| In 1910, Samuel Courtauld Company (later Courtaulds Ltd) founded the American Viscose Company (subsequently The Viscose Company, then American Viscose Corporation, ultimately a subsidiary of FMC Corporation, and called "Avisco") and built the first successful synthetic fiber manufactory in North America. Producers of "artificial silk," christened "rayon" in 1924, for a voracious American market, the plant was immediately profitable. In 1912, in order to attract and retain a loyal, efficient workforce, the company constructed 261 model homes, two boarding houses, and a store on a twenty-acre tract across the road from the factory in addition to a dining hall/recreational facility and dispensary on the factory grounds. Several years later, they added a fire hall. Designed by Emile G. Perrot, Sr. for Ballinger and Perrot, of Philadelphia and New York, the Village, as it is still known, continues to thrive despite the 1977 closure of the factory (which had already been converted to cellophane production and severely downsized) and other significant economic challenges in the heavily industrialized 1.2-square-mile borough. Though not properly a company town or a Garden City, the Village shares characteristics of both, and it was clearly a distinct company community. Based on Cadbury's Bournville Estate in Birmingham, Lever Brothers' Port Sunlight Village, and Hampstead Garden near London, and influenced by Bedford Park Suburb and Letchworth Garden City as well as the theories of Ebenezer Howard, William Alexander Harvey, and Raymond Unwin, English antecedents figured prominently in Perrot's plan and designs. Ninety years hence, the Village retains its own identity and culture. Through archival research, synthesis of secondary sources in the histories of architecture and town planning, business and labor, chemistry and textiles, and interviews with former A.V.C. employees and former and current residents of the Village, this dissertation traces the forces which converged upon Marcus Hook to create the Village and modify it over time. A largely retrospective community study examines the lived experience of Villagers and the ways they forged and preserved a sense of community. |
