{"nrhp_refnum":"10000028","name":"Chalmers Knitting Mills","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"21-41 Bridge St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Amsterdam","county":"Montgomery County","state":"NY","lat":42.93742468000005,"lon":-74.19600705199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-02-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2.5-acre former knitting mill complex at 21-41 Bridge Street, Amsterdam, Montgomery County, New York, on the Mohawk River. It combines a four-story brick block built in 1913 and a seven-story reinforced concrete addition built in 1916.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the mill is significant for industry and architecture. The company's proprietary porosknit underwear, marketed through extensive national advertising, made it a major Amsterdam manufacturer, and it is credited with dividing the union suit into separate undershirt and drawers. The 1916 concrete addition, built by Turner Construction Co., is an example of a daylight factory.","narrative":"Chalmers Knitting Mills is a large factory complex beside the Mohawk River at Bridge Street and Gilliland Avenue in Amsterdam, New York. It was built in two phases: a four-story brick block with a steel frame in 1913, and a seven-story reinforced concrete addition in 1916 by Turner Construction Company. Together they wrap around a courtyard and offer nearly 240,000 square feet of open floor space lit by large grids of windows, a layout typical of a daylight factory. The company began in 1901 and grew on porosknit, a light, breathable knitted underwear fabric developed by Martin Shaughnessy. Heavy national advertising built demand, and the firm is credited with splitting the union suit into separate undershirt and drawers. It supplied underwear to the military in World War I and kept running through World War II contracts, though it faced decline after the 1920s. The mill was abandoned in the mid-1980s, and several rear buildings have since largely collapsed.","period_of_significance":"1913-1945","architect_builder":"Unknown architect and unknown builder for the 1913 block; unknown architect, Turner Construction Co. for the 1916 block","architectural_style":"Other: Daylight Factory","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Vacant and not in use; abandoned in the mid-1980s, with broken windows and deteriorated or collapsed ancillary buildings (drying building, dye house and bleachery, probable power plant), which are non-contributing.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:48.312863-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/10000028.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000028/3c847fd712-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000028/3c847fd712-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chalmers_Knitting_Mills_Amsterdam_NY_Jul_09.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chalmers_Knitting_Mills_Amsterdam_NY_Jul_09.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"14000860","name":"New York State Barge Canal","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/new-york-state-barge-canal-14000860/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318997","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalmers_Knitting_Mills","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5069010"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/montgomery-county/chalmers-knitting-mills-10000028/"}