Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Boston Manufacturing Company (1814)

by Dan/June 26, 2013/Industrial, Italianate, Waltham

It can be argued that at least one of the places that the Industrial Revolution in America began was in Waltham in 1813, when Francis Cabot Lowell and The Boston Associates established the Boston Manufacturing Company, which produced cotton textiles. They hired mechanic Paul Moody of Amesbury to design and build the machinery and mill along the Charles River in Waltham. The BMC mills employed a method of production called the Waltham-Lowell System that was later duplicated by the Boston Associates on a larger scale at the famous mills in Lowell and would be copied by other industries. The image above displays the long factory building of the Boston Manufacturing Company which was constructed in three sections. The section on the far right, up to the tower, was built in 1813-1814. Closer to the second tower (seen in the distance) is the mill constructed in 1816. These two buildings were later joined by the middle section, built in 1843. Beyond the second tower, at an angle to the earlier buildings, is a mill constructed in 1852. The 1813-1843 buildings now contain senior housing and artists lofts. The image below shows the 1873-1880 mill building with attached smokestack along the Charles River. This section is now the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation.

Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation

First Agricultural National Bank (1908)

by Dan/June 22, 2013/Banks, Neoclassical, Pittsfield

First Agricultural National Bank, Pittsfield

The impressive white marble building of the First Agricultural National Bank stands at 100 North Street in Pittsfield. Built in 1908-1909, it was the Bank’s fourth home since its founding in 1818. Its first home was the former building of the failed Berkshire Bank. As related in The History of Pittsfield (1916) by Edward Boltwood:

In 1876, the banking rooms of the Agricultural were those now occupied by the Third National, on the ground floor of the building of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, north of the main entrance. The erection of the handsome white marble structure on the east side of North Street, between Fenn and Dunham Streets, which is at present occupied in part by the Agricultural, was begun by the bank in June, 1908, and finished in October, 1909. The architects were Messrs. Mowbray and Uffinger of New York; and the result of their labors and of those of the bank’s building committee was a notable contribution to the beauty of the business center of the city. The cost of the building was $250,000.

A 1928-1930 addition to the bank was designed by the firm of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer.

Tannery, Hancock Shaker Village (1835)

by Dan/June 21, 2013August 21, 2013/Hancock, Industrial, Outbuildings, Vernacular

An earlier building that had served the Hancock Shaker Village as a Cider House was enlarged in 1835 (the foundation wall has a stone inscribed with the date 1835) for use as a Tannery. By 1875, the Shakers were unable to compete with other large tanneries in the area. The building was then converted into a cider press and a forge was installed in the north end. The upper floor of the structure was later used as a carpenters shop.

Continue reading “Tannery, Hancock Shaker Village (1835)”

J. R. Smith Building (1906)

by Dan/June 20, 2013/Commercial, Holyoke, Neoclassical

Next to City Hall, at 270-276 High Street in Holyoke, is the J. R. Smith Building, sometimes referred to as Holyoke‘s first skyscraper. Smith owned the city’s largest grocery store. He built his eight-story building in 1906 (or as early as 1898?). Smith later sold the building to John J. Prew. It was thereafter called the Prew Building.

Calvin Coolidge House (1901)

by Dan/June 19, 2013/Colonial Revival, Foursquare, Houses, Northampton

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (1923-1929), was born in 1872 in Vermont and spent much of his adult life as a lawyer and politician in Massachusetts. From 1906, a year after he married, until he retired from the presidency, Coolidge and his wife, Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge, rented the left side of a two-family house at 19-21 Massasoit Street in Northampton. The house was built in 1901 by builder J.W. O’Brien. While he lived there, Coolidge served as City Councilor and Mayor in Northampton, state senator and Governor of Massachusetts, and then vice-president and president of the United States. In 1930, the Coolidges moved to another house in Northampton. He died in 1933. The Forbes Library in Northampton is home to the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum. It is the only only public library in the United States to hold a presidential collection.

Oren Smith – Mary Daniels House (1891)

by Dan/June 18, 2013/Houses, Northampton, Queen Anne

The house at 23 Massasoit Street in Northampton was built as one of three originally identical houses and is the best preserved of the group. It was constructed in 1891 by Oren Smith, who had purchased the rear section of the Wood Homnestead on Elm Street in 1888. Smith owned the house until 1901, when he sold it to Mary Daniels, the wife of Joseph Daniels, an insurance agent.

Edwin L. Sanford House (1870)

by Dan/June 17, 2013/Houses, Second Empire, Westfield

The most impressive Second Empire-style house in Westfield is the Edwin L. Sanford House, at 33 West Silver Street. According to earlier research, an earlier house, built by A. J. Bradley circa 1857-1870, was moved when Edwin L. Sanford, president of the Sanford Whip Company, bought the property in 1869. A more recent date given for the Sanford House is circa 1865-1870.