Boy's and Men's Shoes were made here, in 2016 it was Converted to Apartments

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The Leonard, Shaw & Dean Shoe Factory at 151 Peirce Street is the sole surviving mill built as a shoe factory in town; the only representative of the period in the history of Middleborough when shoe production became the largest industry in the local economy. The Leonard Shaw & Dean factory remained an industrial production facility until 2001.

Few physical resources associated with the shoe industry remain in Middleborough. No "ten footers" (small cobbler shops on private property that characterized operations of the shoe industry from the middle of the 18^th Century to the early 19^th Century) have been documented in Middleborough. Several survivors of buildings once used as central shops (production facilities introduced in the first half of the 19^th Century by entrepreneurs where materials were distributed and production was supervised or reviewed to maintain quality control) endure, adapted for new purposes. A couple of mixed-use buildings that were utilized on the upper floors as central shops are located in Middleborough Center. Another, now a residence, exists in East Middleborough/Eddyville. A few small factories built for other purposes, but subsequently occupied by shoemaking enterprises, remain in Middleborough Center.

The Wells Block (21-29 North Main Street), entirely altered and rebuilt after two severe fires, housed several short-lived operations in quick succession. Upper floors were occupied by Ward & Doggett (George Ward of Lakeville; and William E. Doggett; dates unknown), sold in a few years to Bassett & Dunbar, which in turn shortly disposed of its Middleborough interests to Sampson & King (Joseph Sampson, Jr. and Nathan King, dates unknown), and finally Leonard & Barrows (1860 to 1874). Sampson & King relocated nearby to a small store they remodeled and enlarged into the American Building (4 - 10 South Main Street) at the corner of South Main and Water (later Warcham) Streets.

In East Middleborough/Eddyville, Joshua M. Eddy and George Martin Leach partnered in 1852 as Eddy and Leach and utilized the second floor of the general store and post office run by Eddy (154 Plympton Street). In North Middleborough, Jared Keith began a shoe business in the 1 ½-story shop and residence at 225 Bedford Street between 1847 and 1854.

Other extant remnants consist of factories built for other purposes subsequently occupied by shoemaking enterprises. In 1885, the W. B. Stetson Shoe Factory located on the second floor of the back of the Union Needle Factory/Needle Machine Works (1875, 12 Wareham Street, and in 1933, the Morris Shoe Company bought the small factory at 17 Jackson Street), that had been built in 1910 by Henry B. Schleuter for the firm begun by his father in 1870 that manufactured decorative boxes for jewelry and pens. All other facilities built or utilized as shoe factories have been lost either to fire or demolition.

Originally part of Plymouth, Middleborough was incorporated as a town on June 1^st, 1669. Territory was separated on July 4^th, 1754 to create the Town of Halifax, and on May 13^th, 1853 to generate the Town of Lakeville. As primarily an agricultural community with small industrial nodes on the Nemasket River, settlement in Middleborough first consisted of dispersed farms with small settlement clusters. The large geographical size (69 square miles; the second-largest town in area in Massachusetts) and dispersed resources of Middleborough encouraged organization into a variety of scattered, small villages: the Green, East Middleborough, Muttock, North Middleborough, Warrentown, and Four Corners (now Middleborough Center), where Leonard, Shaw & Dean is located.

The Green in northeast Middleborough was the area of first English settlement at the junction of several Indian paths that soon became roads. The location of the First Congregational Church, training field, cemetery, Sprout Tavern and some other small-scale commercial interests including a store and blacksmith shop, it became the town's first religious and social center.

A number of early villages northeast of the Green-Eddyville, Waterville, Thompsonville, and the Soule Neighborhood became collectively known as East Middleborough. The area remained primarily agricultural with some industry at Waterville. Warrentown, a small village halfway between Muttock and North Middleborough, was originally populated by descendants of Richard Warren. South Middleborough and the Rock (named for a large granite outcropping in the area) developed as Baptist communities established in the second half of the 18^th Century.

The arrival of the Cape Cod Branch Railroad in 1848 allowed the transport of local staples such as lumber and cranberries, plus fabricated goods such as boxboards and trunks, to advance the local economy. Activity was reinvigorated in the 20^th Century by the rise of commercial interests for motorists after the designation of Wareham Street as part of Route 28, one of two major roads connecting Boston with Cape Cod. The Rock or Rock Village remained a rural residential settlement.

Four Corners (the intersection of Centre Street, North and South Main Streets and Wareham [previously Water] Street), now Middleborough Center, remained an area of large farms prior to 1800. It was promoted into the religious, industrial, social, and educational center of Middleborough by a group of entrepreneurs who capitalized on the confluence of transportation routes to Wareham, Plymouth, Taunton, and New Bedford to establish commercial, religious, institutional, educational, and manufacturing interests, which in turn generated residential development. By the 1820s, two textile mills, one on Water (later Wareham) Street, known as the Upper Works, and another on North Street, known as the Lower Works, along with metalworks, including shovel, nail, and iron-bar factories had located on the Nemasket River near Middleborough Center.

Improved transportation with the arrival of the Old Colony Railroad in 1846, which passed a half-mile west of Middleborough Center, intensified industrial development in the area.

Also, beginning in the middle of the 19^th Century, advancing industrialization transformed cottage industries such as straw-hat production and boot and shoe making into mechanized processes further promoting economic expansion. Middleborough evolved from Plymouth County's leading agricultural town into an important center of manufacturing and transportation.

Middleborough experienced its greatest period of economic expansion from the middle of the 19^th Century to 1910, when several significant factories closed. In contrast to a gain of only 18 percent over the first half of the 19^th century, the population of Middleborough increased 54 percent between 1850 and 1910; 35 percent between 1880 and 1910, with the largest decennial increase (19.3 percent) occurring between 1900 and 1910; a rate that would not reoccur until the suburbanization between 1960 and 1980.

In the second half of the 19^th Century, existing mills expanded and new firms were attracted to town. A manufacturing sector extended westward along Centre Street. A second industrial node developed near Everett Square as companies settled near railroad freight lines that connected with Boston, Plymouth, Fall River, Taunton, New Bedford, and Cape Cod. By the mid-1870s, the straw-bonnet industry had grown from a single factory on Courtland Street in 1858 into the Bay State Straw Works, the world's largest straw-hat manufacturer. As a major local employer, it attracted further settlement to Middleborough Center. Similarly, the shoe industry contributed to the growth of both North Middleborough, where several small factories emerged, and Middleborough Center, where larger factories were constructed. In terms of value of goods produced, by 1885 the manufacture of boots, shoes, and slippers and of straw goods had become, respectively, the first and second largest industries in Middleborough.

Large tracts of farmland just north of Middleborough Center were subdivided and gradually developed. Where no streets existed between Centre and North Streets in 1831, a number of new roads including Oak, School, Pearl, High, and Courtland streets were laid out. Peirce Street, which would eventually border the Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory, appears on the 1855 map of Middleborough, but only a few dwellings were built before 1874. Similarly, only scattered houses existed on School Street north of Peirce Street and practically no buildings existed west of School Street and north of Peirce Street before the 1860s.

Additional railroad development and the introduction of streetcar lines in the late 19^th Century (East Taunton Railway Company, 1891; New Bedford, Middleborough, Brockton Street Railway, 1898; and the Middleborough, Wareham, Buzzards Bay Street Railway, 1891) made Middleborough Center an important juncture for both passenger and freight transport, further attracting new industrial development. Concomitant need for additional worker housing prompted the subdivision of land in the vicinity of the future Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory and the creation of new streets (Everett, Arch and Frank streets). At the same time, improvements to municipal services (Middleborough Gas and Electric Co., 1884 and Municipal Water Works, 1885) both responded to and intensified development pressures by adding to the attractiveness of the town.

The Leonard, Shaw & Dean Shoe Factory

In the early 1890s, a large tract of undeveloped land owned by George H. Leonard was subdivided, creating housing lots for mill workers and a site for what would become the Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory. Rice Street was laid out between 1896 and 1901. The Middleboro Industrial Syndicate, organized to promote local industrial development, bought the lot and built the original section of the mill on Peirce Street. It was immediately occupied by Leonard & Shaw, a partnership of Cornelius H. Leonard (no known close relation to George H. Leonard) and Samuel Shaw. The firm acquired the property in August 1896.

