The Lonaconing Silk Mill,
owned by the Klotz Throwing Company, located in the hills
of Western Maryland opened for business during a period of
prosperity in 1907. Its doors were subsequently sealed
closed following a period of industrial unrest 50 years
later. As the site has been largely untouched since its
closure, one is immediately transported upon entering back
to a time when things were much simpler and needs much
greater. It takes time for one’s eyes to adjust to the
darkness that blankets the once workplace of the Lonaconing
Silk Mill, but as the shadows dissipate one gradually
begins to feel and experience life from a bygone era.
Although the machinery sits cold and lifeless, one imagines
that the simple throw of a power switch could spring it
back to life. The silence is overwhelming, but as you stand
amongst the lifeless machines and listen carefully, voices
of the Lonaconing Silk Mill workers begin to transcend the
passage of time. First one voice and then another. More
join the crowd and the chatter is of hardship and gossip.
Imagination begins to breathe life into the machines and
they slowly come alive, their pulsing heartbeat
intensifying in tempo, pushing the voices into the
background. Barely decipherable, they persist in their
story - a story in which the last chapter is still
unwritten, but soon may be. They want to give their own
ending, an ending that would leave something behind to
remember them by. Something elaborate and dignified would
be nice, but most of all the voices want to stay together,
they do not want to be broken up and sent to places far
apart where they can no longer be heard. The Lonaconing
Silk Mill was not just a place of work it was a place where
friendships and lifelong bonds were made, as strong as the
silk they wove but just as delicate, prone to sudden and
catastrophic failure.
The building that remains today of the once magnificent
Klotz Throwing Company Lonaconing Silk Mill may be nothing
more than bricks and mortar, but its soul is the stories
its occupants told through the artifacts they left
behind.