Womens Silk Nylons were made in this Factory in PA
Lansdale Silk Hosiery-Interstate Hosiery Mills, Lansdale Pennsylvania

The Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company constructed the original main knitting building in 1922. Women's full-fashioned silk hosiery was produced at this facility, initially under Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company (until 1929) and after under Interstate Hosiery Mills, Inc. (until c. 1954). Subsequent owners were also involved in the production and finishing of textiles.
In April 1922, entrepreneur Herman F. Voss, of New Britain, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, purchased land in Lansdale on which he, along with several associates, erected a factory for the manufacture of full-fashioned silk hosiery. Chartered under the name, Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company, a board of directors was formed, with Voss serving as the company's first president and treasurer." The initial factory was comprised of a 48' x 200' one-story building with a 50' x 40' one-story wing and a 36' x 48' dye room. Manufacturing operations began in November 1922, with seven full-fashioned legging machines and two footer machines, operated by a workforce of fifty persons.
After the first six years of operation, strong demand for the company's silk hosiery prompted the enlargement of the original factory to more than double the initial size through several building campaigns. During the autumn of 1929, Lansdale Silk Hosiery Co. was acquired by Interstate Hosiery Mills, Inc. of New York, NY. Headquartered on Madison Avenue in New York City, Interstate also maintained hosiery mills in Bloomfield, NJ and Clifton, NJ, both in northern New Jersey.
Plans were immediately sent into action to expand the existing plant in Lansdale by Interstate.
In 1929, the company broke ground for a new large dye house and a large storage building. In the early to mid-1930s, under Interstate's ownership, the scope of the operations at the Lansdale plant was expanded again to include the dyeing and finishing of textiles. Interstate erected the 52' x 260' three-story brick manufacturing building fronting S. Line Street in 1932. Interstate continued to produce full-fashioned women's silk hosiery, in addition to the dyeing and finishing operation, into the 1950s at the Lansdale plant.
In 1953 or 1954, Interstate ceased operations at the Lansdale plant when the local hosiery industry suffered a decline. In January 1955, Glasgo Limited, Inc., a nationally known manufacturer of fine quality sweaters, acquired the complex from Interstate and moved their entire operation from Philadelphia to Lansdale. Lansdale's established workforce, skilled in full-fashioned hosiery knitting, required little retraining to begin production of knitted sweaters. Glasgo expanded the Lansdale plant around 1955 with the erection of a brick addition adjacent to the 1932 building and with various infill sections. In 1961, Glasgo constructed an addition at the southeast corner of the site.
At some point between 1962 and 1972, Glasgo ceased operations at the Lansdale plant and the buildings were acquired by Lansdale Textile Company, Inc., a finisher of textiles, who remained in the buildings for only a few years. Later the facility was used for various commercial and storage operations.
Hosiery Industry in Southeastern Pennsylvania
Textile production in the southeastern Pennsylvania region was initially concentrated in Philadelphia and began around 1800 as a cottage weaver industry. During the first half of the 19th Century, several economic conditions in the southeastern Pennsylvania region prompted a shift from home production to factory production: the utilization of steam as a power source around 1830, which stimulated the construction of large, steam-powered factories; the arrival of the railroad around the same time which, coupled with the adequate Delaware River ports, offered a large market for the importation of raw materials and the distribution of finished goods; the simultaneous arrival of a large immigrant population, particularly from textile centers in England and Ireland, which brought a workforce experienced in textile production to Philadelphia; and finally, the consolidation of the City of Philadelphia in 1854, which led to the rapid industrial development of the region. By the mid-19th Century, large textile factories had transformed the Philadelphia region into an important manufacturing center for the textile industry. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textiles were the largest industry in Philadelphia. A number of sectors made up the textile industry, including woven goods, carpets, and knit goods. Philadelphia was best known for its knit goods and its hosiery in particular.
Philadelphia did not have a single textile nucleus like Lowell, Massachusetts, but rather mills and factories appeared throughout the city in various neighborhoods, and specifically in the Kensington, Manayunk and Germantown sections of Philadelphia. Philadelphia's textile industry was characterized by the hundreds of small shops and factories that specialized in individual aspects of the trade. For example, a spinning mill might send out its yarn to a small dye shop for coloring before it was forwarded to a larger knitting mill plant to be made into hosiery. Although some fully integrated mills operated in the City, most producers performed one specialized function of the total production sequence. Philadelphia's textiles were reputed to be of a higher quality given that a specialist executed each step in the production process.
