Shamokin, PA: Lost/Pennsy & Reading Depot and 1917-1995 USA's Largest Textile Mill

Depot: (Satellite)

Eagle Silk Mill: (Satellite)

Raymond Storey posted
SHAMOKIN PA

The tall, two-block long building on the right was the Eagle Silk Mill.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Raymond's post [AR1NX0000010040]
The depot was just west of Rock Street in the parking lot between Commerce and Independent Streets, https://maps.app.goo.gl/bQn4nBzjfxYSAJzv7. The existing tracks were the Reading, and the tracks that went up to Commerce Street were the Pennsy. Who owns the Reading tracks today? 1951 Aerial Photo

1952/54 Shamokin Quad @ 62,500

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Eagle Silk Mill

Big Mountain - The History of a Coal Patch Town posted

This photo from Sep 08, 1916, shows that construction of the Eagle Silk Mill main building in Shamokin, PA is largely completed. At 500,000 sq feet, it was the largest textile mill under one roof in America. This view is from the south east corner of the building, facing north west. 

Focus would next shift to completing the large power plant just behind the factory.  

A Thomas Studios photo provided courtesy of Bucknell University Archives. 

Big Mountain - The History of a Coal Patch Town posted
The massive JH & CK Eagle Silk Mill dominated the northeast corner of Shamokin, PA from the time it was built in 1917, until its demolition in 1995.  At the height of operations the company employed over 3,000 people.

The Pennsy tracks are on the left, and the Reading tracks are on the right.

Peachhead Flickr
Shamokin, PA---The Mill---now demolished (Eagle Silk Mill)
This was a huge old brick textile mill. The enormity of it really gives you a sense of how big the textile industry was here in NE PA. When it was sold they took the clock tower off and scrapped it. In one of the comments someone says the clock face itself was 12 to 15 feet tall!!! This photo is by Paul Thomas, late of Shamokin. More photos available from the Thomas Collection at the Northumberland County Historical Society in Sunbury, PA.

The bell in the clock tower and the eagle on the building have been saved and have a historical marker.

Street View, Nov 2023

This photo caused me to take another look at the aerial photo above. Sure enough, the building was hollow in the middle. Even though electricity had been developed by 1917, the tradition of providing a lot of daylight in the work rooms evidently was still strong.

201 of 222 photos via daladophotography, fair use
[This website has many interior photos.]

Eagle had other buildings around Shamokin and in other towns in the area. [bellefonte]

Bonus

Big Mountain - The History of a Coal Patch Town posted

Did you know that miners preferred timbers made from chestnut, oak, pine, spruce, and hemlock, because the wood cracked and split long before breaking, which gave the men a warning when overhead rock would settle? Dogwood was the most preferred wood for wheel sprags.  

Shown here is the timber yard at the Burnside colliery outside of Shamokin, PA looking very well stocked in this undated photo.