Blue Bell

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In 1927, the Maryland Manufacturing Company opened a new plant in Mt. Jackson Virginia. This organization was associated with the Casey Jones Work-Clothes Company and made jeans, overalls, and other clothing for the US Navy and factories around the country. A similar plant had opened in Woodstock in 1926.

The business became a major employer in Mt. Jackson and Shenandoah County. Many residents worked here and most local businesses were tied to those who did. While the plants boomed, so did the local towns.
Eventually the plants were acquired by the Blue Bell Company, hence the populace’s tendency to call this the Blue Bell Building. Mt. Jackson’s plant continued to operate and began to make Wrangler Jeans. Eventually the company changed its name to Wrangler. In 1978, they opened a new plant in Mt. Jackson and the original plant closed.

Not long after this, globalization began to affect the industry. The textile industry in the nation and the county began to suffer. Later other textile plants, including Aileen Inc. plants in the county and Wrangler in Woodstock and Mt. Jackson shut their doors over the next three decades. None remain open today and the middle class jobs associated with these have disappeared.

After the Mt. Jackson plant closed, this building was donated to the town who opened a community center and library. That closed in 2005 when the new town hall opened. Today it is privately owned and is abandoned.