06053crm a2200181 4500 758966150 TxAuBib 20150918120000.0 150918|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u TxAuBib Pottery Sherd [Museum Object]. "Fragments of T.G. & F.B. transfer ware collected during a 1978 archaeological investigation at the Nottingham Lace Factory. The factory operated from 1892-1894 on the west end of Galveston (Stewart Road and Twelve Mile Road). Produced by Thomas Gimbert & Frederick Booth Company in Tunstall, Staffordshire.". PERMANENT COLLECTION. "Collected during an archaeological investigation at the site of the Nottingham Lace Factory in 1978, and stored by donor until 2015 when it was donated to the Rosenberg Library.". 20150918. "Nottingham Lace Factory was part of a manufacturing and residential suburb developed in 1891, and located on the Galveston and Western Railroad that connected the city of Galveston to the west end of the island. Named after Nottingham, England, the suburb was designed to replicate the lace curtain industries of its English counterpart. The factory began operation in 1892 and went out of business in 1895. Although a factory and preliminary support buildings were constructed at the site, it appears the proposed residential suburb never saw fruition. A team of students from Rice University, led by Dr. Frank Hole, conducted an archaeological dig at the site in 1978. Dr. Hole, now professor emeritus at Yale University, recently donated artifacts discovered during the excavation along with research materials and photographs. The land upon which the Nottingham factory was built is in Section 2 of the Trimble and Lindsay Survey of 1837. This survey divided all the land west of the city of Galveston into ten acre lots that were sold at auction in 1837 by the Republic of Texas. Levi Jones first owned the plot that eventually became the Nottingham development. In 1892, Frank Dana, trustee for the Nottingham Company and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, bought the plot from M.F. Mott for [dollar sign]10,000. Dana planned to divide the land into blocks and lots, which would be sold and the proceeds used to build the lace factory. The idea of a lace factory was first proposed by Mr. Rafael Behrens, who recently arrived from Germany and claimed to be an experienced maker of lace-curtains. He had toured the lace factories in Nottingham, England and saw the potential to expand manufacturing industries on the island. He soon became associated with Frank Dana and together, they developed the Nottingham project. Dana said that the proposed factory would be the first of its kind in the United States, employ 200 people and use only Texas cotton. The Chamber of Commerce eagerly accepted the proposal, encouraged excursions to the site and quickly began to sell lots. Designed by architect H.C. Cooke, the factory building was built first and measured 300 feet by 50 feet upon completion, and cost an estimated [dollar sign]120,000. On Jan. 14, 1892, there was an elaborate cornerstone laying ceremony presided over by the Grand Master of Texas Masons, John Watson. The cornerstone contained various items including a copy of the Jan. 13, 1892 edition of The Galveston Daily News, a handbill advertising the factory, a copy of the bylaws of various Masonic organizations in Galveston, a silk handkerchief from Nottingham, England, and several coins donated by the ladies in the audience. According to the newspaper, 200 people attended the ceremony. The archaeological team from Rice discovered the cornerstone during their excavations, but the cavity that should have held the box was empty. They were unable to remove the cornerstone and it remains buried at the site. After the inaugural ceremony, an auction was held and 300 of the 800 lots offered were purchased. Two weeks after the groundbreaking, the east, south and north walls of the factory began to rise above the ground. The newspaper reported the completion of a boardinghouse for the workers and the installation of a telephone office. The development appeared to be taking shape with the completion of the first floor of the factory in Feb. 1892. Mr. Behrens dug 20 wells, eight feet deep around the factory that would supply pure water for all the factory needs. Power for the factory was supplied by a small, high-speed engine. The Nottingham Company, incorporated under the charter of the state of Texas on May 3, 1892, and issued bonds that were held by Texas Guarantee and Trust Company. By March 1893, the factory building was complete with machinery in place and production of lace soon began. The first curtain produced was cut into small pieces and distributed among the principal shareholders. In July 1893, local department store, Ikelheimer and Company, 2100 block of Market Street, advertised that they had the first offering of lace curtains made by the Nottingham Lace Factory. Advertised prices ranged from 70 cents to [dollar sign]4.85 per pair. The factory continued at full production through 1894 and hosted frequent tours to interested spectators. Despite this auspicious start, the next year the trustees sold the factory and land to James Spillane, secretary of the Nottingham Company, for [dollar sign]5,000. There is little evidence that Spillane continued production at full capacity and by 1896, he sold the property to George Anderson, manager of the Nottingham Land Department for [dollar sign]500. At this point, production at the factory ceased, perhaps due to the economic depression embracing the country or failures in the textile industries. For unknown reasons, Nottingham Lace Factory failed and the development was abandoned. The machinery was moved out, the building torn down and the bricks sold. Scavengers and hurricanes completed the elimination of the first lace factory on Galveston Island.". RV8