Quaker Lace Company (1911-1993)

The Quaker Lace Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on December 8, 1911, for the purpose of manufacturing Nottingham lace. It declared bankruptcy in 1993 and was liquidated the following year.

The company was the last survivor of a number of textile firms founded by John Bromley (1800-1883), and his seven sons. Bromley, an English weaver, established his first carpet factory in the Kensington section of Philadelphia in 1845. When his children joined the firm it was renamed John Bromley & Son in 1856 and later John Bromley & Sons in 1860.

In 1889, Bromley's sons John H. (1844-1918), Joseph H. (1852-1931), and Edward (1861-1915) expanded the carpet business. They established the Bromley Manufacturing Company to produce lace curtains used the profits from the carpet business to establish the American lace industry on a large scale by importing lace-weaving machinery and skilled Nottingham weavers. In 1894 they founded the Lehigh Manufacturing Company at 4th and Lehigh. In 1897 John H. and Edward withdrew from Lehigh Manufacturing, leaving the operation of it to Joseph H. and his four sons. Around 1899 they constructed a new mill at 22nd and Lehigh that was said to be the largest in the world. The Bromleys also established the North American Lace Company ca. 1902 and the National Lace Company ca. 1904. The Lehigh Manufacturing Company was reorganized as Quaker Lace in 1911, with its manufacturing based in Philadelphia and sales offices in New York City.

The war and changes in consumer taste ended the growth in demand for lace goods. The big 22nd Street mill was closed in 1916, and Quaker Lace took over the 4th Street mill. Joseph's son, Charles S. Bromley (1882-1950), converted the 22nd Street mill to the manufacture of hosiery in 1919 under the style of Quaker Hosiery Company. In the 1930s, the Bromleys began to move their investments out of Philadelphia with the purchase of the Riverside Mills in New Jersey, the Mayfair Mills in Athens, Ga., and the Smokey Mountains Hosiery Mills in Kingsport, Tenn. The depression proved a difficult time for the hosiery industry, and on December 23, 1940, the Quaker Hosiery Company was dissolved. Assets of the hosiery company were conveyed to the Van Pelt Realty Corporation. On June 20, 1942, the Quaker Lace Company merged into Van Pelt Realty, which subsequently changed its name to the Quaker Lace Company (briefly reffered to as Quaker Lace Company (new)).

The Philadelphia mill continued to operate, but in the 1980s the department stores that were its major buyers began to close. Quaker Lace declared bankruptcy in 1992 and the company was finally liquidated in 1993.