Leonard and Shaw had formed a shoe manufacturing business in 1892 located several blocks away in the Jenks Building at the corner of Water (later Wareham) and Clifford streets. William Henry Dean of Quincy, who had been a salesman at the Middleborough branch of the New Bedford shoe firm Hathaway, Soule & Harrington for twelve years, joined the business in 1897. The business became Leonard, Shaw & Dean and already employed approximately 100 workers.

At the turn of the 20^th Century, Leonard, Shaw & Dean, Inc. and Leonard & Barrows, Inc. were two of the largest local shoe factories in Middleborough. The former employed 150 workers; the latter had 500. Both were engaged in the production of boys' and men's shoes. Only two other shoe factories were of comparable size. Keith & Pratt (built ca. 1879; destroyed by fire in 1930) on Pleasant Street in North Middleborough also manufactured men's and boys' fine shoes. A branch of the New Bedford firm, Hathaway, Soule & Harrington, Inc. employed 200 workers making medium grade men's shoes in a factory (built 1886; razed by fire December 13^th, 1974) on Cambridge Street between 1887 and 1900, when the firm left town.

The two other boot and shoe manufacturers listed in the Middleborough Directory for 1901 were much smaller. Penniman Brothers (later Phinney & Penniman and Penniman Phinney & Lightford) at 64 School Street had a small shop later converted to a store and then a residence. The Warren B. Stetson Shoe Factory operated on the second floor of the Jenks Building on Water (later Wareham) Street, where Leonard & Shaw had previously been located before moving to the new factory on Peirce Street.

Another shoe factory also opened as a branch of an out-of-town organization. In 1905-1906, the George E. Keith Company of Brockton erected a very large, four-story facility on Summer Avenue and Lane Street in Middleborough Center. A large addition, built in 1913, made it the largest shoe factory in Middleborough (destroyed by fire on December 13^th, 1974).

Cornelius H. Leonard (b. Raynham, Mass., October 6^th, 1844; d. Middleborough, February 16^th, 1929) had spent most of his life in the shoe industry. The son of Abiatha Leonard and Alice (Eaton) Leonard, he had been forced to leave school and seek work as a young boy due to the disability of his father as the result of an accident. After working a short time in farming, Cornelius Leonard entered the shoe trade at age seven, hand-pegging shoes in a shop on Purchase Street in Middleborough.

Around age 30, Cornelius Leonard became foreman of the bottoming room of E.E. Perkins & Son, a shoe factory in North Middleborough. After eight years, he formed a partnership (ca. 1884) with Charles H. Alden as Alden, Leonard & Company which manufactured shoes in North Middleborough for five years. The business was taken over ca. 1889 by Hathaway, Soule & Harrington, a shoe manufacturer with factories in Brockton and New Bedford as well as Middleborough. Cornelius Leonard was made a special partner and acted as superintendent.

He was also involved with Charles H. Alden, Elisha W. Richmond and George A. Hammond in Hammond & Richmond, another shoe factory operating in North Middleborough. That firm moved to Cambridge Street in Middleborough Center and was also sold, in 1887, to Hathaway, Soule & Harrington.

Cornelius H. Leonard withdrew from Leonard, Shaw & Dean in 1906 to enter the insurance business in which he was occupied for the rest of his life. Between 1914 and 1919, he joined in partnership with George R. Sampson. After that firm was dissolved, the business became Leonard and Keedwell, which was sold in 1929.

Cornelius Leonard was also active in the civic life of Middleborough. He served on the boards of selectmen (1907-1912) and assessors and as an overseer of the poor. He was a member of the Commercial Club, organized in 1911 as successor to the Middleboro Business Men's Club (1906-1911) and predecessor to the Middleborough Chamber of Commerce (1930). In 1915, Cornelius H. Leonard was also an incorporator of the Middleborough Bank and Trust Company (subsequently renamed the Middleborough Trust Company). He maintained a residence close to the mill at 32 School Street.

Samuel Shaw (b. Raynham, Mass. March 15^th, 1861; d. Middleborough, August 23^rd, 1944), like Cornelius H. Leonard, was a native of Raynham. Having worked as a manager and salesman for George E. Keith Company, he came to Middleborough ca. 1892 to join Leonard in the manufacture of shoes under the name Leonard & Shaw. Samuel Shaw remained with the firm until November 1932. He moved in 1911from High Street to 35 Peirce Street (also constructed by Bryant & Harlow, contractor of the 1911 addition to the factory). It remained his residence until his death. He was active in the Chamber of Commerce and was credited with being a generous benefactor of local institutions. He was a 50-year member of May Flower Lodge, A.F. & A. M., and Aleppo Temple Shrine of Boston as well as a member of Satucket Royal Arch Chapter and Bay State Commandery of Brockton. Samuel Shaw was a director and a member of the board of investment of the Montgomery Home for the Aged, founded in 1901.

William Henry Dean (b. Chelsea, Mass. Oct. 18^th, 1859; d. Boston, November 10^th, 1927) received his early training in the shoe business with Marquez & Varing, shoe jobbers in Boston, Massachusetts. Having joined Leonard & Shaw in 1897, he remained connected with the new firm for 30 years. His territory appears to have been in the South. He traveled to the southern states and served as president of the Southern Shoe Salesmen's Association. In 1899, he is listed as living in Quincy, Massachusetts.

The original building of the Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory was constructed by Middleborough contractor Hiram Whittemore (1860-1916), who identified himself as architect/builder on the form submitted to the Department of Public Safety. Originally from Barnstable, Whittemore built residential, institutional, and industrial buildings in Middleborough. He is known to have designed the Forest Street School (now Flora M. Clark School, 1900, 30 Forest Street) in Middleborough. Other local properties attributed to his firm are: West Side School (1894, 13 West End Avenue); the Perez Doty House (1888, Union Street, not extant); John C. Sullivan House (ca. 1885, 31 Pearl Street, Middleborough Center); and the LeBaron Foundry (1895, 26 Vine Street, portions extant).

Warren Homer Southworth (1835-1916), contractor of the 1905 addition to the Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory, had a long career constructing residential and institutional structures. Other local properties credited to his business are: Union Street School (1875, Union Street, not extant); South Middleborough School (1882, 564 Wareham Street South Middleborough); the L. Edgar Thomas-Charles Thomas House (1876, Centre Street); and the Charles N. Warren Cottage (1903, Pearl Street).

Luther Bradford Pratt (1850-1930), who dug the foundation for the 1911 addition to the Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory, was a farmer and contractor who also worked as an excavator and road builder. In 1901, he was engaged to build 7/8 of a mile of roadbed for the newly re-routed Wareham Street, south of Rocky Gutter Street in South Middleborough. In 1905, Pratt constructed the road bed for Frank Street in Middleborough Center.

"Bryant & Harlow" are identified in the Middleborough Gazette as contractors of the 1907 and 1911 expansions to the Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory, but little additional information about these individuals or their business is available. The Middleborough Directory for 1911 lists Leavitt W. Bryant and Benjamin F. Harlow as carpenters who are most likely the partners in the firm for which the names of the principals are not cited. According to the local newspaper, work began on the 1911 addition around July 28^th, 1911 and it was ready for occupancy only two months later. In 1910, "Bryant & Harlow" along with Luther Pratt are also noted in the newspaper to be building a new house for Samuel Shaw nearby at 35 Peirce Street (extant). It took six months to complete.

The firm of Leonard, Shaw & Dean enjoyed steady success and developed a reputation for the manufacture of quality footwear. In 1921, the business reported that substantial orders were assured as a result of a recent sales trip to the South and West by Samuel Shaw. The firm continued operations after Cornelius Leonard's departure.

Like other local businesses, the firm participated in the town's social and civic interests. Baseball teams and a competitive rifle team (1903) were organized among its employees. During World War I, Leonard, Shaw & Dean and other local shoe manufacturers, Leonard & Barrows and Keith & Pratt, collaborated in subscribing for Liberty Bonds and promoted bond sales among their employees. Leonard, Shaw & Dean also hosted a recruiting rally to attract young men to service. Around 1930, the business employed 150 workers in the production of Goodyear shoes.