Like Philadelphia, textile manufacturing in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania also commenced at an early date and by 1810, the county's textile manufacturing was well established. Hosiery factories were later to follow, with one of the first being Daniel M. Yost's operation in Norristown, the county seat, dating to the early 1880s. By 1899, one out of every two manufacturing employees in the county was working in the textile industry and Montgomery County was home to 47 textile firms, 13 of which were hosiery mills.
In Montgomery County and the other counties that surround Philadelphia, textile manufacturers developed their own unique system, adopting aspects from both the Lowell and Philadelphia systems. Statistics generated from federal and state manufacturing censuses conducted at the turn of the 20th Century reflect this hybrid system. One fundamental difference from the Philadelphia system was that in the surrounding areas, including Montgomery County, textile mills were more likely to be involved in fully integrated production since the independent spinners and dye shops were generally located in the city. Fully integrated production was the system of operation that was established at the Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company (and continued later under Interstate Hosiery Mills). The availability of large tracts of land and the reduced land costs in the surrounding vicinities also made the construction of larger factories, like Lansdale Silk Hosiery's expansive facility, more feasible. Despite the similarities to Lowell's integrated system, the textile mills in the regions surrounding Philadelphia typically manufactured the specialty items for which Philadelphia was renowned, rather than the mass-produced bulk goods that were Lowell's trademark.
Hosiery Production Methods
In the hosiery industry during the early 20th Century, there were essentially two methods of knitting and two sorts of knitting frames: a flat frame (which yielded yard fabric), and a circular or rotary frame (which produced a continuous tube of knitted fabric). The flat frame, dating to the late 16th Century, is earlier than the rotary frame, and was used to create "full-fashioned hosiery, such as that produced at the Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company Factory. The rotary frame, which came into general use in the mid-nineteenth century, was used to produce "seamless hosiery." The seamless tube that was created on the rotary machine had to be cut, stitched at the bottom, and hemmed at the top to resemble a stocking, but there was no heel to this item, and lacked a foot or taper in the design. Seamless stockings never fit properly, as the seamless machines knitted a column of fabric with a continuous circumference, whereas the human leg tapers. Hence, "leg bags" was the common term used for seamless stockings. Manufacturers attempted to compensate by drying the dampened hose on wooden forms cut to resemble the shape of the human leg. Once washed a few times though, these hose returned to their cylindrical form.
Full-fashioned hosiery was knitted on the flat frame, which was fitted with devices for narrowing the width of the fabric being knitted. When taken from the frame, seaming, heeling, and footing all had to be knitted by hand, tasks that were generally accomplished by women and children workers. Full-fashioned hosiery was an exacting and skilled production. In some mills, like Lansdale, these two methods of production were integrated by knitting the stocking leg on the rotary machine, and adapting the flat knitters to produce the heel and foot, which then still had to be hand-sewn. Mechanization of full-fashioned hosiery was finally made possible in 1898 when new devices were invented to accomplish what previously could only be done by hand. Even so, the machine-made full-fashioned hose were still produced by skilled workers, since the upper part of the stocking was run on one machine and then had to be carefully removed and transferred to a second machine, which completed the foot. Still not complete, the stockings would be run through additional machines for finishing work. These machines remained far too expensive for most mill owners and so for several decades, full-fashioned hosiery was a luxury afforded only by the wealthy.
Lansdale's Hosiery Industry / Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company - Interstate Hosiery Mills
Lansdale, a borough which is located twenty-four miles northwest from Philadelphia, was largely undeveloped when it was selected to be the terminus for the North Penn Railroad line from Philadelphia in 1856. Shortly after its incorporation in 1872, Lansdale became a three railroad town, with connections to Philadelphia, to Norristown, the county seat of Montgomery County (10 miles south), and to Doylestown, the county seat of Bucks County (10 miles northeast).
From Doylestown, the railroad line connected to the Lehigh Valley Railroad and then to points across the northeast.
Ample railroad transportation made Lansdale a center for retail trade and brought a sharp rise in population in the early 20th Century. In 1884, Lansdale's population was less than 400; at the turn of the 20th Century, the population had grown to 2,800; by 1922, Lansdale's population swelled to 4,500. Several various businesses were established in Lansdale during the last decades of the 19th Century, including: Seth L. Scholl's Brick Works, Heebner and Sons Agricultural Works, the A.C. Godshall Flour Mills, the Abram Cox Stove Company, Krupp Iron Foundry, and the Landis Carriage Works. After World War I, new industries came to Lansdale, including: tile manufacturing, steel spring manufacturing, and hosiery manufacturing. In the 1920s, hosiery was one of Lansdale's main industries, employing over 700 of the Borough's 4,500 residents.
