Piano Factory, Silk Mill
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Jackson Furniture Company (Piano Factory, Silk Mill)
1890s; 1922 water tower. 239 E. 6th St.
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(Photograph by D Hughes) -
(Photograph by D Hughes) -
(Photograph by D Hughes)
Located on a hill in eastern Front Royal, this large two-and-a-half-story brick building best represents the town's late-nineteenth-century industrial boom. Built as a piano factory, by 1902 the building had become a silk mill known as the Royal Tapestry Company. Around 1913, Schwarzenbach, Huber and Company acquired the property and began manufacturing silk fabric at the facility. A large addition of 1919 to the rear was used for the manufacture of parachutes, which continued through World War II. Manufacturing operations ceased in the 1960s, and the Jackson Furniture Company acquired the building. Although the windows are now bricked up, the building retains much of its original character, exhibiting a variety of decorative brick details and a single, sandstone corner column with a cushion capital. An impressive three-story (originally four-story) northwest corner tower was crowned by a pyramidal roof and featured openings framed by pilasters and pediments. The Chicago Bridge and Iron Works constructed the facility's water tower in 1922.
Writing Credits
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Data
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Location: Front Royal, VirginiaRegional Overviews:Styles:no metadata available
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Citation
Anne Carter Lee, "Jackson Furniture Company (Piano Factory, Silk Mill)", [Front Royal, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-WR12.
Print Source
Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 66-66.
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