Viscose Village
Viscose Village is a rare example of the planned industrial community, particularly because of its creative layout and housing design. Approximately 20 acres, the original community remains intact in the area of Marcus Hook Borough from 10th Street to Chestnut Street and from Walnut Street to Yates Avenue.
The Village was built by the American Viscose Company (AVC), a textile firm which began in 1908 as a subsidiary of the British textile company Samuel Courtland, Ltd., one of several European firms interested in developing manmade fibers. AVC developed and patented a fiber made from cellulose acetate which they called “artificial silk.” (In 1924 it was renamed “rayon.”) The American Viscose Company built a plant in Marcus Hook, starting operation seven days before Christmas 1910. This was the first manmade fiber produced in America.
The immediate success of this product led to a rapid expansion of the plant. The need to hire skilled long-term workers put AVC in competition with other regional industries and led to the Company’s decision to build a highly attractive model town where its employees could live at subsidized rents.
Viscose Village consists of 261 residences, 2 boarding houses, and a general store. In addition, the Company commissioned amenities such as paved streets, sewers, sidewalks, fences, and landscaping long before such items were considered standard for communities. The architectural firm of Ballinger and Perrot, which is still flourishing in Philadelphia, was commissioned to design Viscose Village. Firm members traveled for almost a year throughout America and Europe to study successful industrial towns and identify the elements which would most attract workers to AVC’s planned industrial village.
The Ballinger and Perrot research resulted in a community which, unlike the modern suburb, was planned to be located directly next to the plant, but with green open spaces, broad yards, and a variety of attractive housing types. In order to draw families, the architects designed residential units with larger rooms, including at least three bedrooms so that there could be separate sleeping quarters. These pleasant, attractive, and affordable dwellings also had living rooms, sometimes with fireplaces, stair halls, dining rooms, full basements, “modern” bathrooms and kitchens, and covered front porches. The very best construction materials were used; brick for walls, slate for fireproof roofs, cement for porch floors and cellars. The architects took fashionable designs from Europe and incorporated them into the Village structures. Thus, there are Flemish gables, Tudor English half-timber walls, and Craftsman ( a revival of medieval carpentry) windows and roofs.
Two forms of family residences were designed: six-room and eight-room houses. The rents were fixed to “accommodate varying wage scales,” and the upkeep on the buildings was done by AVC. The architects followed the Company’s directions that the Village be designed “...not from a commercial standpoint, but [considering] what best suits the character of the people employed by this company.” The largest houses with the most detailing were built facing the Plaza. The two boarding houses, one for single men and one for single women, housed 16 people each and had an average weekly charge for room and board of $3.50.
The visual appeal of the community was considered a major design element. Thus, instead of monotonous row housing on straight streets, the Village has the curving panorama of the Plaza, with angled streets off of it, providing attractive views of the neighborhood. As the descriptive booklet on the Village puts it, “instead of having a village with rectangular plots and rows of houses, streets [diverge] from a central plaza with beautiful vistas.” Front yards were divided by low hedges rather than fences, so the area would not be divided into postage stamp type components. Cement sidewalks promoted walking, and trees and shrubs were planted throughout the Village. The streets were paved (ten years before even main roads were regularly macadamized), and cement curbs and gutters were added. Functional rear alleys took care of deliveries and secondary access needs.
The construction of Viscose Village continued throughout 1912 and 1913. It was considered to be such a model community that the Company produced a booklet about the Village and its reasons behind the design. Ballinger and Perrot continued to build plants and worker housing for American Viscose until 1923, constructing AVC’s six other plants in Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
One of the elements they considered particularly important was the need for healthy recreation. The Plaza was planned as a public park, and, immediately following the erection of the Village, a dining/recreation hall was designed. At a 1913 cost of $60,000, this structure was built of fireproof materials with terra cotta and wrought iron details and ornamentation. Not only a clean and healthy cafeteria for Viscose employees, it was also used for public functions, visiting entertainment, and regular dances. A roof garden with corner pavilions and promenades was built on the top of the 2-storey dining hall. A small dispensary was also built nearby, to care for the needs of employees and their families.
The dependence on rayon for industrial and military purposes during World War I led to another rapid expansion of the plant, with the result that the dining hall was enlarged and converted into production space and offices. In 1920, the Viscose Fire Company was chartered and a firehouse erected which remains in use today. By mid-century, the use of rayon expanded to everything from parachutes to rugs, from mens’ summer suits to children’s rompers. Although the Borough’s Viscose complex was still the leading American producer of rayon, these new applications required different machinery to spin finer yarn than that located at the Marcus Hook plant. This led AVC to convert to manufacturing cellophane in 1954-58. In 1963, AVC was purchased by FMC Corporation.
Part of the change after World War II included the recognition that workers now preferred to own housing rather than to rent. Therefore, AVC divested itself of the Village by giving the Plaza to the Borough and selling the housing at below market prices to Company employees. This transferral of property was completed in 1950, and many of the original buyers and/or family members are still living in these unique homes.
Viscose Village was, and is a unique historical complex of lasting appeal. Its pioneer community designs are being rediscovered by modern site developers. Its attractive variety of housing with European elements makes the Village a visually attractive place in an ever-growing sea of uncreative urban sprawl.
The Viscose Village Historic Resource Assessment and Preservation Plan was completed in 1992. It was prepared for Marcus Hook Borough by the Delaware County Planning Department. The joint Marcus Hook Borough - Delaware County Planning Department project addressed in depth the historical roots, development, and ongoing concerns of the community and the best methods of physically preserving this nationally-important neighborhood.
