Name/Title
Perfection Garment Company buildingEntry/Object ID
IMG2024.013.009Description
Black and white photograph of the Perfection Garment Company, formerly the Maxell Wrapper building in Ranson, with two buildings in the background.Context
According to Museum historian Doug Perks, in February 1903 the Charles Town Board of Trade announced that they had signed a contract with A. H. Maxell [Albert H. Maxell] & Son [Charles A. Maxell] to operate a shirt waist [blouse]
and wrapper [housecoat, bathrobe, or dressing gown] company in the building on the northwest
corner of 3rd Avenue and Fairfax Boulevard. The Maxell’s replaced the Benedict Brothers who
for one year made shirts at that location.
Maxell planned to install 50 machines run by women operators. Installation was complete by
April 1903 and Maxell advertised for “50 girls” promising “steady work” and that “girls paid while
learning.” By June the factory employed 35 - 40 workers producing 15 dozen wrappers daily. In
1906 when the Jefferson County Telephone Exchange opened, Maxell & Son was one of
dozens of businesses who leased a telephone, number 103-5.
Having outgrown the building, in February 1910 Maxell purchased 3 lots on the southeast
corner of 3rd Avenue and Fairfax Boulevard and hired H. P. Cline to build a two-story 30 X 70
foot brick building to house the Maxell Wrapper Factory. Within a year the building was ready for
occupation and the Maxell’s continued in production until October 1919 when they sold the
building to John Robert Poland and Joseph E. Thrasher of the Perfection Garment Company in
Martinsburg which manufactured women’s clothing at that location for the next seven decades.Acquisition
Accession
2024.013Source or Donor
Paris, Cynthia S.Acquisition Method
GiftMade/Created
Date made
May 26, 1937Notes
date stamped on back of photo