Since the 1880's, the Wilde family has been making woolen carpet yarn in a mill built into the side of a steep hill in Manayunk.  Once the John Wilde & Brother mill was one of dozens of textile plants lining Main Street.  Today, only Wilde remains.

Since 1884, John Wilde & Brother has been spinning yarn in the old three-story building halfway up the rocky hillside of Manayunk.  By the mid 1920's, the original mill of about 20,000 square feet was no longer large enough to keep up with the increasing production requirements.  The only thing to do was build a new mill near the original.  The only space available was the lower part of the rocky slope. In the depths of the depression after the crash of '29, they began to build a three-story brick building fronting on Main Street, the street that runs along side of the Schuykill River and into downtown Manayunk.  The building was completed in 1932 and to this day we still refer to it as the "new mill" though 71 years later.

          John Wilde            ...and brother, Tom Wilde

A mule in the John Wilde & Brother mill.  circa 1930