The Nineteenth-Twentieth Centuries

The Keasbey & Mattison Company

The last quarter of the 19th century saw Ambler's decline as the gristmills ground slowly to a halt. The advent of the railroad had made it more profitable for farmers to ship their grain directly to city food distributors to process than for them to patronize the local mills. Just as the town was in need of a new economic base, Keasbey & Mattison relocated to the area.

In 1873, Henry G. Keasbey, a wealthy financier, and Dr. Richard V. Mattison, a chemist, founded The Keasbey & Mattison Company, a producer of pharmaceuticals and asbestos products. Dr. Mattison made his first fortune in patent medicines such as Bromo Caffeine, made to soothe the anxieties of "the neurasthenic woman or the congestive or anaemic headaches of the fin de siecle man", Alkalithia for rheumatism and Cafetonique for dyspepsia.

Dr. Mattison, brilliant, egotistical and goal-oriented, brought the company from Philadelphia to Ambler in 1881. While working in his lab one day, he accidently discovered that milk of magnesia would adhere to a hot metal pipe and, in combination with asbestos and other products, could be turned into an insulation material for steam pipes, thus lowering fuel costs. Realizing the possibilities, in 1886, he changed the focus of the company. K&M would now manufacture asbestos building and industrial supplies.

Keasbey & Mattison built factories and warehouses, creating jobs that brought people to the area. That, in turn, spurred the building of homes and the paving of streets. Dr. Mattison introduced Ambler's first electric streetlights, built the first water system, and loaned money to town businesses for renovations and expansion. He hired architects to build fanciful Victorian homes for company executives, and simpler homes for lower management and workers, and he imported Italian stonemasons to carry out these plans. His own 400-acre estate, "Lindenwold", was modeled after Windsor Castle in England. It had a six-acre lake, beautiful gardens with statuary, and was surrounded by a stone wall with two gatehouses and elaborate wrought iron gates.

In 1890, Mattison built a huge building that housed Ambler's first library, opera house, and various offices and shops. The library was supported by stockholders who purchased shares in return for borrowing privileges. The opera house presented a variety of entertainments from operas to medicine shows and eventually, movies. Known as the "Old Opera House", it stood on Butler Avenue next to the railroad.

Ambler's transformation was profound. Dr. Mattison brought life to the declining town, shaping it like a sculptor with a lump of clay. Active in civic matters, he was instrumental in Ambler's incorporation as a Borough, in 1887.

The Keasbey & Mattison Company thrived in the early 20th century as a leading manufacturer of asbestos textiles and products. During World War I, it contributed to the war effort by supplying products for ships, war plants and defense.

The Great Depression sounded the death knell for K&M. In 1934, an English concern, Turner, Newhall, Ltd. purchased the company for $4 million dollars. They operated the business until it closed its doors in 1962.

Dr. Mattison died in 1936 at the age of 85, while living with his daughter at 1 Lindenwold Terrace, across the street from his former estate. He left his indelible imprint in a legacy of unique buildings that lend Ambler it's special character. His beautiful estate, Lindenwold was sold in 1936 to an order of the Catholic Church. It is now St. Mary's Villa, a Catholic shelter for children.

One of the homes that Mattison built on Lindenwold Terrace.

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Read about Ambler's incorporation as a Borough.

Sources:
"The Mattison Story- The Keasbey Mattison History" by Edward Humphreys Roberts, an addendum in the Early History of Ambler by Dr. Mary P.H. Hough, 1936.

Unto the Sons by Gay Talese (Historical fiction which documents the Talese family members who settled in Ambler.)

"The Keasbey & Mattison Story", The 75th Anniversary Book of Ambler, 1963.