"Goodyear" is a term used to describe quality men's shoes made using welted construction. Fabrication of this type of shoe was mechanized by Charles Goodyear, Jr., son of the inventor of vulcanized rubber. He patented the Goodyear Welt sewing machine in 1872 which stitched the upper, or "vamp" (the leather or canvas above the sole which covers the foot), to the sole, eliminating the previous need for hand sewing. The benefit of welt construction is that it allows shoes with uppers remaining in good condition to be easily resoled as necessary rather than entirely replaced.

Construction of men's shoes is principally characterized by the manner in which the sole is attached to the upper, or vamp. Of the three methods (other than hand sewing)-cementing, Blake welting, and Goodyear welting-the last is considered the most durable and is the most expensive. In all three cases, the upper is shaped and completed around a "last" (the three-dimensional model of a foot, which gives the shoe its shape). In cementing, the sole is attached with adhesive. No welting is used. The cheapest and quickest method, it is superior for attaching rubber soles on sneakers, bucks or chukkas, but is the least durable and does not allow resoling.

The "welt" is a strip of leather running along the perimeter of the outsole (the material on the bottom and exterior of the sole that comes in contact with the ground). The insole is the material inside the bottom of the shoe beneath the foot. Blake welting was introduced with the industrial revolution in 1856 when Lyman Reed Blake invented a machine to complete the stitching on the inside of the shoe. In a Blake welt, the upper is wrapped around the insole and a single line of stitching attaches the upper, the insole, and the outsole. It is simpler and less expensive than a Goodyear welt. The absence of exterior stitching allows a close-cut sole and fewer layers making the shoe more flexible, but less water resistant. The interior stitching can also cause irritation.

In Goodyear welted shoes, a perpendicular "rib" is created across the insole either by cutting and sculpting or by adding another material such as linen tape. The outsole is stretched over and attached along with the insole to the last. After the upper, insole rib, and welt are stitched together, a separate stitch line attaches the welt to the outsole. This dual stitching makes the shoe easy to resole either by hand or machine. The connection of the welt and insole also makes the shoe relatively more waterproof. In addition, a cork filling between the insole and outsole used in Goodyear shoes molds to the owner's foot for added comfort. The extra layer provides more structure, but also makes the shoe less flexible.

On January 1^st, 1931, Leonard Shaw & Dean, Inc. merged with Schwartz Ruggles, Inc., a shoe manufacturer that had begun operation in Brockton, but for the previous three years had been located in Rockland, Massachusetts. The patterns and lasts of Schwartz Ruggles, Inc. were sent to the Peirce Street plant, which assumed all the orders of the Rockland firm, whose 100 to 150 employee payroll was also taken over by Leonard, Shaw & Dean.

Two years later, in February 1933, the business was purchased and reincorporated as the John E. Lucey Shoe Company of Middleborough. John E. Lucey of Brockton, a former executive of the Joseph F. Corcoran Shoe Company of Stoughton, was the owner and manager. Samuel Shaw remained as director. At the time of its liquidation, many of the lasts, patterns, and accounts of the Leonard, Shaw & Dean firm were purchased by the Morris Shoe Company, which in 1933 moved from Taunton into a former box factory at 17 Jackson Street in Middleborough.

Tn 1935, the John E. Lucey Shoe Company, then headed by John E. Lucey and Robert Goldstein, merged with Leonard & Barrows, Inc., another large shoe manufacturer in Middleborough.

It was reported in the local newspaper that since its organization three years earlier, the John E. Lucey Shoe Company had grown to the extent that more space was needed than was available at the facility on Peirce Street. All equipment and operations were consolidated at the Leonard & Barrows factory on Centre Street (demolished ca. 1986) where reportedly the two businesses continued to operate as separate entities. The Peirce Street plant was never again used as a shoe factory.

Winthrop-Atkins Company, photographers, film developers, and manufacturers of picture frames, which had been renting an upper floor in the mill complex for several years, purchased the property in 1937 and occupied the entire plant. The business, headed by brothers-in-law Horace Atkins and Frank Winthrop, had relocated from Harwich, Massachusetts to Middleborough in 1919 and had moved operations through three local locations as it expanded. Horace K. Atkins, who had been associated with Nichols and Atkins, a photo-finishing business in Harwich, Massachusetts, believed the business was poised for expansion if moved to a more central location. In 1923, the enterprise was re-organized as Winthrop-Atkins Company, with Frank Winthrop of Dedham, Massachusetts as president.

To compensate for the decline in demand for photo finishing during the Depression, the company added the manufacture of wooden picture frames and mounts to production. Leatherette picture frames, considered to be a product exclusive to the firm, were also introduced. In February 1937, the concern had about 45 employees. At the time the company occupied 151 Peirce Street, employment was projected to reach about 60 individuals.

Winthrop-Atkins also pioneered the introduction of the photographic Christmas card. In 1939, the company began the manufacture of desk calendars and eventually was credited with being the largest producer in the country. In 1944, having outgrown the Peirce Street premises, Winthrop-Atkins acquired the Starr Mills at 35 East Main Street in Middleborough, to which it relocated.

During the Second World War, Horace K. Atkins served as the head of Civil Defense in Middleborough. He was a member of the school board and Commander of Simeon L, Nickerson Post 64, of the American Legion. He and his wife, Josephine (Ashley) Atkins, donated a building on Jackson Street to be used as the headquarters of the Girl Scouts.

Bay State Specialty Company, a manufacturer of advertising products, was the next occupant of 151 Pierce Street. Incorporated in 1954, officers were Solomon (a.k.a. Saul) Zeidman of Newton,-Massachusetts, President, Treasurer and Director; Dorothy Labossiere, of Natick, Massachusetts, Clerk and Director; and Mary Zeidman of Newton, Massachusetts, Director. After moving through several locations in Boston (Roxbury and Dorchester), the firm relocated to occupy leased space at 151 Peirce Street around 1970 and purchased the property in 1973. The business was sold in 1976 to Souvenir, Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. James Moore (b. Marshalltown, Iowa; d. Plymouth, Massachusetts, January 23^rd, 2009), vice president of production at Souvenir, Inc., was named president of Bay State Specialty and transferred to live in Duxbury, Massachusetts. In 1989, Moore, his wife Beverly Dudek Moore, and Dick Keyo, another executive of the firm, bought Bay State Specialty. James Moore remained as president. Under his stewardship, the firm reportedly grew tenfold and garnered many awards within the industry.

James Moore also served as President of the Specialty Advertising Association of New England (now New England Promotional Products Association) in 1981 and was a member of the board of the Promotional Products Association International from 1990 to 1994. Beverly Dudek Moore (b. Marshalltown, Iowa July 22^nd, 1935; d. Plymouth, Massachusetts, August 3^rd, 2014), also founded Choice Point, a consulting firm located in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The firm promoted creativity, comprehension of left and right brain learning styles, and conducted education and training programs for clients that included several Fortune 500 businesses. Beverly Dudek also worked as an educator/facilitator at the Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, NY.

Michael Moore, son of James Moore and National Sales Manager at Bay State Specialty Company, has indicated few changes were made to the facility at 151 Peiree Street under the ownership by the firm. Modifications were limited to the interior, such as alterations to the office space.

Bay State Specialty Company remained at Peirce Street until June 2001 when the business moved to a modern plant in Lakeville, Massachusetts, where it continues operations to date (2018) under the ownership of Joel and Michael Moore, sons of James and Beverly Dudek Moore.

The mill at 151 Peirce Street was sold for $250,000 in July 2001 to Robert Carter, a former Middleborough resident, whose plans to renovate it into condominiums failed to come to fruition. In 2015, the mill was sold to Shoe Shop LP, which completed a certified rehabilitation of the property into 25 units of affordable housing in June 2016.

