HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

Jackson’s Shirt Factory

Another Salisbury building that has been relegated to the sands of time is the old three-story Jackson shirt factory. The building has an interesting history and story behind it.

It was built in the beginning of the Twentieth Century by the Jacksons across from their mill and lumber works. The mill took up the area that is now the Peninsula Regional Medical Center. The story goes that the men at the mill were complaining that their wages were too low to raise a family. So the Jacksons built the shirt factory and put their wives to work to earn more money. As the above post cards show, it had many names. First, it was the Jackson and Gutman Shirt Company. Then it became the Jackson, Gutman and Lane Shirt Company. Finally, it was the Jackson and Weisbach Shirt Company. The Jackson name was always first because they owned it. The secondary names were the managers of the shirt factory.

The shirt-making operation fell into bankruptcy, and the building remained empty for many years. The bank tried to sell it to Martin & Schwartz but they declined, and only after being offered Norman Holland’s new building on Mill Street did they decide to move their operation from Buffalo, NY to Salisbury. Mr. Holland had built the building as a warehouse for his concrete business, but he saw the need for Salisbury to acquire a new business. So, the shirt factory building sat empty. It was considered an economic white elephant. It was used for awhile by the McCloskey-Grant Company from Philadelphia. Then, when Lowe’s moved to Salisbury, they used it until they built a new store on the corner of Old Ocean City Road and Moss Hill Lane.

From that point on, the old shirt factory building sat empty until it was demolished a few years ago. A medical facility and parking lot now occupy the spot on the S-curve of S. Salisbury Boulevard.

Riding around Salisbury, my observation is that many old business establishments are now part of the medical industry or are some bureaucratic entity – neither of which contributes to the financial future of Salisbury.