There were three main hosiery factories in Lansdale: Dexdale Hosiery Mills, William T. Tonner, Inc. and Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company (later Interstate). At various times during the 20th century, additional small hosiery manufacturers set up operations in Lansdale but generally those manufacturers did not survive more than five years.
Two of the three main Lansdale hosiery manufacturers opened around the same time, while the third pre-dates the others by two decades. All three plants remained in operation as textile factories for generally the same length of time. Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company opened in 1922; became Interstate Hosiery Company in 1929, lasting until 1953 or 1954; Glasgo acquired the factory in 1955 and stayed until sometime between 1962 and 1972; around 1972 the buildings were acquired by Lansdale Textile Company, a finisher of textiles that remained in the buildings until c. 1980. The second of the three, Dexdale Hosiery Mills, was incorporated in 1918; opened its facility on West Main Street in 1922; and closed its operation at some point between 1953 and 1962. The third main hosiery manufacturer in Lansdale, William T. Tonner, Inc. was established in 1906; was incorporated in 1925; and closed its operation on Pierce Street at some point between 1945 and 1953.
Of the three hosiery companies, historically, Dexdale Hosiery was the largest and Tonner the smallest, with Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company - Interstate Hosiery Mills somewhere in the middle. In 1928, there were only eight silk hosiery manufacturers in Pennsylvania; three of which were in Lansdale. That year, Lansdale Silk Hosiery had 194 employees, compared with Dexdale's 468 employees and Tonner's 35 employees. Both Lansdale Silk Hosiery and Dexdale Hosiery manufactured women's full-fashioned silk hosiery and Tonner manufactured women's seamless silk hosiery. In 1931, just two years after the Interstate takeover, there were eighteen silk hosiery companies in the state; three of which were in Lansdale. That year, Interstate Hosiery employed 300 persons, compared with Dexdale's 619 and Tonner's 29.
Interstate's acquisition of Lansdale Silk Hosiery was viewed by local residents with great suspicion. Rumors were widespread that the New York company had ambitious plans to expand the facility to accommodate 2,000 employees, far surpassing the size of the locally-owned favorite, Dexdale. Despite the fact that the local economy was beginning to feel the effects of the Depression, the community still did not view Interstate's expansion plans favorably, since it was unclear whether Interstate would draw the anticipated workforce from the immediate area. Interstate denied the expansion rumors in the local newspaper and stated that their expansion plans were limited to the construction of a new dye house and warehouse, and nothing further. Nonetheless, between 1931 and 1932, when Interstate constructed the new building along S. Line Street, the company's payroll grew from 300 to 450 employees, a 33 percent increase.
Growing competition in the industry, coupled with the local resident's concern that Interstate would surpass Dexdale, were factors in Interstate's decision to adapt their operation to include dyeing and finishing. In 1935, there were twenty silk hosiery companies in the state, but only three dyeing and finishing companies in the state, one being Interstate and the two others in nearby Pottstown and Royersford, Pennsylvania. While continuing to produce full-fashioned silk hosiery, Interstate grew its workforce to 732 to meet the demand for its expanded dyeing operation.
Employment statistics confirm that Interstate, Dexdale, and Tonner maintained stable workforces into the early 1940s. Dexdale continued to produce women's full-fashioned silk hosiery until its closure sometime after 1953. Tonner produced women's seamless silk hosiery until the 1940s, when they switched to women's anklets.
Comparison of the design of the Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company - Interstate Hosiery Mills buildings with other hosiery mill buildings of a comparable date in Lansdale indicate that hosiery mill architecture in the region had become largely standardized by the 1920s.
Lansdale's other two hosiery mills stand within a mile-and-a-half radius of the Lansdale Silk Hosiery - Interstate Hosiery's buildings: Dexdale Hosiery Mills, constructed in 1922 on West Main Street (1.5 miles northwest of Lansdale Silk Hosiery) and William T. Tonner, Inc., constructed c.1906 on Pierce Street (1 mile north of Lansdale Silk - Interstate). While the facilities for Lansdale Silk Hosiery - Interstate Hosiery and William T. Tonner were situated on or near rail lines, Dexdale, the largest of the three facilities, was about one mile from the rail lines. With the increased reliance on trucking by 1922, the railroad was less important for transportation, however, since Dexdale and Lansdale Silk Hosiery produced silk hosiery and raw silk at that time was imported from Japan and was transported via the railroad, Lansdale Silk Hosiery - Interstate Hosiery Mills seemingly had the advantageous site. Dexdale's prominent Main Street location, however, likely helped the company bolster its stature within the local community.
