Edition: U.S. / Global

ON THE MAP; A Factory That Wove Rugs and Bound a Town Together

Published: April 9, 2000

For more than half of the 20th century, life in Freehold, the county seat for Monmouth County, revolved around the Karagheusian Rug Mill, which employed 1,700 people at its peak operation in the 1930's.

The mill was referred to in the Bruce Springsteen song ''My Hometown''; Mr. Springsteen's father worked there for a time. The 15-ton looms have been removed, and the sole remaining building is being converted to apartments, office and retail space after sitting empty for several years.

The Monmouth County Historical Association will mount an exhibition on the mill at the association headquarters in Freehold starting next fall. Bernadette Rogoff, the historical association curator, talked recently about why the association is doing the exhibition.

Q. What did the rug mill mean to Freehold?

A. For a long time, the mill defined Freehold. Everyone in town worked there or had relatives who worked there or knew people who worked there. It was like a lot of factory towns. If the factory was doing well, the town was doing well, but if the factory had to cut back, it became a real hardship for everyone. The mill really was the heart of Freehold for nearly 60 years.

Q. Why is the association doing the rug mill exhibition?

A. Life in a factory town existed in many places in the United States for much of the 1900's, but it is fading away. In another decade or so it may no longer exist. We want to take a look at the lifestyle and preserve the memories of those who lived it before it is too late. There is a strong oral history component to what we are doing.

Q. What will be in the exhibit?

A. In addition to the oral histories, we want pictures of the era, work clothes and any other objects left from the mill. We have a miniature rug loom and the punch cards that direct the weaving that was built for the 1939 World's Fair that actually made miniature carpets. We have carpet samples of the rugs that were produced and entire carpets.

Q. Why was the mill located here?

A. The Karagheusian brothers, Arshag and Miran, were Armenian and fled Turkey in 1896 to go to England and then to the United States because of persecution. The family had been in the rug trade in Turkey since 1818, so they began as rug importers but then expanded to manufacturing. The real enthusiasm of the people in Freehold is apparently what convinced them to settle here. For the first few months they imported people from England to run the looms and train the new employees and some of English immigrants settled here.

Q. What happened to the mill?

A. By 1927 they had 15 broadlooms, weighing 15 tons apiece, and 196 single looms in operation. They developed and were the only manufacturers of the popular Gulistan carpet. They made the carpet for the newly built Radio City Music Hall in 1932 and for the United States Supreme Court building in 1933. In the 1950's they manufactured tufted carpeting, which was threads pushed through a backing material.

During World War II, rug mill employees volunteered to stay on the roof of the five-story mill, one of the tallest buildings around, to watch for enemy German planes. The mill converted some of its looms to make clothes for the military.

By the 1950's, tension started to grow between management and labor and there was a bitter 11-week strike in 1952. Other changes were taking place and the owners started to shift the mill to Southern states. There was a lot of bitterness around the closing of the plant, some of which lingers to today. KAREN DeMASTERS

Photo: Bernadette Rogoff with carpet that once came off the looms of the Karagheusian Rug Mill in Freehold. (Frank C. Dougherty for The New York Times)