Shirts were Manufactured in this NY Mill Until 19655


Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York
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Date added: December 13, 2024
East and north elevations (2017)

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The Fuller Shirt Company Factory is located at 45 Pine Grove Avenue, in Kingston, New York. Fuller Shirt Company was a prominent early-to-mid-twentieth century shirt manufacturer, and the subsequent Kingston Shirt Company operated here intermittently between 1892 to c.1965. First established in 1906, with later additions dating to c. 1928-c.1957, the facility was a local early-twentieth century Kingston manufacturing enterprise. The company was originally founded in 1892 by Isaiah Fuller and housed in a building located on Prince Street. As the company grew, it became evident that a new factory was needed. The company relocated to Pine Grove Avenue, adjacent to the West Shore Railroad, which offered convenient means of product and material shipment, and constructed a new factory on the site. The company, which remained in family hands, continued to be a formidable presence in local industry during the next decades. After Isaiah Fuller's death, his son, James Fuller, took over the business in 1914. Unfortunately, James Fuller's tenure was short; he passed away four years later. Under the direction of his sister, Annie K. Fuller, the company continued to operate at a high level, leading to a need for additional expansion. In 1928, a one-story addition was built to accommodate the new production increase. The company remained status quo through much of the 1930s. By 1939, the company joined partnership with the Skyline Manufacturing Company and proceeded to share the factory building with them. A third addition was slated for 1947, this time a three-story addition. Production peaked for the company between the late-1940s to the early-1950s. This success attracted suitors, namely the John B. Stetson Company, who in 1956 bought the company. The final addition was constructed the following year. By 1961, the Stetson Company ceased operations at the factory and the newly formed Kingston Shirt Company, led by James K. Fuller, acquired the building. Operations continued until 1965 when manufacturing ceased entirely and the building was closed.

Isaiah Fuller established the Fuller Shirt Company in 1892 on Prince Street in Kingston. By 1906, the company had outgrown its original headquarters. That year, they built and relocated to a new factory at 45 Pine Grove Ave. The new building was located adjacent to the West Shore Railroad in an industrial neighborhood which was centrally located between the former Stockade section of Kingston to the neighboring Roundout shipyards. A vacant warehouse was on the site of the subject property, surrounded by single family homes and the Pallen Company, a manufacturer of bottle caps. The Fuller Shirt Company demolished the existing warehouse in 1906 to make way for a three-story L-shaped brick building constructed for the manufacture of shirts.

The Fuller Shirt Company continued to operate from 45 Pine Grove, but by the 1920s, the company had already outgrown the building. In 1928, in order to accommodate for expansion, the company added a one-story concrete slab steel-frame addition for warehousing and shipping to the rear of the building. An additional concrete one-story stock room was added to the factory building in the same year.

During the Great Depression, the company continued to operate, though at a lower rate than in the 1920s. The company's production picked up after World War II, requiring the Fuller Shirt Company to construct a three-story brick addition added to the west elevation of the original factory building in 1947. The addition provided housing for new machinery and other equipment necessary for increased production. After the completion of the 1947 addition, the building was listed as 45-57 Pine Grove Avenue, due to its increase in size. The Fuller Shirt Company continued to expand operations at the building into the mid-twentieth century by 50 percent. They also increased their workforce by 50 percent in 1956 by hiring an additional 100 workers in 1956.

The Fuller Shirt Company's sweeping success under William Fuller in the 1950s attracted the attention from famous hat manufacturer John B. Stetson Company. By December 1956, the Fuller Shirt Company was sold to Stetson, putting an end to the family-run company tradition at Fuller. By 1957 Stetson had added a 35,000 square foot stock room. After the sale, Stetson continued to operate and produce shirts under the Fuller name, retaining all of the company's 350 employees.

The Fuller Shirt Company, under Stetson's ownership, continued to thrive until 1961, when Stetson ceased operations. The Fuller family, under James K. Fuller, got back into the shirt business with the Kingston Shirt Company, a division of the Ramar Shirt Company, located within the Pine Grove building. The Kingston Shirt Company specialized in the manufacture of high-quality boys shirts.

By the mid-1960s, the Kingston Shirt Company had ceased operations, and the Fuller family left the shirt industry for good. Another clothing company, Shane Fashions Inc., moved into the building in 1968. With decreased production in the building, in 1972, a section of the warehouse was converted for US Post Office storage. The 1928 warehouse section of the building was converted for use as a radiology center in the 1990s. Some of the factory space was converted to offices in the late 20th Century. Today, the building is largely vacant, though the radiology center still operates in the 1928 section.