William Tonner's mill pre-dates the Lansdale Silk Hosiery - Interstate Hosiery and Dexdale plants by approximately two decades and the design of that facility reflects that earlier date. Tonner's mill, a two-story, flat-roof; brick building, is long and rectangular in plan. The windows throughout contain segmental arched openings and have been boarded over on the exterior. It is not clear whether the sash survives in the interior. The entrance door is a modern single-leaf aluminum paneled door set in a segmental arch opening. The building is currently vacant. Few alterations are apparent on the exterior and the building appears to retain integrity. Tonner's mill reflects an earlier generation of mills with its small window openings that would have yielded less natural light. It does not appear that Tonner's factory was designed with isolation of the hazardous functions, but rather, the lack of secondary buildings on the site suggests that all operations took place within the main mill building.
Dexdale's facility is more progressive in design, and more similar to that of the Lansdale Silk Hosiery - Interstate Hosiery facility. The Dexdale plant is a two and three-story, flat-roof, red brick commercial-style building with banks of multi-light steel sash. Alterations have been made along the first story, including the replacement of the original windows with c. 1980 aluminum storefront windows and entrances. A one-story projection dating to the 1980s has been added to the northwest corner to create a new main entrance to the building. Despite the alterations, the building retains integrity. Like the facility of Lansdale Silk Hosiery - Interstate Hosiery, Dexdale's plant contained smaller buildings where the more hazardous functions were removed from the main knitting building. While the Dexdale building is considerably larger than the Lansdale Silk Hosiery - Interstate Hosiery buildings, the design of the plant is remarkably similar and reflects a standardization in factory design that had occurred by 1922.
The closure of Lansdale's hosiery plants beginning around 1950 coincided with a downward trend in the industry statewide, a result of a persistent decline in demand for silk hosiery with the rising popularity of nylon stockings and a result of the fact that hosiery manufacturers had begun to move their operations to the south to take advantage of the lower scale of wages. In the 1940s and early 1950s, there were over 30 silk hosiery companies in Pennsylvania; by 1962 that number had dropped to 14. The number of textile dyeing and finishing companies in Pennsylvania remained sparse with only three companies prior to Interstate's closure around 1954 and after that only two companies into the 1970s.
In summary, the Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company - Interstate Hosiery Mills buildings are significant in the area of Industry as one of Lansdale's surviving silk hosiery factories, representing an industry of great importance in the 20th-century history of the Borough. The expansion of the operation to include dyeing and finishing in the early 1930s reflects Interstate Hosiery's ability to modify its operations to maintain its dominance within the industry through the early 1950s.
Building Description
The Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company - Interstate Hosiery Mills, Inc. factory is located at 200 S. Line Street, between Penn and Prospect Streets, in Lansdale Borough, approximately ½ mile southeast from the heart of the commercial business district. Surrounding the relatively flat site is late-19th-century and early 20th-century historically unrelated housing to the north, south and east, and historically unrelated commercial development to the west along the railroad line.
The Lansdale Silk Hosiery Company - Interstate Hosiery Mills, Inc. factory was essentially erected in four phases spanning from the original 1922 building to 1961. The mill is comprised of two buildings: the original 1922 building (with additions) and the 1932 building, which was erected as a freestanding building and was later linked to the earlier sections by additions. The buildings are entirely interconnected within the interior and are unified on the exterior throughout by a common vocabulary of materials, including red brick walls and simple brick pilasters that divide the elevations into regularly spaced bays. Multi-light industrial steel sash lights the interior. Brick and iron water towers, in various states of intactness, break the monotony of the flat roofs. The interior survives unaltered with its vast open floors, exposed columns, ceilings, and minimal partitioning.
The 1920s construction is situated on the western half of the site. As shown in the attached building chronology drawing, the original factory was erected in 1922 in the commercial style and was added to with additions in 1926, 1928, and 1929. The 1920s sections are two-story red brick compositions with rough-cut brownstone bases that rise from 1' to 4' from grade, responsive to the natural contours of the site. A simple wood cornice unifies the various buildings and culminates at the flat roof. Narrow brick pilasters divide the facades into bays, with each pilaster embellished with a stylized triangular wooden plaque near the top. Positioned on the west elevation, facing the railroad, is the original main entrance, located in the small wing off the original main factory building. Modern double-leaf flush steel doors, boarded over on the exterior, survive at this location. Above the entrance is an original hoisting bay with a wide sixteen-light beaded board door, now boarded over on the exterior. An additional entrance is located on the north elevation of the 1928 section and contains a double-leaf aluminum glazed door with a single-leaf transom, reached by a set of concrete steps. Multi-light steel sash provide fenestration, but are entirely boarded over on the exterior. In some instances, the sash no longer survives, and in a few cases, the windows were removed for the insertion of small modern aluminum windows.
