Demolition on Abbatoir complex begins
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The remaining portions of the former Shenandoah Abbatoir complex tower over the rubble of Martin Shirt on Jan. 5, 2025.
SHENANDOAH – A large portion of the former Martin Shirt Co. building is now rubble as demolition has begun on the historic and long-abandoned Shenandoah Abbatoir complex.
Brdaric Excavating, of Luzerne, began demolition recently at the complex at East Poplar and South White Streets. The company was contracted by Schuylkill County as part of the county demolition program at a cost of $169,000.
Shenandoah Borough acquired both properties in 2024.
As of Sunday morning, much of the Martin Shirt Co. building was on the ground.
What many know as a two-building complex — the Martin Shirt Co. on the Poplar Street side and the Shenandoah Abbatoir to the rear — was once one campus for the latter.
The Abbatoir was built by architect Percy Kley and was a major firm in Shenandoah’s heyday, according to the Evening Herald’s Shenandoah Chronicles series, published in the 1990s.
In 1922, the company was the largest meat processing and packing plant in Schuylkill County. Home of the Nonpareil ham, the company processed up to two railroad cars of hogs each day.
Advancements in refrigeration made meat packing facilities in every town — like the Abbatoir and the Armour plant, which later became United Wiping Cloth — obsolete and the Abbatoir closed some time in the midcentury. It had changed names to the Top Packing Company before closing in 1947. At the time, it was one of the leading industries in town and second only to mining in employing men.
It is unclear if it ever reopened. It sold to Michael Wozniak in 1955. He was listed as owner of the property until 2011.
At some point, the Martin Shirt Co. took over a portion of the plant until its 1996 closure.
Plans to sell the plant in late 1995 fell through and 55 employees were let go.
The plant has sat abandoned since 1996 and, in 2004, was sold for $600 to Glenn Paterson, listed owner of other dilapidated, collapsing, or now-demolished properties in town. The plant has suffered the same fate.
Paterson passed away in 2019.
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