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  Warrensburgh Heritage Trail

89 River Street

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c.1896
Empire Shirt Co.

Industrial Buildings constructed for the Empire Shirt Factory
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89 River Street    
This contributing, massive mill building, which was constructed  in 1896 for the Empire Shirt Company  and J.P. Bauman  and Sons,  clearly  communicates  the role local  industry and manufacturing  played in  the  historic development  of  the community.    The building features  an overall planned symmetry  with gable front design, paired windows,  shed-roofed  and gabled  dormers and 1-story entry porch.


Empire Shirt Factory was established in 1879 by Louis Weinman and L. W. Emerson.  In 1883 James Emerson, at the age of 19, became the sole owner.  At that time the company employed about 100 hands and manu-factured about 25,000 dozen shirts per year.  In 1891, J. P. Baumann & Son bought into the company, enlarged the building, and started producing ladies' shirtwaists.  They employed a corps of skilled designers, pattern makers, cutters, pressers and sewers.  In 1892 a three-story building was added along the river for use as a laundry (since demolished.)  Most employees in the laundry were expected to be men and boys.  By 1896, they were producing 500 dozen shirtwaists and 200 dozen robes daily, employing over 800 people.  The showroom for J. P. Baumann & Sons was located in New York City.  The Troy Company purchased the Empire Shirt Co. and continued manufacturing through the 1940s and into the early part of the 1970s.  It became "The Outlet Barn,” selling clothing at discounted rates, and housed a variety of different shops.  In 1965 the overpass linking the two structures was taking down.  In recent years, Tom and Mark Grace purchased the main building and renovated it.  It now houses a restaurant called Lizzie Keays Restaurant (after a shirt factory worker), an athletic club, a beauty parlor and office space.  The building on the Schroon River, now part of the Grist Mill on the Schroon restaurant property,  was used as an antique store for a few years, but as of this writing sits vacant.


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