History of the Garment Industry in New York State

From the 19th Century to the mid-twentieth century, the northeastern US was a textile industry hub. New York State, in particular, was known for clothing manufacturing. While the state's center of production was in New York City, substantial garment manufacturing was undertaken in other areas of the state, including the Hudson River Valley, Troy, and Rochester. In the early 19th Century, New York State first assumed its role as the center of the US garment industry by producing clothing for slaves on southern plantations and for soldiers in the War of 1812. These goods were referred to as "slop work" due to the fact that the products were inexpensively made and of low quality. During this period, most Americans made their own clothing. The wealthy could afford to purchase "tailor made" clothing from seamstresses and tailors. But, as the 19th Century progressed, pre-made clothing was made more readily available to a larger market.

Starting in the 1820s, clothing was produced through a "putting out" system, where workers assembled articles of clothing at home either through piece-work or construction of an entire garment. Early clothing manufacturers predominantly hired women to assemble clothing at home as they would work for only 25-50 percent of the rate of a male tailor. These skilled seamstresses were predominantly poor immigrants or migrants from rural areas.'? While the work was taxing and underpaid, garment work was one of the few areas where women, particularly widows, could find work and thus became the largest employment sector for women by 1860.

Production of mass-scale pre-made clothing began in the 1850s with the advent of the commercial sewing machine, first introduced in 1852 by Gardner and White in Troy, for use in the city's collar factories. The steam-powered sewing machine not only increased business for seamstresses and tailors but also helped smaller companies expand into larger manufacturing operations. At the same time as the sewing machine increased the speed of production, the rise of turnpikes, canals, and the New England textile industry expanded the market further inland. Small and mid-sized garment shops emerged throughout New York State, with concentrations in Rochester and Troy. By the 1860s, the majority of Americans were buying more ready-made clothes than making them at home. Expansion of the ready-made clothing industry was further spurred by the Civil War, when thousands of uniforms were needed. Both the Union and Confederacy established sizing standards which remained as industry norms after the war ended. The method of production shifted away from the "putting out" system to a contractor system. Textile manufacturers would produce the clothing design and fabric and then sell to individual contractors who would hire skilled workers to turn the fabric into clothing.

With the increase in immigration in the late 19th Century, New York City had both the pre-established distribution network through railroads and the inexpensive labor required to produce clothing on a mass-scale, affirming its position as the center of the garment industry. During the 1870s the value of New York-produced garments increased by six times. Clothing production boomed throughout the 1880s and 1890s, rising to New York's second highest industry after sugar refining. Furthermore, as New York became a cultural and fashion center, manufacturers had easy access to the latest fashions and high-end markets. By 1910, 70 percent of women's and 40 percent of men's clothing was produced in New York City.

At the same time as New York was positioning itself as the center of the clothing industry, the nature of clothing manufacturing was changing. As the scale and demand for pre-made clothing expanded with a growing middle class and the corresponding national population increase, the nature of clothing manufacturing again changed. The "putting out" and contractor systems utilized earlier in the century were less efficient than a manufacturer producing and designing clothing with in-house workers-otherwise known as "sweatshops." By the turn of the 20th Century most ready-made clothing came from sweatshops. In the sweatshop system, each worker was given a specific task; all workers were paid by the amount of clothing the group produced. While some skilled workers were employed in this system, the nature of the work allowed manufacturers to hire unskilled workers at lower wages. Physical conditions in the sweatshops, particularly those in New York City, were often cramped, unsanitary, and dangerous.

