Pennsylvania Match Company
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the A Place in Time category and the Winter 2002 issue Topics in this article: Chestnut Hill, Harris Building, Lancaster City Historic District, Merchant's Exchange Building, New York Ontario and Western Railroad Station, Pennsylvania Match Company, Pottstown Landing Historic District, Springdale Historic District, Stoystown Historic District, Trexler Historic District, Universal Match Corporation, WelkinweirWith nearly one hundred employees, the Pennsylvania Match Company of Bellefonte, Centre County, commenced production of its popular “single dip strike-anywhere” and “parlor” matches in February 1900. The company had been organized the year before, at which time it began construction of brick buildings designed by Bellefonte builder and architect Robert Cole (1850-1916), who was responsible for the construction or restyling of numerous buildings in the region. Samuel A. Donachy, a former superintendent of match companies
in York, York County, and Hanover, Adams County, relocated to Bellefonte to serve as superintendent. Skilled workers from the Hanover company, which had closed, also moved to the Centre County community and provided an experienced work force and expert management. Because of the plant’s location in the Commonwealth’s vast lumber region, raw materials were easily obtained.
Before the company’s first full year of production, management realized that the operation was inadequate to meet demands, and expanded its capabilities by quickly erecting additional buildings on the site. During the firm’s first decade, it operated as a partnership, but in 1911 it was restructured as a corporation and recognized as one of the eight largest match factories in the United States. At the time of its incorporation, the £inn listed assets in raw material alone at nearly five and a half million feet of match lumber.
The Pennsylvania Match Company remained successful under subsequent owners, eventually emerging as the Universal Match Corporation, but the economic boom accompanying World War II proved to have the greatest positive impact. By January 1947, the facility employed four hundred workers.
But the boom quickly went bust.
Just five months later, on July 1, 1947, Bellefonte’s Universal Match Corporation ceased operations, citing plummeting demand for wood matches. Company officials explained that the decline was prompted by the increasing use of book matches, cigarette lighters, and kitchen stoves that no longer required manual lighting. The complex was purchased by a residential and light construction retail business and was most recently used for the storage of building materials. Bellefonte Borough has recently acquired the historic property to ensure its preservation through adaptive re-use.
The Pennsylvania Match Company is significant in the history of industry for its role in the production of a specialized forest product. The eighteen connected buildings and structures compose the only extant industrial complex in the community associated with the lumber industry.
Recent Additions to the National Register of Historic Places
Merchant’s Exchange Building
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
August 7, 2001
Springdale Historic District
York, York County
August 30, 2001
Pottstown Landing Historic District
North Coventry, Chester County
August 31, 2001
Harris Building
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
August 31, 2001
Chestnut Hill
Windsor Township, York County
September 1, 2001
Trexler Historic District
Albany Township, Berks County
September 7, 2001
Pennsylvania Match Company
Bellefonte, Centre County
September 7,2001
Welkinweir
East Nantmeal Township, Chester County
September 7, 2001
Lancaster City Historic District
Lancaster, Lancaster County
September 7, 2001
Stoystown Historic District
Stoystown, Somerset County
September 7, 2001
New York, Ontario, and Western Railroad Station
Starlight, Buckingham Township
August 30, 2001
