Meinig Glove Factory-Meinig, E. Richard, Co.

Brick factory buildings on McKnight Street in Reading, Pennsylvania, built in stages between 1905 and 1958, form the former plant of the E. Richard Meinig Company. Ernst Richard Meinig, a German-born glove maker, established the firm in 1906 as a subsidiary of the Nolde and Horst hosiery company, and by 1906 it occupied the west-side buildings A and B. The complex is regarded as a surviving example of the local glove industry, which began as a cottage trade and became mechanized. Its factory and dyehouse spaces, slow-burning mill construction with heavy timber posts and beams, and fire towers reflect that development. The company was the only specialist glove firm in Reading from 1911 until after World War II. During the Depression it made the Shalimar label goods, and in the war it produced insulated gloves and mittens for the military. Buildings C through F on the east side date from the post-World War I expansion, when hosiery production was added.