The sprawling brick, three-story factory building near Grandview Heights is as long as an aircraft carrier, with 1,000 windows marching like soldiers down even rows.

In its heyday in the early 1900s, more than 2,000 workers toiled in the former Stehli Silk mill, weaving fine fabrics. Later, RCA workers made color television picture tubes here.

Now the afternoon light shines in on vacant maple floors and footsteps echo off the brick walls of cavernous rooms.

Matthew Bupp looks at this huge, aging building on 11 acres in Manheim Township and sees maybe apartments, or condos, shops, offices, restaurants as well as other possible uses.

The York real estate developer and an unnamed business partner bought the building in November for $1.35 million. Now they are cleaning it up, studying the market and figuring out what to do next.

"I like big, blighted, mixed-use properties," said Bupp, 39, "It's something sitting there, decaying, that could be recycled."

"Real men," he said, smiling, "recycle."

Bupp, whose development projects include an old paper mill in York, heard about the Stehli property last year from an architect who works in York but lives in Lancaster.

He looked at it and was intrigued. Just 19 days later, he and his partner bought the property, which is on Martha Avenue, at the northern edge of Lancaster City.

Now comes the challenging part: finding a new life for this historic property that once played a big role in local commerce but more recently has acted as warehouse space.

Bupp will try to succeed where others have failed.

In 1983, a New York investor wanted to turn the building into 235 apartments but his plans fell through. More recently, two developers sought to put apartments, offices, shops and a restaurant there, under an adaptive reuse provision in Manheim Township's zoning ordinance that allows flexibility in reusing properties. Their plans were derailed by a zoning challenge by a neighboring property owner.

The property is zoned industrial, which would allow for a variety of uses including offices, some industrial activities, retail and wholesale uses and warehouse space.

"We are still doing a study, trying to understand the market, what kind of uses will fit," said Bupp, who is trying to maintain a low profile while doing so, declining to be photographed for this story.

Bupp also is working to spruce up the property, tearing down a crumbling section attached to the rear of the mill and cleaning out items left by previous tenants, a process he likened to "cleaning out grandma's attic."

The building has a great location, he said, noting it is close to both Route 30 and downtown Lancaster, where the convention center is being built and other development is going on.

Several years ago, Bupp briefly was was involved in negotiations to buy the Brunswick Hotel in downtown Lancaster but the deal did not work out for various reasons.

"I knew then I wanted to do something here," he said of Lancaster. "It's a sophisticated area with a lot of opportunity."

He loves the history and look of the building, which has lots of natural light, brick walls and 14- to 15-foot ceilings.

The building was built in 1897 by Stehli Silks Corp. of Obfelden, Switzerland. It was enlarged several times, the last in 1925.

The main building, between 900 and 1,000 feet long, was said to be the longest silk mill factory in the U.S. at the time. The factory, which grew to be a complex of several buildings, had its own power plant.

Bupp said the complex also had a type of geothermal cooling system that used groundwater to cool air that was circulated through buildings.

The Swiss owners also tried to beautify the property, building rose gardens, fish ponds, an apple orchard and a "rustic pavilion." Its female work force also had its own ladies dining room. Photos from the era show women eating at tables with white tablecloths.

The mill gave rise to the nearby development of Rossmere, one of the first suburbs to spring up outside Lancaster.

Stehli closed in 1955 and the building was sold for $500,000 to RCA, which renovated it and produced picture tubes there, using it until 1973.

In recent years, the building was used by a silk flower company, a trucking company and as warehouse space.

CONTACT US: cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024