Messrs. Brigham, Hopkins & Co., while possessing a large business, have the pleasure of conducting it in a spacious building, whose architectural design is one of the handsomest of its kind in the country, and whose conveniences for the successful prosecution of their business cannot be excelled. A business coming from one of its pioneers through a direct succession of firms gives to Brigham, Hopkins & Co. a natural pride in such an inheritance, and brings also a pleasure in being able to trace its progress from its origin, showing how this branch of manufacture was at an early day brought to an admirable condition of prosperity, afterwards to pass through a period of almost total decay, then again to attain a development that entitles it to rank with any of the successful and prominent industries of the city. It is a pleasant reflection as well as a happy coincidence that the restoration of a forsaken industry, once a vital element in the city's life and activity, is greatly due to the labors of the firm who, in this branch, connect the past with the present, the old with the new. The enterprising business traits manifested by Runyon Harris, in erecting, in the year 1814, a large hat factory in this city, seemed to have prompted his various successors to a spirit of emulation, enabling them to preserve the legacy bequeathed them, and to perpetuate that reputation for meritorious products that was so early earned in the factory of Mr. Harris. Following the erection of the factory by Mr. Harris came the firm of Aaron Clap & Co., who purchased the property and commenced in 1817 the manufacture of hats, and a remarkable fact--one encouraging an innate pride in their successors--is that during three-quarters of a century all of the firms inheriting a title of descent from that of Aaron Clap & Co. have passed in safety through every financial convulsion of the country, and have promptly met every pecuniary obligation incurred. Although during the former period of prosperity in the hat business of Baltimore, felt hats only were manufactured, which business was completely reduced by the unfortunate conditions existing at the time of the Civil War; its revival came through the establishing of a different branch, that of the manufacture of straw hats; and while Messrs. Brigham, Hopkins & Co. have lately entered extensively into the manufacture of silk and felt hats also, it is the purpose of this article to dwell more particularly upon facts relating to the straw hat branch that has contributed so largely in bringing Baltimore once again forward as a leading hat manufacturing city.