Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Landmarks with Leon podcast series, celebrating 250 years of independence. I'm your host, Rachel Leon. Since being elected in 2022 and serving as Vice President of Bethlehem City Council, I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve the diverse communities that make up our great city. But to understand where we're going, we need to understand our past. Each week, I'll share a short feature with a big story about the 250 years that made the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, known as the Christmas City, as we explore historic landmarks.
In 1913, Herman Simon was working late at the mill he had built thirty years earlier on Bushkill Creek in Easton, Pennsylvania when he fell ill and died four days later. In his will he left three million dollars to his workers.
At the time of his death, his silk mill was the largest producer of black silk ribbon in the world, yet today most people in Easton have no idea it exists.
In 1883 Easton’s Board of Trade was looking to establish industries. Henry G. Tombler found his answer in Union Hill, New Jersey, where brothers Robert and Herman Simon ran a silk manufacturing operation.
Easton's leading citizens pooled thirty-five thousand dollars to attract the Simons west. The brothers accepted and in 1883 the R. & H. Simon Silk Mill at 13th Street and Bushkill Drive in Easton, Pennsylvania was built. On fourteen-acres sat a 15 building complex and a brick Industrial Romanesque mill modeled on their New Jersey facility.
It started with two hundred and fifty workers and within sixteen years, that number climbed to over a thousand. At its peak, the mill employed 1,200 workers operating roughly 1,500 pieces of machinery — with some historical accounts placing the workforce as high as 2,000.
The signature product was black silk ribbon, worn on hats, mourning dress, and formal attire across the United States and Europe.
In March of 1913, the Commercial and Financial Chronicle praised the R. & H. Simon plants as ranking among the model establishments of the world in construction, equipment, and administration. During this period, Pennsylvania was the country's largest producer of silk - with seventy-five percent of the production happening in Easton and Bethlehem.
That same year, Herman Simon died at the mill. Robert had predeceased him in 1901. Herman's wife took over and ran the operation until 1929.
The era that had made the Simons wealthy could not last. Overseas competition and cheaper fabrics eroded demand through the 1920s. The Great Depression accelerated the collapse.
By 1933, the company passed to a reorganized entity called the Easton Industrial Corporation. Production wound down over the following decades and the looms went silent. The buildings became the city's largest brownfield — contaminated by decades of dye vats and industrial waste, requiring years of environmental remediation before the land could be safely reused.
In 2006, the property was transferred to the Easton Redevelopment Authority. VM Development Group took on the project in 2010, and renovation began in earnest in 2015.
Architects from Artefact worked under historic preservation standards to restore the fifteen- building, 340,000-square-foot complex while remediating the site. Forty million dollars in Pennsylvania historic preservation tax credits helped fund the work. The renovation was completed in 2019.
What was built in 1883 still stands on the same fourteen acres, and is made of the same red brick. The mill that made Easton an industrial city now houses the people building whatever Easton becomes next. There is something unusual about a place that does not need to be explained — that simply endures, changes hands, and keeps going. The Simon Silk Mill is one of those places. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Simon Silk Mill complex is at the corner of 13th Street and Bushkill Drive, Easton, Pennsylvania 18042. The site contains 170 apartments, more than thirty commercial businesses, art studios, a winery, and retail space. The Karl Stirner Arts Trail, a 1.6-mile sculpture path along the Bushkill Creek, begins at the mill's edge. For more information, visit simonsilkmill.com.
Information for this episode was provided by the Karl Stirner Arts Trail (karlstirnerartstrail.org); the R. and H. Simon Silk Mill Historical Marker documented by the Historical Marker Database (hmdb.org); WFMZ-TV History's Headlines; VM Development Group (vmdevelopmentgroup.com); Artefact Architecture (artefactarchitecture.com); and the Lehigh Valley Silk Mills article on Wikipedia.