New York City remained the center for garment manufacturing, but small towns in New York State, like Kingston, also flourished during this period. In a report by the Kingston Board of Trade from 1903, it was noted that "the statistics of the manufacturing interests in Kingston and in our neighboring cities, as published by the census bureau [for the period 1800-1900] show an increase in the value of manufactured products in the state of New York by 27 percent. In the 1910s Kingston's clothing manufacturing industry exploded. Kingston's clothing factories received textiles from Northeastern US mills where they were manufactured into clothing. After shirts were put together, ironed, and boxed, they were shipped to a distribution office in New York City which would sell the shirts to various shops and department stores." The mass production of shirts in Kingston bolstered other industries in Kingston, including the local paper box factory.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, sweatshops located in New York City came under fire for unsafe and exploitative working environments. Following Mary Harris "Mother" Jones's "March of the Mill Children" to President Theodore Roosevelt's house at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay and the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, public awareness was drawn to the plight of child labor and unsafe working conditions in garment factories. These events galvanized workers to organize and take collective action against exploitative employers, forming unions and striking. Unionization in New York City raised wages, improved working conditions, and stabilized the labor force, which came at a cost to factory owners. As a result, small towns and cities in New York State, like Kingston, received an influx of industry. The Kingston Daily Freeman cites that Kingston, in particular, "was rapidly becoming known in the industry as a center of fine quality shirt manufacturing with standards of stitching equal to the best in the country." Garment companies that located to Kingston in this era included: Millen, Aikenhead & Co., Shirt Factory, Greenkill Avenue (1875); E.E. Fessenden Shirt Company, Cornell Street (1914); F. Jacobsen & Sons, Cornell Street (1915); Charchain Shirt Factory, later known as the Manhattan Shirt Co., Cornell St. & Smith Avenue (1916); Tomassian Shirt Factory, 42 Thomas Street (c. 1920); the Garma Shirt Company, location unknown (c. 1920); Millen Shirt Factory, location unknown (1922); and the Colombia Shirt Factory, O'Neill Street, later known as Jayson Classics (1941).

Female labor had always been preferred in the clothing industry throughout New York State and New York City due to lower wage rates and higher skill levels in clothing production. However, during the early twentieth century, Kingston's female workers experienced a higher level of independence than women in downstate factories. Due to an unprecedented amount of garment orders from department stores, combined with the establishment of many new factories around the turn of the century, factories were constantly seeking workers. Female workers were subject to discrimination, but often had experience in sewing and producing clothing at home. The proliferation of a steady factory work gave Kingston women an advantage over workers in New York City, who were easily replaced due to the sheer volume of the available workforce. New York City workers were expected to produce a high volume to remain employed, but Kingston workers could work at a slower and steadier pace without fear of losing employment. By 1916, the average female clothing worker in Kingston was earning $15-20 per week, while men were only earning $12. Wages were higher than any other vocation available to women in the early 20th Century, including teachers. In 1917, F. Jacobsen and Son erected a new shirt factory in Kingston, citing this as his reason for location: "[T]he reason why Kingston was selected to erect this modern plant is because business investigation showed that the girls of Kingston were more energetic and progressive than in any other city in the state … the majority of positions are filled with local residents."

The clothing industry reached its height in New York in the 1920s. Changing tastes in men's clothing reflecting a preference for attached versus detached collars negatively impacted the collar industry in Troy (which had taken off with the invention of the detachable collar in that city); however, the New York City and Rochester industries continued to thrive, as did those in small towns like Kingston. But, by the close of the 1920s, New York City's garment manufacturers could no longer keep up with the costs of production and their already cramped urban factories could not accommodate for increased clothing demand. At the same time, increased labor costs stemming from unionization and the state's stringent workplace safety regulations pushed an increasing number of garment manufacturers out of New York City. For instance, in 1919, 58 percent of the nation's garment workforce was based in New York State, but it had decreased to 36 percent by 1948. As a result, many of the city's industries relocated to the countryside or out of state. Amidst this market instability, a national shortage of men's clothing occurred during World War II, as wartime production of civilian goods was limited.

Despite the downward production trends for the New York State garment industry, the Post-War period saw renewed prosperity. New York City gained a renewed status as a fashion capital with the latest high-end designers. The US textile industry started declining by the mid-twentieth century, but the pace of decline sharply increased by the 1960s. Simultaneous to a national trend of deindustrialization, and the relocation of the textile industry to the Southeast US (Sunbelt), the northeastern clothing industry also steadily declined, with mass Mid Atlantic and New England factory closures throughout the 1950s and 1960s. On top of national trends, new technologies in the creation of clothing, including knit and synthetic fabrics, rendered many of the hand-sewing and sewing machine-operator based factories of the early 20th Century obsolete. New factories in the Sunbelt employed state-of-the-art technologies, including the latest and most productive looms and were constructed according to the most up-to-date standards, single-floor construction and concrete floors, for example, to make the use of lift trucks possible. At the same time, foreign competition was taking up much of the share of the market-the US was no longer the leader in clothing production. As imports flooded domestic markets, US manufacturers struggled to compete due to high production costs, including the cost of labor, the replacement of outdated machinery, and the quality and variety of styles being imported. The old Northeastern factories could no longer compete. Many US-based clothing manufacturers sought to relocate to the Sunbelt, where the cost of labor was less expensive and new factories with the latest technologies could be easily constructed. The combination of the import-based market, increased automation and relocation forced many of the Northeast factories to close their doors by the end of the 1960s. By the 1980s, New York State's share of the US garment industry had fallen to 13 percent, from 36 percent in 1948.

