Plans Unveiled

By: Matt Fagan
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

CLIFTON - A factory building on Hazel Street that dates to the American Industrial Revolution will be demolished to make room for a residential building if city zoning officials approve the proposal.
..... The owners of International Veiling Corporation, a former silk mill and textile manufacturer, are seeking zoning board approval to raze the three-story red brick building with large metal multi-paned windows and replace it with modern apartments.
..... The Wiley family had led International Veiling for three generations, guiding the textile company since 1904. The company, a mill for the spinning of broadcloth and ribbons, was set up in the Hazel Street building that dates to the early 1880s.
..... Wiley said eh was heartbroken when, at the end of 2018, International Veiling shut down. He said it was another victim of New Jersey's and the country's inability to compete with textile companies across the globe.
..... "We couldn't keep it going," Wiley said. "We had a good crew and were very good at what we did."
..... The application first appeared before the city's Board of Adjustment in May, [2022] and because the property is on a county road, it was on the Passaic County Planning Board agenda last week. [07/13/2022] The original proposal for the almost 2-acre parcel called for the construction of a four-story apartment building with 60 residential units above a parking garage.
..... The plan proposes demolishing the existing building and an adjacent single-family house.
..... The developer TFJ Hazel LLC, has modified the plans to reduce the building to three stories with 54 apartments on the second and third floors, according to minutes form the June 22 [2022] city zoning board meeting.
..... That meeting was attended by about a dozen area residents who oppose the plan for a multi-unit residential building in an area of single-family homes.
..... The next zoning board hearing for the application is scheduled for August 17. [2022]

The building's history

..... The Wiley Family company provided a number of jobs and union jobs to local workers, Wiley said.
..... "At times we'd have three generations of families working for us," he said. "If I could have, I wouldn't have retired."
..... The 50,000-square-foot building goes back to around the Civil War, when it operated as a silk mill under brothers Peter and Israel Bannigan, who according to the 1891 book "history and Commerce of New York" were "among the pioneers of silk manufacturing in this country."
..... The brothers ran one of the estimated 121 firms that during the late 19th century and early 20th century helped turn Paterson into "Silk City."
..... The Bannigan brothers, along with the Botany Worsted mills and Forstmann & Huffmann Company planted in Passaic, created a huge portion of the development in Paterson, Clifton and Passaic that was tied to the growing textile industry, employing thousands of workers.
..... The Bannigan brothers were born in the early to mid-1800s and worked originally as carpenters for silk manufacturers. They later opened their own "throwster" factory at the Hazel Street location, creating textile filaments. The Bannigan tract at its peak consisted of almost 70 acres, calculating the 40 aces that were later sold to the Daughters of Miriam Center.
..... "There was a time when 100 women worked on the third floor," said Scott Degen, who worked for International Veiling for 35 years. "You can see where they use to heat the place with little potbelly stoves."
..... Degen was out of a job the same day International Veiling close after its 114-year run. There he preformed various textile-related jobs, such as making veils and dying and finishing them.
..... Local historians say the building is not on their radar.
..... "Not every building is historic just because it's old," Passaic County Historian Ed Smyk said.
..... Still, he said, losing the factories that played an important role in this country's development is unfortunate. "T Hey are survivors of a different age," he said. "Sentries of the past."
..... He added that former textile buildings, especially silk mills, are exceptionally well built. "They had to withstand the stresses of the equipment," Smyk said.
..... Degen agreed, saying someone is going to want too salvage the massive beams in the building.

HOME