The interiors of the 1920s sections feature concrete floors on the 1st floor and wood on the 2nd floor, painted brick perimeter walls, painted wood free-standing columns, and exposed wood plank ceilings with wood beams. Access from the 1st to the 2nd floor is provided by two stairs within the small entrance wing. Both sets of stairs contain unornamented, utilitarian wood treads and risers. A small lift with a steel door is located near the stairs.
There is virtually no partitioning within the 1920s sections and there are no significant architectural features.
Spanning the entire length of the block along S. Line Street is the 1932 commercial-style building that generally followed the design of the previous sections with red brick pilastered elevations, but with several notable modifications. The height of the building rises to three stories. The flat roof is broken by a brick parapet that steps up slightly at the end and middle bays. Stone embellishments are found on the tops of the pilasters, at the upper corners of the end and middle bays, around the main entrance, and on the parapet. When this building was erected, the main entrance to the complex was relocated to the building's northeast corner, directly on S. Line Street. A short set of concrete steps with low knee walls leads to that entrance, which contains double-leaf aluminum glazed doors, now boarded over on the exterior. A more recent (c. 1985) entrance with double-leaf aluminum glazed doors was created on the east elevation and is accessed by a concrete ramp. That entrance contains a projecting aluminum canopy. A third entrance is located on the east elevation, at the southern end. That entrance was added in the late 20th Century and contains a single-leaf modern metal door. Fenestration on the 1932 building is provided by multi-light steel windows that are grouped in three. Comparison of these windows with the windows found in the 1920s sections reveals that, in later building, the ratio of glass to wall surface is far greater, affording much more natural light to the interior. All windows on the first and second stories have been boarded over on the exterior.
The interior is largely open in plan with one modern partition bisecting the first floor. The floors are concrete on the first and wood above. All perimeter walls are painted brick. Freestanding steel columns support the exposed wood plank ceilings. The ceiling framework is a combination of wood and steel, with steel used for the primary supports and wood for the secondary. A single stair in the northeast corner provides access from floor to floor and contains wood treads and risers with beaded board wood walls. Originally, this building contained an exterior stair and elevator tower at the southwest corner. That tower was made into an interior feature with the construction of the adjacent c. 1955 addition. The elevator contains a wide steel door. The stair contains metal risers with concrete treads and a simple metal pipe handrail. The stair walls are painted brick.
Large commercial-style additions were added c. 1955. Around 1955, the open courtyard that originally existed between the original 1922 section and the 1928 addition was infilled and the original exterior courtyard walls for the aforementioned buildings were removed to allow for open, largely uninterrupted floor plates throughout. Another large three-story addition was added to the immediate west of the 1932 building. In that case, the original west wall of the 1932 building remains in some areas, partially dividing the two sections. The west and north elevations of this c. 1955 section are visible from the street. Those facades are clad in red brick in a more minimalist style with no pilasters and no ornamentation. On the west elevation are two garage-type entrances with paneled wood roll-down doors. There are no other entrances in this section. Fenestration is provided by multi-light steel windows that are boarded over on the exterior, but survive in the interior.
The interior of the c. 1955 sections are finished with concrete floors on the first floor and wood above, painted brick perimeter walls, steel columns (I-beam style in the western section and pipe columns in the eastern section), exposed wood plank ceilings with exposed steel ceiling beams. The floors of these sections are open with no partitioning. An enclosed stair with concrete treads and steel risers is located in the northeast corner of the three-story section.
In 1961, the final section located at the southeast corner of the site was completed. This section of the building rises three stories and is designed in a utilitarian commercial style with unornamented red brick exterior walls penetrated by four-light vertically-oriented aluminum window units that are paired. One entrance was added c. 1970 on the south elevation and contains a double-leaf flush steel door.
The interior of the 1961 section is finished with concrete floors, painted concrete block walls, exposed steel I-beam columns, and exposed corrugated metal ceilings with steel beams. There are no partitions, and, like the other sections, the floors are open in plan.
At some point after 1967 a one-story, flat-roofed, red brick entrance pavilion was added to the north elevation. A set of double-leaf aluminum glazed entrance doors on the north elevation provides access to the interior. One-over-one aluminum windows are located on the north and west elevations. The interior is finished with painted brick walls, a suspended grid ceiling, and a linoleum tile floor.

Looking East at West Elevation (2003)

Looking Southwest at North and East Elevations (2003)

Looking West at South Elevation (2003)

1st Floor, Looking East in 1922 Building (2003)
