The city of Scranton is home to a new housing complex called Lace Village, making residential use of a very old factory location that was once a huge part of the country's textile industry. In the year 1900, the Scranton Lace Factory, pre-World War One, was the world's largest producer of Nottingham Lace. That's a particular pattern of lace named after the city of Nottingham in England.
The mill not only helped to give women the chance to work, but eventually contributed to keep the war effort going. During the war, the factory made a pivot to produce textiles needed on the battlefields, things like netting and parachutes instead of lace. At its height, Scranton Lace Company employed more than 1600 workers. By the 1950s and sixties, demand for lace had declined and the company was sold to investors.
It would take decades, but eventually the area was re-imagined as a place to live, not just work.
