Armstrong World Industries

In 1860, Thomas M. Armstrong, the son of Scottish-Irish immigrants from Derry, joined with John D. Glass to open a one-room shop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, carving bottle stoppers from cork by hand. Their first deliveries were made in a wheelbarrow. Armstrong was a business pioneer in some respects: he branded each cork he shipped as early as 1864, and soon was putting a written guarantee in each burlap bag of corks he shipped from his big new factory. The company grew to be the largest cork supplier in the world by the 1890s. The company incorporated in 1891.

Cork began being displaced by other closures, but the company introduced insulating corkboard and brick. In 1906, two years before he died, Thomas Armstrong concluded that the solid foundation of the future was covered with linoleum, and construction began on a new factory in a cornfield at the edge of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1909, Armstrong linoleum was first offered to the trade.

After corkboard, the logical move was to fiberboard, and then to ceiling board. Cork tile and linoleum led to vinyl flooring, then ceramic tile, laminate flooring and carpeting.

In 1917, Armstrong Cork signed with the Batton Company advertising agency, a relationship that continues to this day through their corporate descendants.In 1998, Armstrong acquired Triangle Pacific Corp., a leading manufacturer of hardwood flooring and kitchen/bathroom cabinets.In 2009, Armstrong's annual net Sales Total US$2.8Billion.Armstrong Cabinets is no longer owned by Armstrong World Industries. The business was sold to American Industrial Partners on October 31, 2012.

In 2016, Armstrong spun off the flooring business into a new company, Armstrong Flooring. NYSE: AFI

Armstrong Manor

The Armstrong Manor was originally purchased by Armstrong World Industries for use as a central location to house the company's young sales trainees. The home was later used in other capacities, such as meeting space and temporary housing for visiting employees. Armstrong owned the property from May 1920 to December 2011. The property is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The oldest part of Armstrong Manor, originally known as Bloomington Farm, was built in 1866 by David P. Locher, a prosperous local tanner, banker, and farmer. The 4-acre property remained a part of Locher's estate until April 9, 1906, when Grove Locher purchased the property for $21,000.On May 29, 1920, the then Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Armstrong Cork Company purchased the mansion from Grove Locher and his wife for $26,930. The company's second president, Charles D. Armstrong, was disturbed by the conditions in which his son, Dwight, and other new sales employees were living within various rented housing across Lancaster. C.D. Armstrong and his wife, Gertrude Virginia Ludden Armstrong, were also aware of the difficulties with the transition from campus life to industrial living, and desired a more comfortable living space for their sales trainees. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong also wanted to have a suitable location for business meetings with visiting employees from other areas. The house was used as a living space for the sales trainees during their 6-month training program at the Lancaster, PA flooring plant. The company spent an additional $27,742.87 on renovations and renamed the property Armstrong Manor.More recently, The Manor provided housing for visiting Armstrong employees and customers, and continued to fulfill its role as a meeting space. The property also had a facilities maintenance department to support the property.In November 2010, Armstrong World Industries announced its plan to close Armstrong Manor by the end of the year citing that The Manor and the facilities department were no longer part of the “…core to being a building products manufacturer.” Armstrong Manor was sold to Rodgers & Associates, a wealth management firm based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on December 15, 2011.