Includes renovated worker's housing along Ivy Rd - AsNotedIn

The Bancroft Mills complex, with the longest history of textile milling in the Brandywine Valley, represents the building forms and spatial patterns contrived by an industry which developed continuously from 1848 to 1922. The property was described in 1889 (when the property was less than half the size of the present plant) as the largest textile finishing company in the United States. It grew rapidly after that time until by 1950 it was referred to as one of the largest textile finishing operations on earth. The sprawling character of the complex attests to remarkable technical accomplishments, all of which occurred as a consequence of early successes. - NPS