Scranton Lace Factory - Scranton, Pennsylvania

Established in 1890, the Scranton Lace Curtain Manufacturing Company incorporated on June 15, 1897. The name Scranton Lace Company became standardized in 1916 when one of its subsidiaries combined operations with the Scranton Lace Curtain Manufacturing Company, changing their name to The Scranton Lace Corporation on May 13, 1958 though it soon reverted back to The Scranton Lace Company as its official title. Between 1916 and 2002, the company was the first and largest known produce of Nottingham Lace (any of the various flat laces and nets machine-made used for curtains, dresses, and tablecloths) in the United States.

Only one of the nearly dozen mammoth Nottingham looms - each fifty feet longs and weighing twenty tons - used to produce Nottingham Lace on an industrial scale still stood in the factory when I visited. Imported from Birmingham, England, in the early part of the 20th century and along with the machine came English workers trained in running it. Today, scraps of lace still hang from the loom.

In addition to Nottingham lace, the company also produced napkins, tablecloths, valances, and shower curtains along with other lace items. During World War II, the company paired up with Victory Parachutes, Inc. and Sweeney Bros. to manufacture parachutes and camouflage netting.

The Scranton Lace Factory featured a bowling alley, gymnasium infirmary, clock tower and theater for Despite being one of the area’s biggest employers, The Scranton Lace Company announced to its employees, mid-shift that the facility was closing “effective immediately” in 2002, probably on of the most extreme pink slip distributions in American manufacturing history.

Today, The Scranton Lace Company has been mostly demolished, with only the section that houses the clock tower remaining, and the area is expected to be incorporated into a planned residential space.