Miller Manufacturing Company Building
a.k.a. Miller Lofts
311 Bryan Ave, Fort Worth, TXThe Miller Manufacturing Company Building is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, at the local level of significance, for its association with the garment industry in Fort Worth and the 1922 labor strike between the United Garment Workers Union of America Local No. 181 and the Miller Manufacturing Company.
The Miller Manufacturing Company Building is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, at the local level of significance, under Criterion A in the areas of Industry and Social History for its association with the garment industry in Fort Worth and the 1922 labor strike between the United Garment Workers Union of America Local No. 181 and the Miller Manufacturing Company. The company began producing overalls and other work clothing in 1903 using union labor; this was an important industry in the city, as these work clothes were worn by a variety of trades and also were shipped to other markets. In 1922 the company began operating as an open shop in an attempt to break a strike, and the union workers— mostly women—were accused of using violence and other tactics of intimidation against the nonunion workers. Rather than give in to the demands of the strikers and to prevent further violence, the company closed this plant and transferred its operations to Paris, Texas. The strike and subsequent factory closing illustrated the dynamics between a local union and the open shop movement in the years between World War I and the Great Depression. The Miller Manufacturing Company Building is also nominated under Criterion C for Architecture as an excellent local example of an early twentieth-century reinforced concrete industrial building in south Fort Worth. Constructed in 1910-11, it is the oldest reinforced concrete building documented in the Tarrant County Historic Resources Survey of South Fort Worth, which identified it as one of nine buildings eligible for listing in the National Register as examples of industrial architecture. Unlike the other reinforced concrete industrial buildings that were documented in the survey, the Miller Manufacturing Company Building is the only example with poured-in-place concrete walls. The period of significance for the building is 1911-1922, representing the year it was completed through the years it was used as a garment factory, until operations ceased there as a result of the conflict between union labor and management.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.