Why does this Italianate villa stand alone in a field on Wertsville Road in the Sourland Mountains above Hopewell Borough?
This house was built by the Ferrante family, who immigrated from Italy in 1914, set up garment businesses in the Bronx, and came to Hopewell in 1934.
They started operations at 65 East Broad Street in Hopewell, and then built their home and factory on Wertsville Road. Formalized as the Princeton Dress Manufacturing Company, Inc., the business operated until 1957. The business then was moved and reorganized as the Columbia Dress Manufacturing Company, and operated until 1963.
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1914 – Immigration to New York
The first record of the Ferrante family in the U.S. is their arrival in New York City in October 1914 from Palermo, Sicily, Italy. The Arrival Passenger Manifest lists parents John and Angela, at ages 33 and 29, and three children accompanying them, Jack (9), Ralph (4), and John Jr. (2). (The family used the Americanized version of their first names in the U.S., including on official documents and in public life.)
Their second child, Maria, died young in Sicily, and their last child, Mary, was born in the U.S., so there were four children that were with them in the U.S. and worked in their businesses.
Meanwhile, World War I had started in Europe, and the U.S. would be pulled in in 1917, making it a difficult time for new immigrants to settle in and find employment – much less establish a new business – until the armistice in 1918.
1920s – “Waist” Manufacturing in the Bronx
The 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census list the Ferrante family in the Bronx, New York. These show the family in multiple residential properties, and engaged in and operating multiple garment businesses. They also used some of these properties for their businesses. The children join them in business as each turns 16. Jack and then John Jr. then marry and move into their own apartments, and are involved in separate businesses.
The 1920 U.S. Census shows the Ferrante family living (and renting) at 1447 Rosedale Ave. in the Bronx. John and Jack (the oldest child, now 16) list their employer as “Waist Shop,” with John as the employer and “Contractor,” and the others as “Operator.”
(“Waist” refers to women’s button-down blouses, typically worn with floor-length skirts. These became more popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries instead of restrictive layered dresses as women become more active in public and in the workforce.)
The 1925 N.Y. census then shows the Ferrante family at two different addresses on Beach Ave. in the Bronx, #1327 and #1331. John and the older children Jack and Ralph are listed in “Waist Manufacturing.”
The family apparently acquired 1331 Beach by 1926, when John Ferrante was listed as holding a mortgage of $9,000 for the property. This address also was listed as used for a Ferrante dress business in N. Y. Manufacturers directories from 1927 through 1940.
1930 – Dress Manufacturing in the Bronx
The 1930 U.S. Census then shows the Ferrante family living at and owning a different near-by address in the Bronx, 1339 Beach Ave. John Ferrante is shown as the owner of the property, with the property valued at $20,000. John is running a manufacturing business for blouses, while Ralph and now John Jr. are shown as working in the (possibly same) dresses business.
Jack Ferrante, the oldest child at age 26, is married and living separately in a rental in the Bronx, and running a separate business, the Jack Ferrante Dress Co.
The continued use of the 1331 Beach address for business was shown in a 1931 newspaper job posting for the “Ferrante Dress” business, looking for operators and section work for ladies’ dresses and for underwear. The 1339 Beach address also was used in a 1933 job posting, looking for experienced operators for negligees and pajamas. The youngest child, Mary Ferrante (then around age 16), is listed as the contact.
1934 – Hopewell – Dress Factory
Around 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression (1929-1939), the Ferrante family began moving their home and business to Hopewell from the Bronx, and built the house and dress factory on the property on Hopewell-Wertsville Road.
The house is rectangular and two stories, approximately 40 x 48 feet. It has a distinctive dual stairway up to the front entrance on the upper floor. The lower floor was rented out later as a separate apartment. The factory building was constructed behind the building in a T shape, with a utility section extending out from the house (later converted into garages), and the main factory space behind with a main floor and area under the roof.
The first record of the Ferrante family in Hopewell was the February 1934 purchase of the Hopewell-Wertsville Road property to be used for the house and factory.
The first record of a Ferrante business starting in Hopewell also was in 1934. The Hopewell Herald newspaper reported that a dress factory had opened at 65 East Broad Street in a newly-completed building. This was followed in 1935 by a job posting listing the 65 East Broad address and with the Ferrante name.
The 65 East Broad address was best known recently for the Brick Farm Market. However, that building could not have contained the dress factory, since it was built a year earlier in 1933 by Thomas Arena, and was full occupied with his Italian American Grocery, an auto repair garage, and the family residence. Instead, as shown in the 1935 Sanborn Fire Map, the dress factory was behind the large brick building (pink), in a separate building (blue), labelled “Dress Shop” in the map.
