If you’ve passed by Langhorne Carpets on Route 1 (West Lincoln Highway) in Penndel lately, you might have noticed some extra activity. Scaffolding has gone up, down, and up again along the red brick wall that faces the busy Bucks County thoroughfare.
The brick exterior of our Wilton Jacquard mill has seen more than a century of changes. When it was built in 1907, the structure was an architectural pioneer because of its free-standing roof—no supporting beams. For generations, our mill has withstood time’s tests. Alas, over the decades, the hand-painted mural outside hasn’t had such luck. Through the years, environmental and man-made conditions have taken their toll. Every few decades, we’ve had to repaint it.
This time, we’ve gone a step further. We joined up with Vital Signs, a project founded in 2013 by our friends at Temple Contemporary (part of the University’s Tyler School of Art) and Mural Arts Philadelphia. Vital Signs pairs active, multi-generation Philadelphia-area businesses with local artists to restore hand-painted exterior signs to their original glory.
For the past few months, we’ve worked with artists and re-pointers to get our wall back into shape. We’re excited to invite the public to an official reveal of the restored sign at 1 p.m. on Thursday, December 1, 2016!