At long last here is a replica of one of the most unsung buildings in the US - the Drueding Brothers Building in Philly. This factory was originally opened in 1877 as a pharmacy, by two German brothers named Charles and Henry Drueding, housed in a four-storey brick building, until 1883 when they discovered something extraordinary. They found that sheepskins could be tanned into artificial chamois, and although the process was by no means simple at the time, their factory became the first to successfully do so. Two storeys were added to the existing brick building in 1898, but by 1906 the pace of production called or a new, modern factory, and turned to William Steele and Sons, a design/architectural firm that still exists today. Work began on a new six-storey factory that October across tiny Orkney Street, but two years later it was finished with eight storeys instead!

As production increased, a new ten-storey addition was built in 1920, making the factory complex complete... almost. In 1930, following in the footsteps of other large factories, they built a hospital housing its 700 employees called the Dreuding Infirmary. But like many factories in the US, the scars of WW2 never healed it, and in 1958, Philadelphia had lost its best chamois maker. At that time, Jules Segal and Sons purchased the factory and used it to make umbrellas, earning it the nickname "the Umbrella Factory". In 1978, the building was earmarked for conversion to senior housing, but the project never went forward, and the building was empty.

Today, the tan-coloured complex survives, abandoned, deteriorating and awaiting redevelopment, but the red brick building (which was the original factory) was torn down for a bleak and bland car park in the 1960's. Even though the factory has since closed, the infirmary is still open as a nursing home, renamed as the Drueding Center.

You can use it as long as you give me credit. Enjoy!