{"nrhp_refnum":"82003762","name":"Reading Knitting Mills","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"350 Elm St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.339735946000076,"lon":-75.92997688099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick knitting mill at Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, built in 1891 for the Reading Knitting Mills, with a 1898 one-story addition and a fourth floor added around 1920.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the mill housed the leading hosiery manufacturer in Reading, a firm founded in 1883 that grew rapidly and became a national leader in 84-needle hosiery. It is presented as the pioneer of Reading's hosiery industry and as an example of the typical rise and decline of an industry.","narrative":"Built in 1891 by architect L. H. Focht and contractor George W. Beard, this four-story brick mill in Reading, Pennsylvania, was the permanent home of the Reading Knitting Mills, founded in 1883. The Italianate-influenced building has arched nine-over-nine windows, corbelled brick cornices, and 14 wooden roof trusses, some with single timbers about 35 feet long. A one-story addition followed in 1898, and a fourth floor was added around 1920. By 1891 the firm employed 300 workers, mostly young women, and produced up to 800 dozen pairs of seamless stockings daily. Later the company specialized in 84-needle hosiery and became the nation's largest producer of it. The mill is significant as the setting of Reading's leading hosiery firm, the pioneer of the city's hosiery industry, and a clear record of how a local industry rose and declined. Its original interior floors, stairwell, and open floor spaces survive on the upper stories.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"L. H. Focht (architect); George W. Beard (builder)","architectural_style":"Italianate-influenced","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Factory operations continued into 1930, the building stood vacant during the depression, was used as a warehouse from 1941, and was later adapted for use by Fleetwood Industries, Inc.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.65967-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/82003762.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003762/e2bdc988b0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003762/e2bdc988b0-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knitting_Mill_Reading.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:Knitting_Mill_Reading.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997958","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Knitting_Mills","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7300522"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/reading-knitting-mills-82003762/"}