Know Your Neighborhood: The Hoopskirt Factory at 309-313 Arch Street

High up on the east side of 309-13 Arch St you can see the faintly visible ad for Klosfit Petticoat painted on the building. Below it says "Fits without wrinkles".

The Queen Anne-style structure w/Chicago influences was built c. 1895 and replaced a factory that was destroyed in an 1888 fire. The building's ground floor tenant was John Maneely Co, who sold wrought iron pipes and fittings. John Maneely Co. began in 1877 & still exists today.

1899 photo

The principal tenant was clothing manufacturer Greenwald Brothers, Inc., operated by Dubuque, Iowa-born Marx (Max), Theodore & twin brother Jacob Greenwald. Their business took off with the 1909 launch of Jacob's patented Klosfit petticoats — accompanied by an aggressive ad campaign by N.W. Ayer (a Philadelphia ad agency whose building anchors Washington Square, now a condo) — the firm doubled its sales. (Ayer was one of the countries oldest ad firms and was responsible for slogans such as "I'd Walk a Mile For a Camel", "A Diamonds Is Forever" and "Be All You Can Be" (US Army)))

The Klosfit petticoat eliminated the customary drawstrings & replaced them with elastic for a more comfortable fit. Jacob also applied this approach to other apparel.

1976

Built about 1895, the 6-story building deftly combines Queen Anne elements with the latest developments by Chicago’s commercial architects like William Le Baron Jenney and Sullivan & Adler. The storefront includes two typical Queen Anne features, a flattened, stylized, cast iron cornice with fluted pilasters and
Queen Anne-style windows at the transoms. The upper stories reveal both the Queen Anne and Chicago influences. Most significant are the terra cotta ornamental motifs and the extremely large window openings. The ratio of void to solid on the front façade ties the building directly to the great strides in commercial and especially skyscraper architecture made in Chicago in the 1880s.

Renovated into apartments in 1980 & later into 43 loft condos, it was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, 12 April, 1979.

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