1940s – Hopewell – Dress Business
By the 1940s the Ferrante family and dress factory were established at Hopewell-Wertsville Road in Hopewell. Sons Jack and John Jr. were still in the Bronx, and then moved to Hopewell to help run the business, while daughter Mary married and moved away. Angela Ferrante died in 1941, and by the end of the decade John Ferrante began stepping back from the company.
The 1940 U.S. Census lists John and Angela Ferrante at Hopewell-Wertsville Road in Hopewell, with children Ralph and Mary, and all three working at a “Dress Factory.” It also recorded that they had lived at the same address in 1935. Angela Ferrante then died in 1941 at age 56.
In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, the Ferrante family incorporated their business in New Jersey as the “Princeton Dress Manufacturing Co., Inc.,” and then less than two years later dissolved the corporation (but not the business) at the end of 1941. This did formalize the name of the business, as it was continued to be referenced from then on.
This period also had multiple cases where the business encountered multiple case of government reporting, oversight, and regulation, at both the state and even federal levels, including minimum wage, price controls, and interstate commerce.
The resulting reports do have a beneficial side effect, in that they provide details about the business that are not otherwise available, including the facts they had 20 to 30 employees, and 4 to 5 trainees that they were authorized to pay under the minimum wage.
A 1939 report of an investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) did grant permission for the business to drive a vehicle to operate as a common carrier in interstate commerce, specifically to transport “[completed] dresses, from Hopewell N. J. to New York, N, Y., over a specified route, returning with [raw] dress goods over the same route.” The specified route was Highway 27 to Franklin Park, then U.S. 1 to Jersey City, and then via ferry or the Holland Tunnel to New York.
The reason the business needed its own vehicle was that dresses required special handling to reach the destination in a “salable condition.” The ICC report even identified the vehicle, a 3/4 ton panel-body truck, “adapted to the transportation of dresses.” Interestingly, the 1940s photo shows a c.1938 Ford panel truck parked back by the factory, which may well be the same vehicle described and authorized by the ICC.
1950s – Hopewell – Business Transition
The 1950s saw the end of the Princeton Dress Manufacturing business on Wertsville Road and its transition to a new company under Jack Ferrante. The children had all eventually relocated to Hopewell from the Bronx, and then began moving on. John Ferrante died in 1954, and the property was eventually transferred solely to Ralph (Rosario) Ferrante.
The 1950 U. S. Census shows John Jr. and family living at the Wertsville Road house, with father John Ferrante listed as a retired widower. Jack and Ralph Ferrante were living elsewhere in Hopewell with their families. The three sons are listed as being involved in dress manufacturing. Mary Ferrante had married, and by 1950 was living with their children in New York City.
The business continued into the mid-1950s. In 1953 the Princeton Dress Manufacturing Co. was described as a contract manufacturer of ladies dresses, “well known and preferred in the industry for the high quality caliber of its output,” and employing “30 capable workers under pleasant, safe and modern conditions.” John Ferrante died in 1954 at age 73 after suffering a stroke in 1950.
1957-1963 – Columbia Dress Manufacturing Co.
In 1956, after inheriting the property from their father, the three other siblings sold their shares of the Hopewell-Wertsville property to Ralph Ferrante.
In 1957, the Ferrante family folded the Princeton Dress Manufacturing Co. business on Wertsville Road.
Jack Ferrante then transitioned the business to a new company, the Columbia Dress Manufacturing Co., moving the employees to a new location to do the same work for the same customers.
The new company was housed on Pennington-Hopewell Rd (Rt 654), before Stony Brook Road. It had around 30 employees, and produced an estimated 800 to 1000 dresses a week.
Jack retired and closed the company in 1963 after a serious accident.
The Dress Factory Property
The Ferrante family sold the Hopewell-Wertsville Road property in 1964. The property then was residential, and passed through two other owners until it was purchased in 1990 by the current owners.
The factory building behind the house decayed through this period, and was finally demolished around 1996.
The original Italianate villa still stands in the field along the road, decorated for the fall.
Please contact us if you have (or know of) additional materials or information related to the story of the Ferrante Dress Factory.
More on the Ferrante Dress Factory
Presentation
- Talk Video & References – Ferrante Dress Factory Presentation Video and Slides
- View Talk Video – Ferrante Dress Factory Presentation Video (YouTube)
- Talk Description – Investigating The Hopewell Dress Factory
Media
- Photos – Ferrante Dress Factory building images (Image Gallery)
History / Brief
- Post – The Ferrante Dress Factory
- History Brief – Ferrante Dress Factory History Brief (PDF)
