1941 - Key Sweater Mill

An image taken in 1941 by photographer John Collier for the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) sparked a curious moment we explored a few years ago.  

E.H. Key set up his Sweater Mill in Fort Hunter around 1903.  The Fibre & Fabric: A Record of American Textile Industries in the Cotton and Woolen Trade, Volume 37 published in 1903 states that Key was setting up “a mill for the manufacture of gloves, mittens and sweaters in wool…”  The publication also provides information that it was to be run by steam power.   A few years later in 1908 the Textile World Record Vol. 33 publication indicates that the mill had moved into the old Methodist Church.  

An Amsterdam Evening Recorder article dated Saturday, December 27, 1913 stated that the mill was “thriving as indicated by additions of New Machinery.”

The article ends with: “E. H. Key has installed two new machines in his sweater factory, one for making the shawl collar and the other for making the flat shams. Mr. Key is doing a good business and has quite a number working for him.”  By 1941 it seems apparent from the caption of Mr. Collier’s image that the Sweater Mill was being operated only by its owner…however, without mentioning who that owner was at the time.  

Advertisements in the Amsterdam Evening Recorder for items “at mill prices” ran at least until 1955.  We do know that a few years ago, this building was renovated by a local contractor into a private residence. The steeple lost to time, but the history is still intriguing. 

Images 1 & 2: The Library of Congress collection-John Collier image of Keys Sweater Mill, Oct. 1941

image 3: a modern Google Street View of the building.