Daniel F. Waters Germantown Dye Works, 37-55 East Wister Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

Significance: The Daniel F. Waters Germantown Dye Works is representative of the historical development of the textile industry in Germantown, which was a nationally significant center of textile production in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dye works were historically located in textile-production areas to facilitate transportation and use of their dyes for coloring fabrics. The major expansions of the Germantown Dye Works in the 1870s and first two decades of the twentieth century illustrate the company's corporate success and response to market demand for high quality dyes and colored fabric. The Germantown Dye Works was one of Germantown's most extensive dye works establishments by the 1880s. Evolving with the technological innovations of the dye and chemical industries, the Germantown Dye Works remained in operation until the plant finally closed in 1981.
Survey number: HAER PA-213
Building/structure dates: ca. 1863 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: ca. 1870 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1981