The Shoe Manufacturing Process

The more than 200 operations involved in making heeled leather shoes are typically divided into four departments, creating a progressive route within a factory from hide to finished shoes, as follows:

First, in the Clicking or Cutting Department, the top part of the shoe, upper, or vamp is made. Animal hides, most often cow leather, are cut into the variously shaped pieces that form the top of the shoe. Next in the Closing or Machining Department, the component pieces of the upper are sewn together, first on a flat machine, then, when the upper has become three dimensional, on a post machine. Decorative stitching and various edge treatments are added and eyelets to accommodate laces are inserted. In the Lasting and Making Department, the completed uppers are molded into the shape of a foot on a form called a "last." The upper is stretched and molded over the last and the insole is attached to the bottom. If a welted shoe is being fabricated, a rib is added to the insole. The upper is attached to the insole rib. The welt, a strip of leather, is sewn onto the perimeter of the shoe through the rib. After the upper and all surplus material is trimmed off the seam, the outsole is stitched to the welt. With the heel nailed on, the "making" of the shoe is complete.

In the Finishing Department and Shoe Room for leather shoes, the edge of the sole and the heel are trimmed and buffed to a smooth finish, then stained, polished, and waxed. The bottom of the sole may also be buffed, stained, polished, and marked with different patterns to provide a crafted look. In the shoe room, a sock with manufacturer's details and brand name is fitted into the shoe and the uppers are cleaned, polished, and sprayed. Laces, and possibly tags with care instructions, may also be attached before the shoes are packaged in boxes.

Utilization of the Sections of the Leonard, Shaw & Dean Shoe-Factory

With completion of the third section of the building, the allocation of functions to space for the various aspects of the shoe production process were established. In the original (1896) building, operations consisted of stock and heel making on the first floor; making (the processes involved in attaching the sole to the upper part of the shoe) on the second floor; a stock room and lasting department (stretching the upper tightly over and conforming it to the last) on the third floor.

In the 1905 addition, designated activities were "treeing" (shaping and smoothing the shoe) and packing on the first floor; making and finishing on the second floor; and lasting on the third floor. In the 1911 addition, first- and second-floor functions were the same as those in the 1905 addition. The third level was devoted to cutting and a stock room.

Evolution of the Shoe Industry in Massachusetts and Middleborough

Before 1830, all shoes were made with eight hand tools: a hand-made hammer for pounding leather; a lapstone (an iron plate or stone on which to beat sole leather, seams, or folded edges with a flat-faced hammer); a knife or knives to cut both upper and sole leather; a last (the wooden or metal form upon which the shoe is constructed and given its distinctive shape); pincers to pull the leather over the last; a stirrup to hold leather to the last; an awl to bore holes and bristles used as needles. Hemp thread was used for sewing (or "fitting") the various parts of the upper together. Once "fitted," the upper was slipped on the last, to which an insole had been tacked. The lower edge of the upper was pulled over the last and fastened temporarily with nails before it was sewn or pegged to the outer sole.

As defined by researcher and economist Blanche Evans Hazard, who between 1907 and 1917 investigated primary documents, public records, and interviewed early shoemakers for Harvard Economic Studies, the shoe industry in Massachusetts from its origins to the early 20^th Century evolved through four stages, each of which is divided into phases.

I. Home Stage

The Home Stage, the earliest, colonial practice of making shoes and boots, consisted of two phases:

Phase 1: Entirely homemade boots and shoes were fashioned only for home consumption. Feet were traced on paper and matched in size as close as possible to the household's small collection of lasts upon which shoes were shaped from roughly tanned cowhide, usually by the elder males in the family.

Phase 2: Itinerant cobblers (cither a journeymen who had completed an apprenticeship or a self-taught farmer) traveled with tools and a bench to make shoes which were likely of better quality than homemade footwear. The farmer/consumer provided the raw materials and paid the cobbler with room, board, and possibly a small wage. Calvin Dunham and Hannah Reed are identified as having been two such traveling shoemakers in Middleborough. The latter was reputed to travel by foot to Boston, returning the next day with leather she had purchased for her work. Another traveling shoemaker of Middleborough, Paul Hathaway, is noted to have continued as an itinerant custom shoemaker until 1798 before opening a shop.

Shoemaking and tanning were initiated as concomitant industries in colonial New England villages. Leather was first cured using bark houses and tanning pits. Eventually the process evolved into the work of a full time tannery, especially in the second phase of the home stage when shoemakers demanded a more regular supply and higher quality leather.

II. Handcraft Stage

The Handcraft Stage was not prevalent in the shoemaking industry in New England until the middle of the 18^th Century. It operated without guild officers or regulations (except in Boston and Philadelphia, which received more European immigrant shoemakers who developed and maintained them).

Phase 1, Bespoke work: was done for a pre-arranged price by the shoemaker at home or in his shop on the specific demand of a customer who either provided his own leather or accepted leather supplied by the cobbler. A shop typically included the custom shoemaker, two or more journeymen and two to three apprentices bound for seven years who were taught all the processes to make an entire boot or shoe.

Phase 2, Extra sale work: bespoke items spoiled by substandard work or mismeasurement, abandoned by customers or intentionally made, speculative product to occupy apprentices and journeymen during slack times-were marketed in the shop window, the village store, or even taken to venues in larger communities such as Boston.

III. Domestic Stage - Putting Out System

Phase 1 (ca. 1760-1810): the shoemaker, utilizing the labor of every member of his family as well as the efforts of journeymen and apprentices under his direction, made the complete shoe, but instead of directly dealing with customers and relying solely on his own skills in fabrication and marketing, the shoemaker made the boots and shoes using, at least in part, tools and materials supplied by a capitalist-entrepreneur who marketed the shoes at his own risk and profit.

Capital was introduced to the industry. Production for sale, coupled with expansion from a town to a national economy and a widening market, including the East and West Indian trade, added trade as well as the possibility of profits on investment. Already more shoemakers existed than could be supported by custom and small-scale extra sale work. Both workers and capitalists were ready for larger domestic and foreign markets.

Rather than being daunted by imports, shoemakers and entrepreneurs imitated foreign styles and stock (uncut hides). Materials for uppers and findings were imported. Newly immigrant craftsmen arrived and taught the finest European techniques. Within ten years after 1754, shoes made in Lynn, seen as exceeding imported shoes in quality, were being offered at lower prices.

Though revolutionary and patriotic spirit animated non-importation sentiments among the populace, tanners began to face competition as hides started to be imported from the West Indies, England and South Africa. Still, a large percentage of the leather being made into boots and shoes was produced domestically.

Between 1760 and 1810 a transition occurred in shoemaking. Both the last phase of the Handicraft Stage, where custom or bespoke makers in the community put out some extra or speculative shoes for sale, and the first phase of the Domestic Stage, in which the entrepreneur as capitalist shoemaker hired workers to make boots and shoes at home for retail or wholesale trade, variously existed side by side. The Domestic Stage was given strong impetus by opportunities for sales during the Revolutionary War, increased domestic demand after the war, and passage of the federal protective tariff in 1789.

In Middleborough, the 15' x 20', custom shoemaking shop opened by Paul Hathaway near his house employed three journeymen and two apprentices by 1807. Women of the family spun flax for thread and made the wax to stiffen it. Still, Hathaway quit the business at that time to concentrate on farming.

Phase 2 (ca. 1810-1837): characterized by specialization in processes and rise of the central shop, was generated by the growing market for boots and shoes that developed under tariff protection. The ranks of capitalists widened and production intensified. Extra capital in the shoe industry fostered competition for orders, promoted specialization and increased the pace of production. With expanding, insistent markets, speed of delivery superseded quality of production in importance. Lowered standards and competition between employers led to the admission of less skilled and even unskilled labor to do the cheaper work on shoes destined for the well-developed trade with the West Indies and the South. With workers needing to know only one aspect of the shoe making process, all members of a family, including women and children, often became involved. Workers frequently came from large distances to pick up stock at the central shop. People from Middleborough, Abington, Mansfield, Randolph, and Bridgewater were known to travel to a large enterprise in East Stoughton.

As the workforce, located in separate, scattered shops called "ten-footers" (in use since the middle of the 18^th Century, but actually of varying size from 10' x 10' to 14' x 14', with the average about 12'x 12'), expanded and encompassed wider areas, the need to save both stock and time led rapidly after 1820 to reorganization of the shoemaking process into the central shop of the capitalist-entrepreneur. This reconfiguration was more likely to reduce waste by assuring efficient stock cutting and promoting greater consistency of production by allowing inspection under the supervision of agents rather than the master shoemaker. Cut stock was delivered to workers for "fitting" in which uppers were completed. Returned to the central shop, uppers were next given out with roughly cut soles and thread to "makers" who shaped the upper on the last and attached the sole. Product had to be inspected and approved at the central shop before new work was distributed.

