Textile was Reading and greater Berks County’s largest industry by the turn of the 20th century. Nearly every small community had some sort of hosiery mill, and headquartered in Reading was Nolde and Horst, the largest of them all.

Three German immigrants, Jacob Nolde, George and John Horst chartered “Nolde and Horst Company” with the state of Pennsylvania in April of 1897. Two other New York City-based shareholders, Charles Bateson and Joseph Dowd also were listed as directors in the founding charter.

Yet the beginnings of this partnership dates to 1890, when a young George Horst began working for his brother-in-law, Jacob Nolde. Nolde had begun operations two years prior in 1888. The first plant was located at 143 Cedar Street, and was quickly outgrown. In 1891 the business briefly moved to 222 Cedar Street. By 1896 they purchased a lot along Douglass Street between 9th and Moss. They quickly built a three-story factory on the site; the oldest section being on the corner of Moss & Douglass. Within three decades the complex would take up the entire block.

Tragedy struck on December 6th, 1899 when a gas explosion on a singeing machine started a fire that rapidly ripped through the factory buildings. The December 7th, 1899 Reading Times was headlined, “Death Stares in 600 Faces, Panic-stricken employees leap from the windows of Nolde & Horst’s blazing mills“. Over 75 workers were injured in the fire, but surprisingly only one death occured. The deceased was named Miss Louise A. Clay, and the Reading Times reported that her coworker Miss Hornberger said Clay had made it out and was on the sidewalk when she mentioned she had valuable jewels inside and decided to go back for them. Clay’s remains were found “charred and unrecognizable” in the corner of what was the office.

Rumors flared about the conditions in the mill, including that windows had permanent screens and others were nailed shut. Both Nolde and Horst denied rumors that their mill was unsafe. They did however vow to rebuild. The new plant was completed only 6 months later in May of 1900.

Keep in mind that working factory jobs in this era was dangerous and accidents often occurred. It is also worth noting that the majority of these mill jobs were held by women and children. On July 16th, 1900 Miss Annie Hornberger, an operator of a knitting machine had her arm drawn in by a belt, which when she tried to free herself her hair was also drawn in. She screamed, which led to panic due to the fire six months previous and many workers began running out of the building in fright. The foreman was able to help free her from the machine which broke her forearm. Coincidentally wages were increased for workers just two weeks later, from 10 to 15 cents a day.

An addition was constructed in 1902, extending 110 feet along Moss and 100 feet wide. Another was constructed the following year. Nolde & Horst quickly became one of the largest textile manufacturers in the United States.

The Nolde and Horst Mill saw its first threat of union influence in 1914, when Philadelphia-based textile union men held meetings with employees of the mill. Management fired two of the leaders in this movement, which led to an all-out 140 person strike on March 14th, 1914. Their only condition was that the employees that were discharged be reinstated. Nolde and Horst remained steadfast that a union would not be recognized and the strike had affected production by about 50%. Management eventually brought foreign workers to take the place of the striking workers. On April 21st the strike turned into a violent altercation between a crowd of over 600 workers and the replacements brought in from other states. No one was seriously injured. By May 12th the Reading Times reported that 600 employees of the mill were suspended for an indefinite period.

Jacob Nolde died unexpectedly in 1916, leaving George Horst at the helm of the business.

In August 1919 the company purchased the school that sat at the corner of 9th & Windsor to expand their factory yet again. The school housed 7th grade but was merged into the Spring and Moss street building while the school board looked for other properties to build a new junior high school. Northeast Junior High school would be built on nearby North 13th Street in 1922 to serve this purpose.

By 1922 the Nolde & Horst complex took up the entire block between Windsor, Douglass, 9th and Moss Streets. At the company’s peak in the 1920s it employed around 2000 workers.

In 1932 the company opened an office in New York City’s Empire State Building, for the purpose of selling women’s full-fashioned hosiery on an independent wholesale basis.

The 1930s were tumultuous for all textile companies due to the Great Depression leading to changing federal labor laws and rising Union influence culminating in strikes, many of which were violent. Things came to a head in the June of 1933 in Berks. Nolde and Horst, along with nearly every other local mill, was officially unionized by the end of that summer. The effort led to a 25% wage increase in one hundred and seventy textile mills across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

George Horst died in 1934. He hand-picked his successor, German-born John Vogt, to run the company. Eventually, Hans, son of Jacob Nolde, took the helm of the company until its sale.

Nolde and Horst Co. was bought out by a group of New York-based businessmen in 1951. The company ceased operations in the complex shortly after and moved all operation to its Womelsdorf plant. The Reading property was purchased by a local real estate group and housed smaller hosiery operations and other businesses through the 1960s.

Reading Outlet Center

The site became the Reading Outlet Center, a hub of outlet stores and retail shopping in 1974, which housed over 70 different stores at its peak. Some of the stores included Nautica, Polo/Ralph Lauren, Old Navy, Carters, and Guess, amongst many others. There was also a club on the top floor called “Top of the ROC” which opened in 1993 and closed in 1997. It had a brief reopening in 1999 but was forced to close by the city zoning officials whom rejected their permit to operate. The complex remained a prosperous retail hub until the turn of the millennium. In 2004 the property was sold off to pay school taxes that the owners owed Reading School District. By this point the property was abandoned and began to deteriorate.

In 2017 the property was purchased by Shuman Development Group with the intent to renovate the property into retail space. On January 25th, 2018 part of the building at the corner of 9th and Douglass collapsed into the street. Flying bricks damaged homes and cars across 9th Street; luckily no one was harmed. After the incident the building was deemed to be such a hazard that all of it needed to be razed. Shuman Development Group demolished the entire structure and sold the property to the Reading School District in 2021. Currently the district is constructing a new STEM school on the site of the former hosiery mill. The building is expected to be completed and opened to students in the Fall of 2025.