatment on the courtyard elevations of the brick block. In place of the elaborate corbelled brackets, stepped courses and dentils is a simple wooden eave overhang. The courtyard elevations of the concrete block still exhibit the decorative cornice treatments and parapeted rooflines and are fully visible from the exterior because of the story/height difference between the concrete and brick blocks. Most of the land area of the courtyard is currently taken up by a large electrical generator.
Interior
The brick block is open, mostly unimproved warehouse space with 12.6' ceilings. The structural system is composed of massive steel girders and beams, joined by riveted end-caps and held up by large timber support posts. The flooring is tongue and groove over two wood subfloors. Wall surfaces are painted brick, except in the lobby (as noted below). Ceilings are finished tongue and groove planking. Door openings are arched brick with wooden doors. The stairs have a more finished and polished look in the brick addition, probably due to the presence of the offices. A notable example is entirely constructed of cast iron, including the railings, but the brass manufacturer's plate could not be read.
The offices and main lobby of the Chalmers Knitting Mills were in the two-story brick block accessed via the Bridge Street Entrance. The lobby walls are finished with plaster above stained wainscoting, and the floors are wide tongue and groove hardwood. A stairwell of finished wood with turned spindles and a stained square support post accesses the second floor.
The Concrete Block Addition interior is open and unimproved warehouse space on most floors, with massive flared "mushroom" columns for support. The floors are concrete covered with a layer of tongue and groove wood flooring. Wall spaces are smooth concrete, often painted. Ceilings are mostly unfinished concrete, but some have wooden tongue and groove finishes. As befitting the buildings usage, ceiling height is tall-about 12.6', which easily accommodates the 9' windows. Several spaces have been delineated for restrooms and other employee facilities. The stairs are constructed of cast concrete with steel railings.






Office and brick block (1913) entrance facade (2008)

Concrete block (1916) typical elevation (2008)

Courtyard from roof (2008)

Interior brick block (1913) (2008)

Interior concrete block (1916) (2008)