Broad divergences arose between the quality of custom and domestic work and between the wages of journeymen and ordinary shoemakers. Entrepreneur shoemakers also invested their profits in side businesses such as trade (e.g. importation of molasses and sugar from the West Indies on return trips; selling grain in the coastal trade), banking (fostering development of institutions such as Union Bank of Weymouth and Braintree and Weymouth Savings Bank), and land speculation (the purchase of large tracts of land in Maine and sometimes as distant as Texas and Louisiana).

General prosperity in the boot and shoe trade in Massachusetts was checked by a national financial crisis, the Panic of 1837. Personal fortunes and markets came to an end as land investments could not be liquidated fast enough to cover loses. Those involved with smaller-scaled trade and fewer risky investments survived to continue into the third phase of the Domestic System.

Phase 3 (1837-1855): characterized by entrepreneurs focused on shoemaking as a single business, not as a side venture; the growth of distinct and specialized boot and shoe centers; greater availability of capital through the opening of new banks; new styles and greater variety of shoes devised to develop new markets and classes of trade; and technological advances in the form of inventions and devices that allowed standardization, faster production, and better quality.

Shoemakers, who survived the Panic of 1837 and the nearly seven-year recession that followed, faced fewer competitors. New shoe manufacturers, lured by reports of "big profits" that existed prior to 1837, hoped to win the markets left open by those who had failed. People always needed shoes. By 1840, new trade with new markets gradually emerged for a new type of entrepreneur who operated in distinct boot and shoe centers.

Even before 1837, investment in the boot and shoe industry was not random. Rather, entrepreneurs, centered in certain localities, invested a relatively large amount of their capital and employed a relatively high proportion of inhabitants of the area in the manufacture of shoes. Boot and shoe centers were generally located in the vicinities of large tanneries and close enough to Boston to access banking and transportation facilities as well as Boston markets. By 1837, Worcester, Essex, Plymouth, and Norfolk counties were already known as shoemaking centers.

Although secondary sources indicate shoe manufacture was introduced to Middleborough ca. 1828, the first available statewide statistical publications report one tannery in 1835, but make no reference to shoe making until 1845. In the decade after that year, Massachusetts records report that incipient shoe production in town more than doubled. In 1845, data are reported without explanation in two figures for the same category, noting the manufacture of boot and shoes in Middleborough employed 78 and/or 90 workers (60 male and 18 female and/or 70 male and 20 female) in production of 60,449 and/or 61,252 pairs of boots and shoes valued at $42,793. The comparative figures for 1855 are: 280 workers (153 male; 127 female) in production of 161,285 pairs of boots and shoes valued at $161,336; an increase of 211 percent or 259 percent in number of workers, 163 percent or 167 percent in number of pairs produced and 277 percent in value of goods produced.

The shoemaking process in Middleborough for this period as described in secondary sources is similar to that of the central shop. After upper and sole leather was cut by the manufacturer, all the work was put out to families or small shops to be done by hand. Shoemakers received sufficient stock to work on one to ten dozen pairs of shoes at a time. Sewn-together uppers were returned to the central shop, where they were inspected; soles, heels, and filling were prepared; then put out again to different shoemakers to be finished. No detail as to how any individual shop in Middleborough specifically operated is available. Partnerships and other associations in local shoemaking businesses were often transitory and regularly reorganized.

After the recession, invested capital was no longer typically the savings of master shoemakers or domestic workers. More often, it represented critical investment in a seemingly lucrative business that would pay a return rather than merely provide a livelihood or a secondary source of income to the merchant. Finance required the use of notes, rapid turnover of capital, and banking establishments.

In re-establishing the boot and shoe trade, entrepreneurs became aware that quality was more important than had been previously the case. Business owners, more likely to be experienced shoemakers themselves as well as capitalists, were able to supervise the shop as well as market the product. If not, they either sought partners who knew the trade or were dependent on expert workmen, foremen, and agents to manage the stock and production while they attended to markets and profit.

Such was the case of Eddy and Leach in Middleborough. Joshua M. Eddy owned a general store and ran the post office in East Middleborough/Eddyville. In 1852, using $10,000 he had accumulated from a shovel business, Eddy partnered with George Martin Leach, who had only $200 in capital, but years of experience as a shoemaker. His father, Levy Leach, (b. Halifax, Massachusetts 1775), a farmer, school teacher and custom shoemaker in South Bridgewater, taught the trade to his three sons in the "ten footer" he built on his property. George Martin Leach purchased a farm in East Middleborough ca. 1842, also taught school and built a "ten footer." Unlike his father, however, he ran a central shop. He purchased and cut stock for uppers and soles, put it out to neighborhood women to make uppers, inspected the work, then sent it to be bottomed in other "ten footers" in the vicinity. After he partnered with Joshua Eddy, their business largely made brogans (heavy, medium height, pegged or nailed work shoes) sold in the South, mostly New Orleans.

The two-story, 22' by 28' building which had been Eddy's general store with post office also became the Eddy and Leach shoe shop (154 Plympton Street). Upper rooms were used for cutting upper and sole leather, inspecting shoes brought back by domestic workers, and storing stock and finished goods. As elsewhere, workers were gradually hired to "bottom" the shoes (sew on the outer soul, attach the heel, trim and finish the edge of the soul and heel). In the late 1850s, a 14' ell was added as a stitching room managed by George Leach's two sons, George Myron Leach and Giles Leach, third-generation shoemakers, By the time Joshua Eddy retired around 1860, their central shop was becoming a factory where most of the bottoming was also being done (see Factory Stage below). George Leach continued the business until 1874. Thereafter, instead of trying to compete with other manufacturers who were installing expensive machinery, he became a jobber, purchasing and selling completed shoes. His sons moved to Raynham and worked as stitchers there and in Brockton.

In the first half of the 19^th Century, North Middleborough was a self-sustained community of farmers and shoemakers. Between 1838 and his death in-1848, Amos Clark was the first to put out shoes in that part of town. Around 1848, Hosea Kingman also began a shoe business selling product in New Bedford. Members of the Keith Family were engaged in shoemaking throughout its evolution from cottage trade to factory industry. Between 1847 and ca. 1854, Jared Keith began a shoe business in the 1 4-story shop and residence at 225 Bedford Street (not extant). The 1855 map of North Middleborough records the location of seven shoe shops in the area, but no other evidence as to their appearance has been found.

Around 1846, shoemaker Melzar Tribou is noted to have operated in the section of Middleborough known as "Purchade" (the area located primarily on Everett, Plymouth, and Purchade streets). The size of his business or how it operated is not described in local sources.

Similarly lacking detailed description is the shoe shop run by Richard Carter recorded as located in the yard adjoining the residence of Melzar Tribou. In the vicinity, Lysander Richmond also began to manufacture shoes in 1848. He reputedly built a "large building on Plymouth Street" to produce shoes mostly sold in the South. No additional detail about his facility was found. Facing severe losses after the outbreak of the Civil War, Lysander Richmond ceased production.

Stephen B. Pickens was the first (date unknown) shoe manufacturer in Four Corners (a.k.a. Middleborough Village or Middleborough Center). His business is described only as "very small" compared to early 20th-century operations. The exact location of his facility is not provided. The next shoemaking enterprise in Four Corners was Eaton & Leonard located ca. 1855 in a small building (not extant) opposite the Wells Block (built ca. 1850; 21-29 North Main Street). B. Sumner Washburn later joined the firm.

