McHone Brothers (LLC) Collection of Houck Tannery Records

Joseph P. Houck was born on April 4, 1839, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1866 he went to work for Shenandoah Iron Works in Page County, Virginia. He was successful in the business for fourteen years. Around 1880, Houck and his family moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, as he had significant business interests there. He had bought a controlling share of the Harrisonburg Steam Tannery in 1878, which soon was renamed the Houck Tannery. In 1879 he opened the Houck Store near Court Square which sold leather goods in addition to household goods and furnishings. Houck was a prominent member of the community, a member of the Rockingham Union Lodge, and secretary and treasurer of Valley Telephone. He died on June 16, 1908. Both the Tannery and the Store were passed on to his son, Joe (J.T.). The younger Houck sold the store to William B. Dutrow in 1913, but continued to own and operate the tannery until its close in the 1920s.

The tannery which came to be known as the Houck Tannery had a long history prior to its ownership by J.P. Houck. Local historian John Wayland noted in his 1949 book Historic Harrisonburg that sources indicate that as far back 1826, Joseph Cline had “carried on the tanyard now owned by Lowenback,” and that George Conrad had later purchased Cline’s “farm & the tanyard in town,” although the date of that sale is not provided. Nonetheless, in 1871 J.A. Loewenbach owned and operated the tannery. That year, he constructed a new building for providing steam power, and in 1872 he had run a pipe from an unidentified spring in town to the tannery.

By 1878 ownership of the tannery was transferred to J.P. Houck. Although several tanneries operated in Rockingham County, Houck’s was the largest. An 1880 census reports a capital investment of $75,000 and thirty employees in the tannery. The industry also supported significant numbers of workers who supplied and transported raw materials to the factory. A spur was laid from the Chesapeake and Western Railroad directly to the tannery warehouse to facilitate the tonnage of bark required for the manufacture of leather. In 1889 the tannery boasted a well that ran 600 feet deep. In addition, the tannery's powerful steam plant is credited with being the first provider of electricity in Harrisonburg. The city contracted with Houck in 1890 to power its street lights prior to the formation of the Harrisonburg Electric Commission. The factory ceased operation in the 1920s, and its 120 foot smokestack was demolished in 1929. A municipal parking deck now stands on the site. The sole remaining structure housed Whitesel-Sinton farm equipment in the 1930s, the armory until the 1950s, and the police department until its demolition in the early 1970s.