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Photograph of the exterior of the Old Dominion Glass Company
photographer not credited · via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Industrial · Alexandria, VA

300
North West Street

Glass bottle and jar works that operated in west-end Alexandria from the 1890s until the Depression, employing hundreds of workers including children before Virginia’s child-labor reforms.
Year built
1894approx
Style
Industrial
Status
Demolished demolished 1932

Narrative

Place narrative


The Old Dominion Glass Company operated a factory along the west end of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad corridor from about 1894 until the early 1930s. The plant produced bottles and canning jars for the mid-Atlantic market and at its peak employed several hundred workers [1] Source 1 Alexandria Library Special Collections Manuscript .

Period photographs by Lewis Hine, taken for the National Child Labor Committee during his 1911 survey of Virginia glass factories, document the employment of boys as young as ten at the Alexandria plant [2] Source 2 LOC Prints & Photographs Photograph . Hine’s photographs and notes contributed to the passage of Virginia’s child-labor law in 1914.

The glass works closed during the Great Depression and the buildings were demolished in the early 1930s. Nothing of the factory survives above ground; the site has been built over several times since.

A Place in Time

Timeline

3 chronological entries across 2 eras.

· · Reconstruction and Early Jim Crow Jim Crow Era
Reconstruction and Early Jim Crow · 1865–1900 1 entry
  1. Opening of the glass works [1] Source Alexandria Library Special Collections

    construction
Jim Crow Era · 1900–1960 2 entries
  1. Lewis Hine photographs the plant [2] Source LOC Prints & Photographs

    news mention
  2. Closure and demolition [1] Source Alexandria Library Special Collections

    demolition

Architecture

The building


Style
Industrial

Contemporary

Nearby in time


Geographically

Nearby in space


Current

Now


No current occupant on file. Are you, or someone you know, the present occupant? Claim this place to add operating hours, a current photo, and a short note.

On the ground

Interpretive signs nearby

All 250 city signs →

The City of Alexandria has installed 1 historical interpretive sign within walking distance of this place. Each links to the actual sign image on alexandriava.gov.

References

Sources


  1. 1.

    Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections, Barrett Branch, Alexandria, Virginia.

    Manuscript

  2. 2.

    Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Washington: Library of Congress).

    Photograph

Corrections welcome

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