Other short-lived shoemaking businesses that operated in Four Corners included Ward & Doggett (George Ward of Lakeville; and William E. Doggett). It occupied the second floor of the then 2 ½-story, mansard-roofed, commercial building at 21-29 North Main Street (Wells Block/Murdock Block/Jones Block, ca. 1850; subsequently extensively altered after fires in 1905 and 1915). The firm was sold in a few years to Bassett & Dunbar which in turn shortly disposed of its Middleborough interests to Major Joseph Sampson, Jr. and Colonel Nathan King. Cited dates in secondary sources conflict, but Sampson & King are noted to have relocated from the Wells Block to a small store they remodeled and enlarged into the American Building (ca. 1830, 4-10 South Main Street) at the corner of South Main and Water streets. The date operations were initiated is not given, but James Allen Leonard and his son are noted to have manufactured boots and shoes in a building (date unknown) adjoining his residence at 135 Centre Street until 1870.

The need for standardization became apparent. Entrepreneurs adopted advances to the production process and introduced them to the central shop. Smaller operators leased thread machines and established an independent stitching shop or leased space inside a central shop. Patterns and tools as well as materials and labor became important for adapting merchandise to a wide range of customers and ensuring uniformity. New machines, such as strippers (to cut hides into strips of required width to make soles of a desired size), sole cutters (1844), and leather rolling machines (1845, which superseded hammering the leather on the lapstone by hand) were invented.

To accommodate an incipient demand for style, different shapes of block lasts came into use in the 1840s. A machine for cutting pegs as well as several types of pegging machines were employed before the sewing machine (1846) was adapted for use on leather shoe uppers (1852). Dry thread machines (for lighter upper work) and wax thread machines (for heavy work such as siding boot legs) not only made the production process easier, but also improved the quality and appearance of the product.

Organization of the shoe trade had to change to ensure timely delivery to distant places of products made to uniform standards. Labor became more productive and specialized.

By 1840, the practice of apprentices learning to make a whole boot or shoe had disappeared. Workers entering the trade learned only one aspect of the process. The need to economically utilize raw materials rather than allowing domestic workers to keep or resell scrap or inefficiently cut stock became one of the driving reasons for central shop supervision. New styles of long-legged boots were required to meet conditions in new markets such as Australia and the American West. By 1855, retail products had replaced custom-made shoes and boots even among affluent customers.

Side industries to shoemaking arose. Production of precut leather for inner soles and stiffening was initiated. Shoe boxes, at first likely wooden, were introduced in the 1830s. Paper boxes were being marketed by the end of the decade, but were not in general use until the 1850s, as it became important to keep shoes in good condition during transport.

The final phase of the domestic stage of shoemaking, based on a putting out system of domestic workers laboring in their "ten-footers" and an entrepreneur operating a central shop, gradually ended. Only the processes of making (attaching the sole to the upper part of the shoe), lasting (stretching the upper over and conforming it to the shape of the last), and bottoming (sewing on the outer soul, attaching the heel, trimming and finishing the edge of the soul and heel) continued to be done by domestic workers until machines for sewing on the soles completely eliminated the Domestic System.

IV. Factory Stage (1855-1920)
Phase 1 (1855-1880)

Already underway in the 1840s, the evolution of the shoemaking process toward consolidation of all operations under one roof culminated in the 1850s. This reorganization was driven by the need to ensure uniformity and prompt delivery of product by increasing economies of time, labor, and raw material. All of these outcomes required supervisory personnel and regular hours of steady employment for specialized workers. Larger buildings (first called manufactories and later factories) supplanted the earlier central shops that had often existed in converted residences or commercial buildings.

Expanding new markets generated by the gold rushes in California and Australia and the steady demand from existing markets in the South and Southwest required increased capital investment and larger supplies of raw materials. Large orders with the promise of big profits pushed the limits of production available in the existing organization, rate of speed, and equipment of the shoe industry.

Other advancements also fostered change. Improved and faster transportation became available on clipper ships and expanding railroad lines that linked New England, the Atlantic Seaboard, and moved through the Alleghenies to the Midwest. The need to move money over greater distances serving distant markets engendered a greater need for banking facilities and expanded credit. Both the Middleborough Savings Bank (organized March 15^th, 1873) and the Middleborough National Bank (organized April 1889) had several shoe manufacturers as officers or members of the Board of Directors. Steam power was introduced to larger factories by 1860, vastly outpacing the speed of hand labor by domestic workers.

The factory system became the prevailing organization of the industry during the Civil War. Increased demand for footwear by Union forces coupled with a concomitant shortage of labor due to the military draft or enlistment, gave further impetus to the adoption of machinery in the 1860s. Mechanization had left only lasting and bottoming as handwork. Invention of the McKay sole-sewing machine (1860) equalized the speed of work in bottoming with the already mechanized making of uppers. The invention of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear (ca. 1836) led to the development and manufacture of rubber-soled shoes in the late 19^th Century.

Specialization was adopted not only by workers, but also by manufacturers. Various areas of the state came to focus on particular products, shoes or boots of finer or lesser grades. Increased variety of styles intensified the need for prompt delivery to assure quick disposal of inventory while in full fashion. By 1869, Massachusetts manufacturers produced nearly 50 percent of the boots and shoes made in the United States.

In Middleborough, during this period as earlier, associations in shoemaking ventures were often short-lived and regularly reorganized as businesses evolved from occupying relatively small, often mixed-use spaces to larger, single-purpose factories. Many local operations are referenced in the town's histories without indication as to their exact locations, type of buildings, or size of operations. Evidence on some firms can be gleaned through available historical photographs and insurance maps.

Between 1853 and 1860, Noah C. Perkins, Charles E. Leonard, and Horatio Barrows occupied a 2 ½story, gable-roofed building on the northeast corner of Centre and School streets (After 1872, it was occupied by hardware dealers and tinsmiths Peirce and Paige and from 1881 to 1940, by Peirce alone as T. W. Peirce's hardware store, demolished in 1940). Noah C. Perkins left the firm in 1867.

In 1860, Charles E. Leonard and Horatio Barrows also formed a partnership as Leonard & Barrows and operated on the second floor of the Wells Block at 21-29 North Main Street (Wells Block/Murdock Block/Jones Block, ca. 1850, subsequently extensively altered after fires in 1905 and 1915) until 1874 when they built a 3 4-story, gable-roofed factory to manufacture women's and children's shoes at the northeast corner of Centre and Pearl Streets.

Calvin D. Kingman who had joined Leonard & Barrows between 1862 and 1867, left to found the C. D. Kingman Shoe Factory in two gable-roofed buildings. One, 2½-stories high at 246 Centre Street; and subsequently described as being renovated into several residences (The other building is variously represented as 2 and 3½-stories high. It is noted to have originally been the stable (built in 1857) of the Washburn-Bassett House before Calvin Kingman moved it across the street from his own residence to 250 Centre Street, at the corner of Oak Street and renovated it to be part of his factory.

In the 1880s, his sons, Charles W. Kingman and P. E. Kingman joined the firm. After Calvin Kingman's retirement in 1888, his sons continued the business, which employed 250 workers, only until 1891. The section of the mill at 250 Centre Street shortly thereafter was converted to commercial use when the third story may have been added.

In North Middleborough, Nahum Keith and Elijah E. Perkins began making shoes in 1848. Nahum Keith left the business in 1849, then returned from 1856-1860 to operate as Keith & Perkins Shoe Company. Elijah E. Perkins admitted his son, David Sumner Perkins, as partner in 1865. E. E. Perkins & Son continued until 1881 when Elijah E. Perkins retired and David Sumner Perkins died soon thereafter. The size or appearance of their factory is not documented.

The best known and largest factory in North Middleborough was that of Keith & Pratt. N. Williams Keith began manufacturing shoes in 1869. Herbert A. Pratt was admitted as a partner in 1879 and the firm became Keith & Pratt, which built a relatively large, three-story, nearly flat-roofed shoe factory on Pleasant Street.

Similar to the 1830s, expansion of the industry in the 1870s led to overinvestment, overproduction, and overspeculation with profits. Shoe manufacturers built larger shops, installed expensive machinery and over-purchased raw materials, driving up the price of leather beyond the value of a completed shoe. Shoemakers also over-invested in railroad stock and western lands. As markets depressed during the international Panic of 1873, overproduction and a lack of credit (as capital remained tied up in fixed improvements or illiquid investments) intensified the financial crisis. Manufacturers were forced to retrench. Many shoe factories failed.