Kingston fought to adapt to the changing marketplace. Barclay, a manufacturer of knitted outerwear, installed an IBM 632 Electronic Typing Calculator in order to increase the efficiency. Some clothing manufacturers, including the Fuller Shirt Company, made a concerted effort to stay in Kingston; however, many manufacturing companies could not fight the rising tide and closed their Kingston operations by the 1960s.

The Fuller Shirt Company

Isaiah Fuller (1846-1914) was raised on a farm, but he went on to become the head of one of the largest shirt factories in New York State. Early in his career, Isaiah was a prison warden, then served in the New York State Legislature, before founding the Fuller Shirt Company. Isaiah Fuller established the company in Kingston on the second floor of the Lawton Building, located on Prince Street, in 1892. Upon opening, the company provided sewing services and employed six women. After two years at the Prince Street location, the Fuller Shirt Company expanded, with a total of 155 sewing machines, employing 140 women. One year later, the Fuller Shirt Company hired an additional 60 employees. With this expanded workforce, the company achieved a daily output of 2,100 shirts, becoming one of the largest shirt manufacturers in Kingston.

By 1906, the Fuller Shirt Company had outgrown its original headquarters on Prince Street and moved to a new site at 45 Pine Grove Ave in Kingston's midtown industrial district. The area, which had grown up around the West Shore Railroad, spanned from the former Stockade section of Kingston to the neighboring Roundout shipyards. The neighboring railroad provided access for shipping and receiving. The property Fuller purchased was home to a vacant warehouse and surrounded by single-family homes and the Pallen Company, a manufacturer of bottle caps. The existing warehouse was demolished to construct Fuller's new three-story L-shaped brick building for the expanded shirt manufacturing operation. Starting with the move, Fuller's son, James S. Fuller, began to take a larger role in the company's operations.

By the end of the 1910s, Kingston had four shirt manufacturing companies, including the Fuller Shirt Company: the Charchian Company, located on Field Circle; the Millen Aikenhead Company, located at 49 Greenkill Avenue, and the New Columbia Shirt Company, located at 69 Oneil Street. All of the factories were located in the Midtown district of Kingston, each with excellent access to the West Shore Railroad.

During the early 20th Century, under James S. Fuller's leadership, the Fuller Shirt Company grew quickly, and continued to seek new employees. While the majority of the company's workers were women, some ads began to call for men specifically. When Isaiah Fuller died in 1914, James took full control over the company. Just four years after Isaiah's death, James, at that point a long-term invalid, died from a leg wound.

Following James's death in 1918, a new chapter began for the family-run company. Anna K. Fuller, Isaiah's daughter and James's sister, who was also known as "Miss Annie," became president of the company. She was noted for using human understanding and kindness to sympathize with employees and established close employee-employer relationships. An article from the Kingston Daily Freeman of May 13th, 1937 praised her, stating: "[I]t has been through her courage and her personal interest in the welfare of her employees that the business has grown to where it is today." Annie was also involved in the Fair Street Reform Church and Y.W.C.A. volunteer charity events, as well as a group for employees in clothing manufacturing. After Annie Fuller took over the company, the nature of advertisements and the company culture shifted to providing a more pleasant working environment for the majority-female workers. An employment advertisement from 1918 noted the "congenial, friendly, and ambitious" female employees as one of the benefits of working at Fuller. Additional advertisements emphasized good wages and a "pleasant" working environment.

The Fuller Shirt Company continued to thrive throughout the 1920s, as did the overall shirt manufacturing industry in Kingston. By 1920, there were two additional companies which constructed factories in Kingston, the Fessenden Shirt Co, located at 131 Cornell Street, and the Jacobson F. and Sons Co, located at the corner of Cornell Street and Smith Avenue. Both of these companies continued the trend of industrial development in and around the West Shore Railroad. In 1928, in order to accommodate continued expansion, the Fuller Shirt Company added a one-story concrete slab steel-frame addition for warehousing and shipping to the rear of the building. An additional concrete one-story stock room was added to the factory building in 1928.

