{"nrhp_refnum":"06000428","name":"Willson, Thomas A. and Co.","other_names":["Wilson Products Inc.","Goggleworks Center for the Arts"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"201 Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.33908735400007,"lon":-75.93554888299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-05-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A factory complex of five buildings on Washington Street and Thorn Street in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, begun in 1871 for spectacle manufacture by T.A. Willson & Co. and expanded through 1946 for protective eyewear and safety equipment.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the complex is significant under Criterion A for its role in the protective eyewear industry and the industrial development of Berks County, as one of the leading optical goods makers in the country. It is also significant under Criterion C as a surviving example of early and mid-twentieth century industrial architecture, with its Moderne facades of the 1940s unifying earlier building campaigns.","narrative":"Reading, Pennsylvania, is the setting for this factory complex, which began in 1871 when Giles J. Willson and his son Thomas A. Willson established a spectacle works on the northeast corner of Washington and Second Streets. Over the following decades the mill grew into a five-building facility as the firm moved from spectacles into protective eyewear and safety equipment. Its founders developed Arundel glass, a tinted lens that blocked the glare of metal processing, and the company won medals at the 1876 Centennial Exposition and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. Its product line expanded to goggles, respirators and welding helmets, and it supplied military equipment during the Second World War. The main building was expanded in 1910, 1929, 1938 and 1945, and in 1946 its facades were refaced in the Moderne style by the Reading firm Muhlenberg Brothers. The complex is significant for its industrial history and for its physical record of successive building campaigns.","period_of_significance":"1871-1955","architect_builder":"Muhlenberg Bros. Architects","architectural_style":"Moderne","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Building 1 is described as in fair condition and Building 2 and Building 3 as in good condition, retaining integrity.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.117388-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/06000428.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000428/83b5e59abb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000428/83b5e59abb-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goggle_Works.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goggle_Works.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997944","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoggleWorks","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5577356"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/willson-thomas-a-and-co-06000428/"}