Thistle Manufacturing Company

Last updated
Simkins Industries Factory
Thistle Manufacturing Company
Former namesThistle Manufacturing Company Factory, Ilchester Mills, Thistle Cotton Mill
General information
TypeFactory
Location Catonsville, Maryland, near Ilchester, Maryland 39°15'07.8"N 76°45'55.4"W
Coordinates 39°15′07.8″N76°45′55.4″W / 39.252167°N 76.765389°W / 39.252167; -76.765389
Completed1837
Demolished2013
Technical details
Floor area87,000 sf

Thistle Manufacturing Company factory was a historic factory located along the Patapsco River, which runs through Catonsville, Maryland across from Ilchester, Maryland. The 1800s factory was in continuous operation until 2003. [1]

Contents

Factory History

The factory resided at 201 River Road in Catonsville, Maryland, on 106 acres of land in both Baltimore County and Howard County along the Patapsco River on River road. The site was known as the "Thistle Factory" or "Thistle Cotton Mill". [2] Alexander Fridge, George and William Morris founded the Thistle Manufacturing Company in 1824 with the purchase of the property from the Ellicott brothers. [3] The Ellicotts stipulated that the new factory as well as the Dismal Mill downstream would not operate as a competing flour mill, and in turn, the Ellicott's could not sell liquor on their land, Ellicott's Mills. In 1825 Fridge had sold his assets and the Morris brothers petitioned to build a road from the Thistle factory to the turnpike followed in 1832 with a state appropriation of $600 to build a bridge across the Patapsco at Thistle Mills. [4] In 1837 they built a cotton mill and silk production facility on property purchased from the Ellicott brothers. The 100 employee mill building was built of locally quarried stone along with at least five stone buildings to support laborers and a general store. The company expanded production with the purchase of the Ilchester flour mill in 1882, but lost the facility in receivership in 1892. In 1895, the current owner and operator of the mill W.H. Kerr drowned when attempting to rescue his son who fell off his yacht in Annapolis. [5] In 1919 Edward A.A. Blakeney purchased the plant for cotton duck production, and electrified operations in 1925, but shifted to tire fabric manufacturing.

In 1928 The Bartgis Brothers Company purchased the factory and refitted it through August 1929 for paper production. Bartigis was purchased by E.H. Lupton, and was sold to the New Haven Board and Carton Co. in July 1957 and later, Simkins Industries, Inc. [6] The 250 employee factory produced recycled paper products with printing operations from 1919 to 1964. Most of 1964 operations were interrupted by a labor strike. [7] In 1952, a dump was created on the steep slopes that was in operation until the mid-1980s. In 1971 sewer service was added, stopping direct drainage of titanium dioxide into the Patapsco River. [ citation needed ] In 1972, the factory was devastated by Hurricane Agnes and then again by a four-alarm fire just four months later, though did recover back into operations within the ruins. [8]

The last factory configuration included the mill, powerplant, scalehouse, and a dump. A historic mill village is on the wooded site. [9] [10]

Modern developments

In 1991, Thistle was the last remaining company town in Baltimore County, with 110 remaining workers at the Simkins Industries Inc. paper mill that processed recycled wastepaper into box board. On the site were the remains of what might have been the village's church and school, with a graveyard above the ridge, though many other buildings and the company houses for employees on Hilltop Road had been destroyed by flooding or demolished over the years. [8] In June 2003, a four alarm fire broke out and forced the facility to close after 46 years of operation as a paper recycling plant. [2]

In August 2003, a complaint was filed against the facility for violations in hazardous materials and solid waste dumping. The company entered a voluntary cleanup program with the Maryland Department of the Environment. [11] It then started dismantling the historic mill town buildings and industrial tanks. The building was burned again in 2009 and December 2011. [12] [13] Simkins Industries announced in 2012 that it would sell the historic factory and 55 acres of property to a land developer or the State of Maryland. [14] The complex was demolished in 2013. [15] [16]

The Simkins plant was one of many historical buildings in the region with valuable real estate that was lost to arson, including Troy Hill (1990), Avondale Mill (1991), St. Mary's College (directly across the river from the Thistle plant (1997), and Ammendale Normal Institute (1998), [17] and Henryton State Hospital (2007). [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catonsville, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in Maryland, United States

Catonsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland. The population was 44,701 at the 2020 US Census. The community is a streetcar suburb of Baltimore along the city's western border. The town is known for its proximity to the Patapsco River and Patapsco Valley State Park, making it a regional mountain biking hub. The town is also notable as a local hotbed of music, earning it the official nickname of "Music City, Maryland." Catonsville contains the majority of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), a major public research university with close to 14,000 students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellicott City, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in Maryland, United States

Ellicott City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in, and the county seat of, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, its population was 75,947 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous unincorporated county seat in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patapsco River</span> River in Maryland, United States

The Patapsco River mainstem is a 39-mile (63 km) river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal portion forms the harbor for the city of Baltimore. With its South Branch, the Patapsco forms the northern border of Howard County, Maryland. The name "Patapsco" is derived from the Algonquian pota-psk-ut, which translates to "backwater" or "tide covered with froth."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oella, Maryland</span> Historic district in Maryland, United States

Oella is a mill town on the Patapsco River in western Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, located between Catonsville and Ellicott City. It is a 19th-century village of millworkers' homes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland Route 99</span> State highway in Howard County, Maryland, US, known as Old Frederick Rd

Maryland Route 99 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Old Frederick Road, the state highway runs 7.57 miles (12.18 km) from MD 32 near West Friendship east to U.S. Route 29 in Ellicott City. MD 99 parallels the north side of Interstate 70 (I-70) through a rural and suburban area in northeastern Howard County. MD 99, which follows the original 18th-century road west from Baltimore, was constructed as part of three state highways: MD 99, the original MD 100, and MD 105. All three highways were constructed between the early 1920s and early 1930s. MD 99 originally turned south along St. Johns Lane to US 40 and MD 144; in 1956, the state highway was rerouted along part of MD 100 and all of MD 105 to downtown Ellicott City. MD 99's eastern terminus was rolled back to US 29 in two steps in the late 1970s and late 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Main Line Subdivision</span>

The Old Main Line Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Maryland. The line runs from Relay west to Point of Rocks, and was once the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one of the oldest rail lines in the United States. At its east end, it has junctions with the Capital Subdivision and the Baltimore Terminal Subdivision; its west end has a junction with the Metropolitan Subdivision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloede's Dam</span> Dam in Catonsville / Ilchester, Maryland

Bloede's Dam was a hydroelectric dam on the Patapsco River in Maryland. Built in 1906, it was the first submerged hydroelectric plant—that is, the power plant was housed under the spillway. It was also one of the earliest dams constructed of reinforced concrete. The dam was demolished in 2018 and its site is now part of Patapsco Valley State Park Avalon Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilchester, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in Maryland

Ilchester is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland, United States. The population was 23,476 at the 2010 census. It was named after the village of Ilchester in the English county of Somerset.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patapsco Valley State Park</span> State park in Maryland, United States

Patapsco Valley State Park is a Maryland state park extending along 32 miles (51 km) of the Patapsco River south and west of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. The park encompasses multiple developed areas on over 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) acres of land, making it Maryland's largest state park. In 2006, it was officially celebrated as Maryland's first state park, its first formation being in 1906. Patapsco Valley State Park is managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The Historical Ellicott City/Baltimore Trolley Line #9 Trail is a 1.25-mile (2.0 km) trail in western Baltimore County, Maryland. It begins at the west end of Edmondson Avenue and extends from Catonsville through Oella to Main Street, Ellicott City. The trail follows what was originally part of the Catonsville and Ellicott City Electric Railway Company trolley line that shuttled passengers between Ellicott City and Baltimore from the late 1890s to the mid-1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henryton State Hospital</span> Hospital in Maryland, United States

Henryton State Hospital is a now-demolished hospital complex in Marriottsville, in southern Carroll County, Maryland, just across the Howard County line. The complex was located within Patapsco Valley State Park and along its southern end runs CSX's Old Main Line Subdivision and is very close to the Henryton Tunnel. The Henryton State Hospital center, or the Henryton Tuberculosis Sanatorium as it was called, was erected in 1922 by the Maryland Board of Mental Hygiene. It was established as a facility to treat African Americans suffering from tuberculosis. This was one of the first such facilities in Maryland erected to provide African Americans with the same level of treatment as white people. Other accounts state that this was more of containment Hospital rather than a treatment facility. They contend that Henryton was used more for the exile and quarantine of tuberculosis patients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elkridge Furnace Complex</span> United States historic place