During the Great Depression, the company continued to operate. However, the congenial relationship between employer and employee deteriorated as the company faced hard economic times. In response to low wages, 45 of the roughly 200 workers went on strike in September of 1934 as part of an organized Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America strike. Tensions rose among non-unionized and unionized workers, with some non-union workers receiving threats from the union for non-participation in the strike.

The Skyline Manufacturing Company, a producer of children's clothing, was formed in 1939. Skyline formed a partnership with Fuller in which they shared the factory building at 45 Pine Grove Avenue. Half of the employees created merchandise for Fuller, and the other half for Skyline. While additional details about this arrangement are unknown, it is likely that this arrangement was mutually beneficial for both the companies and employees during the slow recovery from the Great Depression. Following World War II, the Fuller Shirt Company participated in two veteran training programs, which trained veterans in the use of high power machines and shirt pressers.

The company's production picked up after the war years and required the construction of a three-story brick addition to the west elevation of the original factory building. After completion of the 1947 addition, the building was listed as 45-57 Pine Grove Avenue, as it had increased in size since its original construction. As workplace rules and standards advanced in the mid-twentieth century, the Fuller Shirt Company adapted by hiring its first health supervisor in 1948. The supervisor oversaw the health of the workers and conditions within the factory in order to ensure a safe working environment. As a whole, Kingston's shirt manufacturing industry remained steady during the 1940s. According to the 1942 Kingston City Directory, the same five shirt manufacturing companies were operating within the city limits. This trend would continue for the next two decades.

After Annie Fuller's death in January 1950, the business remained in the Fuller family. William "Bill" T. Fuller, a Navy man, became president of the Fuller Shirt Company and the treasurer of Skyline. William Fuller vastly expanded the company's operations, opening a new factory in Chester, South Carolina in 1955. While the company had expanded to South Carolina, following the national textile industry's expansion in the Sunbelt region, it maintained a presence in Kingston. The company, which was a point of pride for Kingston, was noted as "one of the city's leading businesses, shipping to every one of the 48 states in the United States." Fuller expanded operations at the Kingston factory by 50 percent, hiring an additional 100 workers in 1956. Amidst the expansion, the company received an honor from the Awards for Industrial Safety from the Mid-Hudson Industrial Safety Association.

The company's sweeping success under William Fuller in the 1950s attracted attention from famous hat manufacturer, John B. Stetson Company. Stetson approached William Fuller in 1956, at the height of the Fuller Shirt Company's success, with an interest in manufacturing shirts. As hats were beginning to go out of style, many hat companies were getting into the shirt business, which maintained a stronger market. By December 1956, the Fuller Shirt Company was sold to Stetson, putting an end to the family-run company tradition. By 1957, Stetson had added a 35,000 square foot stock room to the building. Despite the sale, the company continued to operate and produce shirts under the Fuller name and the 350 employees were retained. While the company was no longer a family-run operation, the ownership change had little impact on the company's status in the Kingston community. In 1958, the company's employees were honored by the Red Feather Campaign, the forerunners of the United Way, which had adopted the "red feather" as its symbol of outstanding service to the community in the 1930s.

Under Stetson's ownership, the Fuller Shirt Company continued to thrive until 1961, when Stetson ceased operations at the Pine Grove facility. The Fuller family, under the leadership of James K. Fuller, got back into the shirt business with the Kingston Shirt Company, a division of the Ramar Shirt Company, and re-established operation at the Pine Grove building. The Kingston Shirt Company specialized in the manufacture of high-quality boys shirts. At a time when much of the nation's industries, particularly textile-related industries, were shuttering or moving to the Southeastern United States, the Fuller family remained adamant about staying in Kingston due to the quality of the needle industry personnel and the sense of community formed around Fuller's shirt production. By the mid-1960s, the Kingston Shirt Company had ceased operations, and the Fuller family left the shirt industry for good.

