JUNIATA TERRACE

Inscription

JUNIATA TERRACE
250-HOME COMMUNITY BUILT IN
1925 BY THE AMERICAN VISCOSE
COMPANY FOR WORKERS AND
THEIR FAMILIES. DESIGNED BY
THE BALLINGER CO. ARCHITECTS.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2026

The American Viscose Corporation, an American division of the British company Courtaulds, manufactured rayon and synthetic fibers. Operating in the United States from approximately 1910, the corporation established at least eight domestic plants by the 1940s. One of these facilities opened in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, in 1920, eventually employing roughly 3,500 workers at its peak. To accommodate the resulting population influx, the company began constructing a 250-home community named Juniata Terrace in 1923, completing the project in 1925. To facilitate construction, the Pennsylvania Railroad built a 1,000-foot siding from its main line to the site, which has since been removed. Within two years, the former farmland was fully converted into a populated residential area.

American Viscose had previously developed a company town for its Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, plant in 1912. Both communities were designed by the Ballinger Company, an architecture and engineering firm specializing in high-density housing that integrated landscaping and nature. The communities were built in the Garden City style, an early 20th-century urban planning movement that incorporated greenways and greenbelts. The concept aimed to combine elements of town and country living, offering the working class an alternative to agricultural labor or crowded urban environments.

By the end of 1925, the industrial village at Juniata Terrace housed 3,000 residents. The community petitioned for its own post office, which was proposed to be located within the town store near the Pennsylvania Railroad station. While American Viscose prohibited commercial stores within the town boundaries to avoid competing with Lewistown merchants, the corporation did build a school for the workers’ children in the northernmost corner of the development. A church was also later added to the community.

Although the manufacturing plant closed in 1972 and the site has since been divided for various industrial uses, the Juniata Terrace community remains.