Armstrong Cork Company building, building in Pennsylvania, United States
The Armstrong Cork Company building is a large factory complex in Pittsburgh built in the early 1900s in Romanesque Revival style, featuring bright orange brick and rounded arch windows. Its high ceilings, wide open floors, and tall windows were designed for efficient cork processing and product manufacturing across multiple connected structures.
The company started in 1860 making cork bottle stoppers in a small shop and grew to become one of the world's largest cork suppliers. The factory complex was built in 1901 and employed over 1,300 workers by the 1930s, before closure in 1974.
The name Armstrong Cork Company comes from its founders who started with simple cork bottle stoppers. Today, visitors can see how this industrial site has transformed into residential lofts, showing how cities reimagine old manufacturing spaces for contemporary living.
The site is located next to the Allegheny River with good accessibility, though many buildings are currently empty or in poor condition. Visitors should be aware that only certain areas are accessible and caution is needed around damaged structures and missing staircases.
The factory complex included a tall smokestack built in 1915 with buff-colored bricks that vented steam high into the sky, making the facility visible from far away. This distinctive chimney was repaired and reinforced over the years and remains today as a silent monument to the site's industrial past.
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