The Elkridge Furnace Complex is a historic iron works located on approximately 16 acres (6.5 ha) at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellicott's Mills Historic District</span> Historic district in Maryland, United States

Ellicott's Mills Historic District is a national historic district at Oella, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is on the east bank of the Patapsco River, opposite Ellicott City. This historic district designation relates to the industrial operations of the Ellicott family from the 1770s through the mid-19th century. It consists of the sites of historic buildings including: an 18th-century building, a section of an 18th-century mill incorporated in a 20th-century factory, a 19th-century tavern, 19th-century workers housing, and an 1859 Italianate villa built by John Ellicott. Historically, these industrious mills were served by the major east–west route in Maryland during the early 19th century, the old National Pike. Also in the district is the mammoth multi-story Wilkins-Rogers Company flour plant, which is located on the site of the 1792 Ellicott Flour Mill, the first merchant flour mill in the United States.

The Orange Grove Flour Mill was a flour mill established in 1856. It was one of the leading flour mills in the Mid-Atlantic states until it was destroyed in a fire in 1905.

St. Marys College was a Roman Catholic school in Ilchester, Maryland near modern Ellicott City, Maryland in Howard County. The ruins are near Ilchester and Bonnie Branch roads. The upper college building was built in 1868 consisting of a cupola-topped eighteen-bay-by-five-bay building with a five-bay-by-five-bay projection. A three-bay-by-three-bay, five-story L-shaped addition is included, with all of the structure on a stone foundation. A three-story chapel was attached to the building in 1882. In 1934 a fifth floor was added throughout. A statue of Madonna with Child was situated in a niche.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elkridge Landing</span> Historic seaport, now part of Elkridge, MD, US

Elkridge Landing was a Patapsco River seaport in Maryland, and is now part of Elkridge, Maryland. The historic Elkridge Furnace Inn site resides within the Patapsco Valley State Park.

Woodlawn or Papillon was amanor home in Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patapsco Hotel</span> Historic site

The Patapsco Hotel is historic granite building located in Ellicott City, Maryland, on the western bank of the Patapsco River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patapsco Valley</span> Valley surrounding the Patapsco River in the U.S. state of Maryland

The Patapsco Valley is a small valley surrounding the Patapsco River in central Maryland. The region is known for its historical significance as a major economic and industrial center in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grist Mill Trail</span>

The Grist Mill Trail is a 5.0 mile long hiking and biking trail located in Patapsco Valley State Park in the Baltimore County side of the Patapsco Valley near Catonsville, Maryland. The paved pathway runs parallel to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to the north, and the Patapsco River to the south.

References

  1. ↑ "Maryland State Archives" (PDF). Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  2. 1 2 Barnhardt, Laura (25 June 2003). "Officials continue probe of plant fire". Baltimore Sun. Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  3. ↑ "281". The Laws of Maryland. 1880.
  4. ↑ Index to the Laws and Resolutions of Maryland.
  5. ↑ "Father lost life for son". St. Paul daily globe. 17 June 1895.
  6. ↑ Henry K Sharp. The Patapsco River Valley. p. 39.
  7. ↑ The Times (Ellicott City, MD). 31 March 1965.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. 1 2 Erlandson, Robert. "Company town is far from run of the mill Thistle productive from 1820s to present". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  9. ↑ "Maryland State Archives" (PDF). Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  10. ↑ "Maryland Department of the Environment" (PDF). Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  11. ↑ "Facts About... Former Simkins Industries Property (Voluntary Cleanup Program)" (PDF). Maryland Department of the Environment. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  12. ↑ Conlin, Brian. "Simkins Industries details plans for Catonsville mill site". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  13. ↑ "Simkins Industries details plans for Catonsville mill site Vacant buildings at River Road to be repaired and secured". The Baltimore Sun. 9 August 2012.
  14. ↑ Riordan, Penny (14 August 2012). "Simkins Industries Will Develop or Sell Old Mill Site". Catonsville Patch. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  15. ↑ Baughman, Julie. "Demolition begins on Catonsville's Simkins Mill". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  16. ↑ Salisbury, Veronica (26 August 2013). "Remembering Thistle Mill". Ellicott City Patch. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  17. ↑ "Centuries-old log cabin destroyed by fire". The Durant Daily Democrat. 25 December 2001.
  18. ↑ Pearce, Brett. "Yet Another Fire at Henryton State Hospital". Sykesville Freedom District Fire Department. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.