File:Factory 1947.jpeg

Summary

The Polan, Katz & Co. umbrella factory at the corner of Fifth Avenue & D Street in 1947. Currently Puerto Rico Distillery, the old factory was built sometime before 1936. According to the Brunswick News-Journal, it pre-dated residential development in that area as a 1936 Maryland National Guard aerial photo "shows the building with just a scattering of houses around it."

Over the years, the building has been home to Brown's Hosiery (Ladies' stockings 1938-1939), Polan, Katz & Co. (Umbrellas 1946-1948), Price Electric Co. (Car radio transistors 1952-1954), Curtis Holding Co. (Baby clothes 1955-1971), H.L. Hartz/Megusta Mills or the "Sewing Factory" (Jackets, Suits, Sports coats 1972-1982), Brunswick Woodworking (Architectural millwork and cabinets 1988-2023)

Iris Frye Miller My Mom (Norma Jean Frye) told me she worked at the umbrella factory. She said she made the little round part that is at the top of the umbrella ☂️

Linda Kidwiler Henson My Mom, Billie Kidwiler, worked there when it was a hosiery factory and continued to work there for Marx and then Hartz.

Diana Smith My mother, Kitty Comer and grandmother, Ruth Biller, worked there when it was a sewing factory. The clothes were for a high end clothing store in New York. They would bring home pieces of fabrics and made us shorts and pants.

Terry Himes Robinson My Granny Shrader had a "deal" with the Sewing Factory where she would get the rememants that she cut into strips, braided the strips, and rolled them into rugs of all sizes and stitch them together. We use to sit for hours and help her braid and roll! She made all the family a set of one large and 2 small rugs!!

(Photo courtesy of Debbie Katz-Rabin/Baltimore Museum of Industry via Brunswick News-Journal; information from Brunswick News-Journal)