A Brief History of Mushroom Farming in Kennett Square

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A Brief History Of Mushroom Farming in Kennett Square

Without a serendipitous occurrence, Kennett Square—or more accurately the area within a tenmile radius of Kennett Square—would have never become the “Mushroom Capital of the World.”

It all started around 1885 when mushrooms were popular in some parts of Europe where they had been grown since the 1700s, but not in the United States where they were still not grown. A gentleman by the name of William Swayne was making a nice living growing carnations in a large greenhouse. Carnations were, in fact, a very plentiful commodity in the Kennett Square area, and the Borough was known as “Carnation town.”

Carnations would soon be replaced by mushrooms the same way that Wally Pipp was replaced by Lou Gehrig—permanently.

Swayne decided that he needed to do something with all the wasted space underneath the elevated beds where the carnations were grown. He imported some spawn from Europe and attempted to grow mushrooms in what had previously been just wasted space. By doing so, he introduced mushroom growing to the United States.

The experiment worked well enough so that soon other carnation growers in the area were doing the same thing.

Swayne or another Kennett Square man, Harry Hicks, is widely considered to be the first to construct special buildings for mushroom growing, but no matter who was first, soon many were doing it. By 1900, the popularity of mushrooms had, well, mushroomed Chester County thanks to the birth of mushroom houses.

In these new specially designed mushroom houses, growers could control the temperature, humidity, and ventilation. Unlike other crops that depend so heavily on climate and soil, mushrooms needed to have the human touch. From the very start, mushroom growing was labor intensive.

Mushroom production in the Kennett Square area grew quite steadily during the first few decades. By the end of the 1920s, Pennsylvania was producing a vast majority of the mushrooms in the United States—thanks in large part to the contributions of Kennett Square growers.

Again, there was a little bit of good fortune involved for Kennett Square has it built a reputation as the Mushroom Capital of the World. The good fortune was that its location to major cities. The mushrooms could be grown fresh here and shipped to Baltimore or Philadelphia. Move further out and there was New York City to the north and Washington D.C. to the south. Boston, Pittsburgh, and Detroit also –weren’t too far away for shipping.

The next big development in the history of mushrooms was the development of the canned mushroom sector of the industry. Canning mushrooms made it an international game.

Mushrooms grown right here in Chester County could be shipped almost anywhere. Of course, the opposite was also true, and for the first time Chester County mushroom growers found themselves facing international competition. This competition would naturally have a dramatic impact on how the industry evolved.

By the 1930s and 1940s, mushroom companies were being run by second-generation family members. This became an industry trend, and to this day many of the larger producers are family-owned. One obvious reason for that is because mushroom growing is so labor intensive—it takes an entire family to help take care of everything that needs to be done.

Mushroom production continued to grow through the 1950s and 1960s, thanks in part to the formation of the American Mushroom Institute, which was initially based in Chester County.

The American Mushroom Institute helped the industry market its product, an important step for the growth that would follow.

It was also during the 1950s that migrant workers—first from Puerto Rico and later (and in greater numbers) from Mexico— started to come to this area to find work in the mushroom industry. To this day, the workforce is still predominately comprised of migrant workers.

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As the one-hundred-year anniversary of the birth of the mushroom industry approached, there were no signs that the importance of the crop were decreasing in Kennett Square. What started out as a sideline business for carnation growers was permanently transformed into a multi-million dollar agricultural business.

Like any other agricultural business, there have been good times and bad times. Facing increasing competition, the industry has needed to be innovative to find new and better ways of delivering a quality product. Through it all, Chester County’s mushroom industry has proven to be remarkably persistent and resilient.

Consider that the United States still ranks among the world’s leading producers of mushrooms. Pennsylvania is tops in mushroom production in the U.S. And if you zero in closer, Kennett Square is still the Mushroom Capital of the World.