Revival of the shoe industry required efficiency, quality, and speed of production. Mechanization made the burgeoning of the shoe industry possible. Employing both men and women, jobs were plentiful, desirable, and paid a living wage. Prior to 1880, although accounting for only eight percent of the nation's population, New England employed twenty percent of American manufacturing workers: one-seventh were employed in the making of leather and leather products, dominated by footwear. In 1880, more than 40 percent of all leather and leather products workers in the country were employed in New England.

Between 1849 and 1879, the share of the total value of the nation's shoe production made in Massachusetts increased from nearly 44.7 percent to 57.8 percent. In Massachusetts, the value of boot and shoe production represented 15 percent of the value of all manufactured goods in the state and 6.6 percent of capital invested in manufacturing in 1875.

Between 1855 and 1875, the value of boot and shoe production in Middleborough increased by 153 percent ($161,336.00 to $408,566.00) and represented 27 percent of the value of all goods manufactured and 12 percent of all capital invested in manufacturing in town.

Mechanization also created a wearing and often dangerous occupation for shoe workers. Devastating machinery fires were a constant threat. Many Massachusetts factories, including several in Middleborough, burned.

Factory Stage (1855-1920)
Phase 2 (1880-1920)

The rapid expansion of railroad and telegraph networks after the Civil War promoted an increasingly unified national economy as population and industry spread to the interior. Erosion of the New England region's predominance in manufacturing was particularly pronounced in the two industries that were largely responsible for its early industrialization, shoe manufacturing and textiles. Both experienced relatively slow growth between 1880 and 1920 at the same time other manufacturing industries were expanding in the region.

After 1880, several developments eroded New England's competitiveness in footwear and textiles, slowing the rate of regional economic growth behind that of the rest of the nation and promoting the reallocation of capital and labor to other manufacturing sectors. The initial advantage of access to water systems that provided transportation to sources of skins and hides as well as to consumer markets devolved into a disadvantage as population and markets moved to the interior of the continent. With inferior transportation links to the interior population and limited local natural resources, New England manufacturers were forced to compete against lower-cost producers in other parts of the country.

Early localization of the industry, however, generated a concentration of skilled labor important to production. Despite the mechanization of shoemaking, the variability of raw materials required skill in cutting and sewing, especially for higher-quality shoes. Cities with a pool of experienced workers remained advantaged into the 20^th Century.

At the same time, the increasing national scope of labor and capital markets in the United States ameliorated the impact of the decline. As demand for labor decreased so did net migration into the region, helping maintain wage levels. Investments by New Englanders in ventures outside the region earned them a return on economic gains made in more rapidly growing parts of the country.

In the market for sturdy, less fashionable footwear, Midwestern manufacturers in Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri, generated by the availability of government contracts during the Civil War, gained comparative advantage through their proximity to both the growing supply of hides provided by the expansive development of the meatpacking industry in Chicago and western cities and to consumer markets. New England manufacturers began losing market share to new factories in Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri. Massachusetts' share of U.S. production in the shoe industry fell continuously after 1879.

In Middleborough Center, the 24-story, gable-roofed factory of the Needle Machine Works (12 Wareham Street, built in 1875, closed in 1880s) by 1889 was occupied by several manufacturers including the boot and shoe plant of Warren B. Stetson, which was located on part of the second floor .Other tenants were the machine shop of Lloyd Perkins, (part of the second floor), the plush and morocco jewelry box maker Schleuter and Co. (first and second floors of part of the mill), and museum hardware maker Elisha Jenks (first and second floors of part of the mill).

The 3½-story, gable-roofed factory at the corner of Pearl and Centre streets built for Leonard & Barrows in 1874 burned in 1883 or 1886. It was replaced in 1888 with a much larger four-story, 100,000-square-foot flat-roofed factory with automatic sprinklers in the same location.

Horatio Barrows of the firm died in 1883. Charles E. Leonard and his sons, Charles M. Leonard and Arthur H. Leonard, continued the business under the same name for the next 20 years.

The factory employed 500 workers. Horatio Barrows' son, Fletcher Barrows, joined the firm in 1903. Charles E. Leonard died in 1904. His grandsons, Julian H. Leonard and Arthur W. Leonard also joined the business. Around 1905, the factory employed about 600 workers and Leonard & Barrows opened a branch factory in Belfast, Maine. Charles M. Leonard managed the Middleborough plant.

Penniman Brothers (William O. Penniman and Josiah Penniman) was founded in 1890 as a small family business at 64 School Street near North Street. They later admitted Elmer E. Phinney and the firm became Penniman & Phinney and subsequently Penniman, Phinney & Lightford after Herbert H. Lightford joined the enterprise, which manufactured, women's shoes. The firm closed ca. 1925, The modest size of their 1 ½-story shop is indicated by the fact that it was later utilized by Foster Wade as a neighborhood grocery store. After the latter's death, the property was renovated into a dwelling.

In North Middleborough, Keith & Perkins, which ceased operations in 1881, was succeeded by the firm Stetson, Holmes & Hammond (Warren B. Stetson, Benjamin Holmes, and George A, Hammond), which functioned a few years before being followed by a firm variously described in local histories as Hammond & Richmond or Alden, Leonard & Hammond (Charles H. Alden, Cornelius H. Leonard, Elisha W. Richmond, and George A. Hammond). Their factory was on Plymouth Street just north of Bedford Street. After 1886, when the firm relocated to Middleborough Center, this factory was divided to create two dwellings: one part remaining on the same site and the other section moved to become a house on Bedford Street.

Alden, Leonard & Hammond relocated from North Middleborough to leased space in a factory on Cambridge Street in Middleborough Center constructed in 1886 by George Lewis Soule. He built the three-story, 30' x 100' factory hoping to attract industry to town. The business remained only briefly before selling out to the New Bedford firm Hathaway, Soule & Harrington, which continued to operate in the same plant.

Another factory on the south side of Plymouth Street was occupied by Alden, Leonard & Co. (Charles H. Alden and Cornelius H. Leonard) founded in 1884, No further information about it is reported in local sources. The details of Charles H. Alden's other shoe business associations are also unclear. In 1886 or 1889, he partnered with Enoch Pratt to form Alden & Pratt with operations in same factory. After a few years, Enoch Pratt withdrew. In 1895, C. H. Alden & Co. was the last firm to occupy the property. Although the local newspaper reported an addition was built and a new lasting machine was installed in 1897, Charles Alden reportedly moved the business to Abington the following year and the firm is not listed in the Middleborough Directory for 1899. The building thereafter remained empty until destroyed by fire on October 17^th, 1900. Confusion also exists as to whether C. H. Alden & Co. maintained a local presence or returned to town at a later date. The company history on its website mentions no absence from Middleborough in this period and indicates the firm prospered by adding children's shoes to its product line of men's shoes and custom boots. The company history states that only after Charles Alden's retirement in 1933 were operations relocated to the Old Colony Factory in Brockton.

A branch of the New Bedford firm Hathaway, Soule & Harrington operated in Middleborough between 1887 and 1900 before leaving town. In that time, it became a major factor in the local economy. The business, initiated in 1865 by Savory C. Hathaway of New Bedford, was joined by Rufus A. Soule, also of New Bedford. In 1874, they admitted Herbert A. Harrington of Brookline and the firm became Hathaway, Soule & Harrington. As noted above, the venture purchased the interest of Alden, Leonard & Hammond of Middleborough in the factory on Cambridge Street constructed in 1886 by George L. Soule.

In 1895, the Middleborough branch factory employed 200 workers making medium grade men's shoes. Despite high production and employment, Hathaway, Soule & Harrington began considering abandoning its Middleborough branch. In 1900, operations were consolidated with the company's facilities in New Bedford.

Around 1892, Cornelius H. Leonard and Samuel Shaw formed Leonard & Shaw, a shoe manufacturing business located in the Jenks Building at the corner of Wareham and Clifford streets (originally also part of the Union Needle Company - Needle Machine Works Factory, built 1875 and closed in the 1880s). William Henry Dean of Quincy, who had been a salesman for Hathaway, Soule & Harrington for twelve years, left that firm in 1897 to become a partner in the Leonard & Shaw Shoe Company, which became Leonard, Shaw & Dean. At the time, the factory already employed approximately 100 workers and had relocated to the factory built at 151 Peirce Street.