Building Description

The Fuller Shirt Company Factory is located at 54 Pine Grove Avenue in Central Kingston, Ulster County, New York. The intact industrial facility is composed of an L-shaped building built in numerous sections between 1906 and 1957, all functioning as one complete building located on a 2.2-acre site that sits at the northeast intersection of Pine Grove Avenue and Susan Street. Located within Midtown Kingston, the city's historic manufacturing and industrial district, the building is one block south of Broadway, the primary east-west arterial road that connects the city's two primary nodes: the Stockade and Rondout. Broadway is lined by two to three-story mixed-use buildings. Directly surrounding the subject property is a YMCA to the north, the former West Shore Railroad to the west, and a small residential area with one- and two-story residential buildings to the south and east. The Wiltwyck Cemetery is about two blocks to the south.

The site is bounded by Pine Grove Avenue to the south and the tax parcel boundary to the north, west, and east. The building is located at the northeast corner of Susan Street and Pine Grove Ave, with a paved parking lot located to the east and south of the site. Susan Street, a parking lot access road, winds around the rear of the site to access the subject building as well as two neighboring unrelated parking lots. A concrete sidewalk separates the site from the street at the south boundary on Pine Grove Avenue. A modern metal fence is located to the south of the parking lot on Pine Grove. The parking lot is lined by planting beds at the northern edge of the lot.

Detailed Description

The three-story L-shaped building is composed of several sections constructed over a 50-year period. The L-shape of the building was completed in four successive building stages. The first stage was completed in 1906 when the new factory building was constructed. This original section is three stories in height with an L-shaped footprint and contains a brick structure with heavy timber framing. In 1928, a one-story L-shaped warehouse was added to the west elevation of the 1906 factory. The warehouse contains a steel structure with a concrete foundation. When the 1928 warehouse section was added at the building's north elevation, the west wall of the 1906 section was removed at the first floor to provide interconnection to the factory. In 1947, a rectangular three-story brick factory addition was constructed on the south elevation of the 1906 building. The 1947 section has a steel structure with a concrete foundation and brick walls. By 1950, a three-story rectangular concrete block restroom addition was added to the 1947 section of the building's west elevation. Two more brick one-story additions were added to the west elevation by 1950 for use as storage. A three-story brick smoke stack was added to this section as well. By 1957, a one-story stock room was added to south and west elevations, connecting the sections of the building at the first floor. As a result of this change over time, each elevation is composed of multiple sections with irregular fenestration and differing cladding materials.

The three-story primary east elevation is composed of two sections, the 1906 section to the north and the 1947 section to the south.

The 1906 section of the primary east elevation is composed of red brick organized into two sections. The north section is six bays wide and has a red brick base. The wall is covered in vinyl siding and is capped by a raised parapet with a center peak. The south section is five bays wide, composed of red brick, and has a stepped roofline. On the first floor of the north section, the primary entrance is located at grade within the southernmost bay of the northern section and features double-leaf metal doors topped with a five-light transom. A boarded doorway located to the north of the entrance provides direct access to the freight elevator. The primary entrance features a modern suspended metal canopy. Any other historic openings at the first floor have been covered by the vinyl siding. At the second floor the bay to the north of the entrance contains a modern vinyl 1/1 window. The three remaining bays contain wood 9/9 light windows with modern aluminum storms. The third floor of the vinyl section has no fenestration. The red brick southern section has three boarded 6-light square-top wood windows at the first floor. The second and third floors are identical, featuring five square-top 6/6 wood windows within arched openings. Some windows have modern 1/1 aluminum storms or have been altered to accommodate modern air conditioning units.

The 1947 section of the primary east elevation is organized into eight bays, is composed of red brick, and has a flat roofline. All window openings have brick sills. At the first floor, a secondary entrance is accessible by a single concrete step southernmost bay. The entrance features a modern single-leaf aluminum glazed door with a single-light transom. The entrance is topped by a modern canopy with asphalt shingles. The remaining seven bays contain boarded six-light wood windows. The second and third floor are identical, with seven bays of 20-light steel windows. An additional 20-light steel window is located between the second and third floor in the southernmost bay. The parapet is slightly stepped above the southernmost bay (corner of the building).

The secondary north elevation is composed of two sections: the 1906 factory section to the east and the one-story 1928 warehouse section to the west.

