Company That Made Carpets for the White House Back in Business After Fire

The Langhorne Carpet Company in Penndel has been in business for decades. The family-owned company suffered a blow in August when a fire in a massive dryer caused significant smoke damage and rendered all the carpet and yarn in the building unusable.

Now, the company is open again and running with nearly all its famed Jacquard Wilton looms back in operation.

Company President Bill Morrow, whose grandfather and great-grandfather previously ran the business, said the 42 employees are back at work inside the large, more-than-100-year-old building off East Lincoln Highway.

The company has made specialty carpeting for the White House and Blair House in the past. Morrow said the company is known for their high quality work for a niche work. He called many of their jobs “small batch.” Reproductions of historic carpets are also one place where the company specializes.

Langhorne Carpet Company produces its high-quality product in their Penndel building, not overseas like most carpet companies. The building itself is a marvel. Morrow said it is one of the first factories in the nation to have a free-standing roof, which gives more space for equipment and lacks cumbersome support beams throughout. In years past, the carpet company shared the building with a hosier.

The mill features several large looms, most from the mid-point of the last century. When the company started in 1930, its original looms were bought from manufacturing legend Henry Ford.

“Ford sold my great-grandfather the looms to get rid of them. [Ford] had wanted to make all part of a car, which included the textiles for the interior,” Morrow said. Luckily for the long-standing family business, Ford gave up on his goal of making all part of the car and got rid of the massive looms.

Workers buzzed about the mill on a recent morning. Morrow noted that it takes days to string the massive looms, all of which is done by hand.

While time has been good to the business, an electrical fire that was contained to a massive dryer in the front of the building shut down the facility for a period of time. In the downtime, a skeleton crew of employees got rid of damaged product and cleaned the equipment. Soon, a new dryer will be installed in the mill to replace the fire-damaged one and holes in the roof caused by firefighters will be patched up.

“Clearly, we have been helped dramatically by our supportive clients and our incredibly dedicated team who collectively are responsible for making us a true American original,” Morrow said.