Diamond Silk Mill, also known as York Silk Manufacturing Company, is a historic

silk mill A silk mill is a factory that makes silk for garments using a process called silk throwing. Traditionally, silk mills were concentrated in Japan, England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Italy and Switzerland. Silk throwing process Silk is a naturally ...

located at Springettsbury Township,

York County, Pennsylvania York County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 456,438. Its county seat is York, Pennsylvania, ...

. It was designed by architect John A. Dempwolf and built about 1900. The mill is a 3 1/2-story, brick building with heavy timber frame trussing on a stone foundation, and measures 50 feet by 300 feet. It has a hipped roof, and features an octagonal 100-foot high smokestack and decorative corbelled brick cornice in the

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style. ''Note:'' This includes In 1910, the mill's business had increased such that it was noted by an industry periodical as becoming a full-time operation and hiring additional workers. Silk manufacturing would become one of York's most important industries, feeding Lancaster's manufacture of umbrellas. A decline began with the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and continued with the introduction of synthetic fibers in the late 1930s, for which most York mills did not have equipment. The mill was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1992. File:Diamond Silk Mill rear YorkCo PA.JPG, Interior court

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in York County, Pennsylvania Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Industrial buildings completed in 1900 Romanesque Revival architecture in Pennsylvania Silk mills in the United States Springettsbury Township, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in York County, Pennsylvania

See also

References