The 1906 section is 23 bays wide, organized in two sections. The east section contains 19 bays with a brick base and vinyl siding at the second and third floors and a flat roof line with a modern aluminum cornice. The west section contains four bays and is clad in modern stucco at all floors. The east section contains a secondary entrance at grade in the central bay. The entrance features a modern aluminum overhead door. All window openings in the east section have stone sills. At the first floor, the six easternmost bays contain wood 6/6 square-top windows with exterior security screens. The next four windows opening to the east have segmental-arched 6/6 wood windows. The secondary entrance is located in the next bay to the east. The remaining eight bays also have segmental arched 6/6 wood windows. The second and third floors have no openings. The western stucco section of the north elevation has two secondary entrances at the first floor. One features a modern metal single-panel door. The other features a modern metal overhead door. Modern light fixtures are located above the doorways. The first floor of the west section also has two louvered openings. The second and third floors house two modern 1/1 aluminum windows. The roof above the 1906 section is pitched with modern membrane roofing.

The 1928 warehouse section of the north elevation is four bays wide and clad in modern stucco with a flat roof line. A modern fabric canopy leads to a central entrance. The entrance features a single-leaf modern aluminum-glazed door with sidelights. Two sets of paired single-light horizontal-pane windows are located to the east of the entrance; one set is located to the west. A modern signage placard for the existing radiology center tenant is located to the west of the elevation. The roof above this section houses HVAC equipment.

The secondary west elevation is composed of five sections: the 1906 section to the north at floors two-three with the 1928 warehouse section at the first floor, followed by the two c.1950 sections, and the 1947 section to the south with a three-story smoke stack.

The first floor of the 1906 section is obscured by the one-story 1928 warehouse, located at the first floor. The warehouse section is 8 bays wide, clad in stucco. A modern fabric canopy leads to a central entrance. The entrance features a modern single-leaf steel flush panel door. Another entrance is located in the southern bay, featuring modern single-lead metal flush panel door. The four northern bays contain paired modern aluminum single-light windows. The bay to the south of the entrance canopy has a pair of modern aluminum single-light windows. The next bay to the south houses a set of paired single-light modern aluminum windows. Modern light fixtures are located above the doors and windows.

The three-story 1906 section is six bays wide and organized into two sections. The second and third floors are visible; the first floor is obscured by the 1928 warehouse. The north section is one bay wide, is stuccoed, has no fenestration, and is capped by a pitched roofline. The south section is red brick, organized into five bays. All window and door openings in this section are arched. A metal fire escape accesses a single leaf wood four-light door located in the southern bay at the third floor. The second and third floors contain wood segmental arch 9/9 windows in the northern four bays.

The three-story c.1950 concrete block restroom addition is located to the south of the 1906 section. The first floor is obscured by the 1928 warehouse. This section of the elevation has a single modern 1/1 aluminum window with interior muntins at the second floor.

The three-story c. 1950 smoke stack is located between the c.1950 restroom addition and 1947 factory section. A section of the roofline is visible above the roofline of the 1928 warehouse.

The 3-story 1947 factory section is 6 bays wide with a flat roofline. This section of the elevation is composed of red brick at the first floor and CMU at the second and third floors. All window openings have brick sills. The first floor contains six 12-light steel windows in each bay. The second and third floors house two-light steel windows with hoppers in each bay.

The secondary south elevation is composed of five sections. The 1906 section is located to the west at the second and third floors, with the 1928 warehouse section and c.1950 storage sections at the first floor. The c. 1950 restroom addition and the 1947 factory addition are located to the east of the elevation.

The one-story 1928 warehouse section is one-bay wide, composed of modern stucco. A secondary entrance is located to the west of the elevation, featuring a modern single leaf flush panel metal door.

The one-story c.1950 storage section is eight bays wide with the three-story brick smoke stack located in the third bay from the west. All window openings contain brick sills. Two 6/6 wood windows are located in the two western bays. The five eastern bays contain arched window openings with segmental arch nine-light windows.

The three-story 1906 section is organized into 17 bays, clad with vinyl siding with a flat roofline. The first floor is obscured by the 1928 warehouse and c.1950 storage addition. Two metal fire escapes access emergency exits at the third floor. One exit is located in the second westernmost bay and features a modern single-leaf four-light metal door topped by a 10-light transom. The second exit is located in eighth easternmost bay and features a modern single-leaf four-light metal door, topped by a 10-light transom. The second and third floors contain wood nine-light windows in the remaining bays.

The three-story c.1950 restroom addition is two bays wide, constructed of CMU with a flat roofline. All window openings have brick sills. The first floor contains two six-light wood windows. The second floor has two 6/6 wood windows and the third floor has one 20-light steel window.

The three-story 1947 section is one bay wide with no fenestration. The first floor is constructed of red brick, with CMU at the second and third floors.

