{"nrhp_refnum":"85003493","name":"Burk Brothers and Company","other_names":["Diskmakers"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"913--916 N. Third St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.965902210000024,"lon":-75.14247074199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-11-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of twelve interconnected red brick and reinforced concrete factory buildings forming the Burk Brothers and Company Morocco and Glazed Kid Works, occupying the northern two-thirds of the 900 block on the east side of North Third Street in Philadelphia's Northern Liberties section. The buildings date from 1855 to 1913.","why_significant":"The district is presented as an important part of the Philadelphia kid leather industry and the largest and oldest group of leather industry buildings left standing in the Old Leather District. Its buildings reflect three successive stages of tanning technology, from the vegetable-tanned morocco works of E.A. Smith and Brothers to chrome-tanned glazed kid production and reinforced concrete factories. The nomination links the site to Henry Burk's sumac and alum process and his share in the Schultz chrome tanning patent, which shortened processing time sharply.","narrative":"Twelve red brick and reinforced concrete factory buildings on the east side of North Third Street in Philadelphia's Northern Liberties section make up one of the city's last intact leather-processing complexes. The oldest six buildings, erected between 1855 and 1874 for E.A. Smith and Brothers, housed morocco tanning in basement beamhouses and upper-floor drying lofts. In 1891 Henry Burk began acquiring the site, and by the late 1890s he had added four brick factories for glazed kid made by chrome tanning. Two reinforced concrete buildings followed in 1911 and 1913. Burk's sumac and alum process and his stake in the chrome tanning patent made the firm one of the largest in the city. The complex is significant for its association with the Philadelphia leather industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and for its surviving buildings showing that industry's changing methods.","period_of_significance":"1880-1920","architect_builder":"Wm. Steele & Sons Co.; Geo. Fredericks/John N. Gill Co.","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.164317-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85003493.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003493/05e4896b5d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003493/05e4896b5d-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burk_Brothers_Site.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burk_Brothers_Site.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997500","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burk_Brothers_and_Company","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4998897"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/burk-brothers-and-company-85003493/"}