The interior of the building reflects its former industrial use with minimal finishes and largely retains its historic open plan. The various additions are expressed by differing structural systems and materials. At the first floor, the floor plan is roughly L-shaped with the 1906-1947 sections running north to south, and the 1906 and 1928 sections running east to west. The c. 1950 and 1928 additions to the rear of the 1916 section are accessible by a doorway in the 1916 section. Finishes throughout the first floor include wood and concrete floors, exposed and painted brick walls, exposed and painted wood and steel columns, and exposed ceiling structure including subflooring and beams-some of which have been painted.

The upper floors are vertically accessible by a utilitarian wood stair with modern vinyl tread covers within the 1906 section, and a utilitarian metal stair at the north end of the 1947 section.

A section of c. 1928 warehouse has been modernized for use as a radiology facility. All finishes in this section are modern, including vinyl composite tile floors, gypsum board walls, and suspended acoustic tile ceilings. Modern metal single-panel doors access the rooms within the radiology facility.

The second and third floors are similar in plan, composed of the 1906 section, 1947 section, and 1928 section. The second floor was partially converted to modern office space in the late 20th Century. Two areas at the northwest corner of the building and at the south end of the 1947 section contain a series of subdivided offices with modern finishes. The west end of the 1906 section is vacant and remains industrial in character with wood floors, painted exposed heavy timber structure, painted flat plaster walls, painted wood subfloor ceilings, simple painted wood window trim, and exposed mechanicals. Some areas have acoustic tile ceilings. The section of the 1906 section at the northwest corner of the building houses modern office space which features carpet floors, gypsum board walls with sections of exposed brick, simple painted wood window trim, and acoustic tile ceilings which drop below window heads. The north end of the 1947 section is vacant and remains industrial in character with wood floors, exposed and painted steel structure, plaster walls, and sections of gypsum board at the ceilings. The south end of the 1947 section houses modern office space which features carpet floors, gypsum board walls with sections of exposed brick, simple painted wood window trim, and acoustic tile ceilings which drop below window heads in sections. A doorway at the west wall accesses the 1928 section, a single room formerly utilized as a break room and kitchenette. The room contains modern finishes including carpet floors, gypsum board walls and ceilings, and exposed mechanicals.

The third floor is vacant and remains industrial in character. The 1906 section features wood floors, painted exposed heavy timber structure, painted flat plaster walls, painted wood subfloor ceilings, simple painted wood window trim, and exposed mechanicals. Some areas contain acoustic tile ceilings. The 1947 features wood floors, exposed and painted steel structure, plaster walls, and sections of gypsum board at the ceilings. A doorway at the west wall accesses the 1928 section, a single room formerly utilized as a break room. The room features painted concrete floors, gypsum board walls, and acoustic tile ceilings.

The wood floors throughout the building are in poor condition due to years of water damage. Generally, interior conditions range from good to poor with most of the building remaining vacant. Deterioration at the roof has caused severe water infiltration, particularly within the 1906 section at the third floor.

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York East and north elevations (2017)
East and north elevations (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York East and north elevations (2017)
East and north elevations (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York East elevation (2017)
East elevation (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York East elevation (2017)
East elevation (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York East and south elevations (2017)
East and south elevations (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York West elevation (2017)
West elevation (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York South elevation (2017)
South elevation (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York West elevation (2017)
West elevation (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York North elevation (2017)
North elevation (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York North elevation (2017)
North elevation (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Detail of windows (2017)
Detail of windows (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior first floor, 1906 section (2017)
Interior first floor, 1906 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior first floor, 1906 section (2017)
Interior first floor, 1906 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior first floor, 1906 section (2017)
Interior first floor, 1906 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior second floor, 1906 section (2017)
Interior second floor, 1906 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior second floor, 1906 section (2017)
Interior second floor, 1906 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior second floor, 1906 section (2017)
Interior second floor, 1906 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior first floor, 1928 section (2017)
Interior first floor, 1928 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior first floor, 1928 section (2017)
Interior first floor, 1928 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior third floor, 1928 section (2017)
Interior third floor, 1928 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior third floor, 1928 section (2017)
Interior third floor, 1928 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior first floor, 1947 section (2017)
Interior first floor, 1947 section (2017)

Fuller Shirt Company Factory, Kingston New York Interior second floor, 1947 section (2017)
Interior second floor, 1947 section (2017)