In 1900, Arthur Harris Alden, an employee and son of the superintendent of Hathaway, Soule & Harrington, along with two of his associates from the firm, George W. Walker and William H. Wilde, founded Alden, Walker & Wilde. The company first operated in a three-story, wood-frame mill at 205 Clifford Street behind the plant of the former Union Needle Company built in 1875 at 12 Wareham Street in Middleborough Center. The Alden, Walker & Wilde factory burned on October 4^th, 1904. At the time it employed 100 workers manufacturing high-quality men's shoes. After the fire, the company moved from Middleborough to North Weymouth, where it purchased the firm of Torrey, Curtis & Tirrell and never returned to town.

After the retirement in 1903 or 1905 of Herbert A. Pratt from the North Middleborough firm Keith & Pratt, his sons, Alton G. Pratt and Harold M. Pratt, assumed control of the company.

In 1906, the business relocated to the upper two floors of the three-story factory on Cambridge Street in Middleborough Center vacated six years earlier by Hathaway, Soule & Harrington. Ten years later, the company returned to their former plant on Plymouth Street in North Middleborough, but closed in 1925. The property and business were sold to Field Brothers and Company of Brockton which continued to make shoes until the factory was razed by fire in 1930.

Attracted to town by a subscription drive of $50,000 organized by the Middleborough Commercial Club, the George E. Keith Company of Brockton erected a very large four-story branch factory in 1905-1906 on Summer Avenue and Lane Street in Middleborough Center. It developed into a major factor in the local economy. A large addition was erected in 1913, making it the largest shoe factory in Middleborough.

The introduction of improved and more attractive stockings to women's apparel after 1910 led fashion designers to raise hemlines and focus greater attention on women's shoes. Shoes became viewed in terms of variety as well as practicality. As footwear became a fashion statement, women increased their shoe wardrobes. Production of women's shoes increased by almost 30 percent between 1914 and 1919, leading to oversupply. Shoemakers also had to make their product more affordable to the average female buyer to encourage ownership of multiple pairs. Although obligated under contract to accept the return of unsold shoes from stores, most manufacturers were not equipped to absorb such losses.

Unionization having gained an early stronghold in Massachusetts, the wages of remaining workers remained relatively high. As the population in western states grew, Massachusetts shoe manufacturers set up branch factories and distribution centers in other states (western New York, the Midwest, and the upper South) where lower costs of living and wages for non-unionized labor reduced costs of production and increased expectations of higher profits. As national demand for Massachusetts-made shoes declined, revenue dropped and the industry declined.

In Middleborough, additions were made to the new Leonard & Barrows Shoe Factory until it reputedly became one of the largest in New England with a workforce of 1000.

In 1920, the firm expanded further in purchasing another factory on Cambridge Street in Middleborough to make boys' shoes.

With over three million United States soldiers needing boots and shoes in World War I, demand skyrocketed, but profits were tempered by the American Industries Board's control over prices and limitation of styles. After the war, American shoemakers flooded the United States market with product. Export to Europe was inhibited by shipping difficulties and the high exchange rate for the U.S. dollar. As these constraining conditions on U.S. sales were alleviated, European manufacturers re-established their own markets.

Although consolidation had reduced the number of factories nationwide, in 1919 the United States exported nearly $75 million of shoes per year. After World War I, imported shoes and a trend toward canvas and rubber shoes impaired the American market and forced companies to adopt expensive new technology in order to to adapt. As competition and the size of capital investment rose, many firms were forced to either consolidate or close. Still, while employment in leather and leather products grew more slowly in New England than manufacturing as a whole, the decline was only in relative terms.

In Massachusetts, the value of production of boots and shoes between 1886 and 1920 increased by 930 percent ($43,052.632 to $443,322.965), the amount of capital invested increased by 1,205 percent ($13,373,546 to $174,463,970) and the number of employees increased by 237 percent (20,573 to 69,273).

Phase 2 (1920-1940)

During the 1920s, challenges to the shoe and textile industries of New England resulted in an absolute decline in the size of the manufacturing sector and increasing unemployment.

In 1920 alone, employment in the industry declined 42 percent in Massachusetts as many factories abruptly shut down. Between 1920 and 1930, the number employed in all manufacturing industries declined by 31 percent (695,832 to 481,449); the amount of capital invested decreased by 17 percent ($2,987,620,867 to $2,483,589,920) as the number of establishments reduced by 6.58 percent (10,262 to 9,586); and the value of production decreased by 39 percent (4,370,276,822 to 2,676,387,256). Over the same decade, the number employed in the manufacture of boots and shoes (other than rubber) in Massachusetts declined by 29 percent (69,273 to 49,105); the amount of capital invested in the industry decreased by 55 percent ($174,463,970 to $78,643,794) as the number of establishments reduced by 19 percent (518 to 420); and the value of production decreased by 58 percent.

Comparable figures for the boot and shoe industry in Middleborough between 1920 and 1930 are not available, but the number locally employed in all manufacturing declined by 65 percent (2,073 to 718); the amount of capital invested in manufacturing decreased by 62 percent ($7,023,779 to $2,661,193) as the number of establishments reduced by 42 percent (33 to 19); and the value of production decreased by 74 percent ($13,981,589 to $3,676,879).

Problems were exacerbated by the Great Depression of the 1930s. Between 1930 and 1938, the number employed in the manufacture of boots and shoes (other than rubber) in Massachusetts, declined by 9 percent (49,105 to 44,658); the amount of capital invested in the industry decreased by 37 percent ($78,643,794 to $49,378,248); the number of establishments reduced by 37 percent (420 to 266) and the value of production decreased by 28 percent (185,072,323 to 132,964,607).

In Middleborough, however, deterioration in manufacturing began to be reversed in 1933 so that between 1930 and 1938 the number employed in the manufacturing rebounded by 88 percent (718 to 1,348); the amount of capital invested minimally increased by .66 percent ($2,661,193 to $2,678,653); the number of establishments increased by 21 percent (19 to 23); and the value of production increased by 68 percent (3,676,879 to 6,169,226). Specific figures for boot and shoe manufacturing in Middleborough, however, are not available.

Lack of sales caused the George E. Keith Company in 1933 to consolidate work from plants the firm closed in Weymouth and Brockton to its factory in Middleborough and to another of its facilities in Brockton. At the time, the Middleborough plant employed 150 people. No new workers were expected to be added. Subsequently, the number of employees declined.

The Morris Shoe Company, maker of boys' shoes, had been established in 1914 by Walter C. Morris in Taunton, where it had expanded rapidly. The company, which purchased the lasts and patterns of Leonard, Shaw & Dean when that firm merged with Schwartz Ruggles, Inc. in 1931, was persuaded by the Middleborough Chamber of Commerce to open a factory in town same year. In 1933, the Morris Shoe Company bought the two-story, nearly flat-roofed wood-frame factory at 17 Jackson Street. The facility had been built in 1910 by Henry B. Schleuter for the firm begun by his father in 1870 on Wareham Street that manufactured decorative boxes for jewelry and pens.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps indicate that ca. 1925, the first floor of the factory previously used by the defunct firm of Hathaway, Soule & Harrington was occupied on the first floor by W. H. Luther & Sons, jewelry makers and on the second and third floors by the J. T. Corcoran (misspelled as "Corcorn") Shoe Company. The latter, a known manufacturer of army boots, however, is not documented to be in town in other local sources. By 1933, the mill was occupied by Albert's Shoe Company, a producer of men's dress and work shoes, which had a factory in Lynn. It also had been solicited to locate in town by the Middleborough Chamber of Commerce.

In 1935 or 1936, Leonard & Barrows was purchased by the John E. Lucey Shoe Company, which had already absorbed the entity created by the Schwartz Ruggles, Inc./Leonard, Shaw & Dean merger. In this case, both company names were retained as each organization continued to operate separately on the same premises; the John E. Lucey Shoe Company making high grade men's shoes while Leonard & Barrows focused on less expensive men's shoes.

Despite losses in the 1920s and 1930s, the shoe industry along with textiles remained the predominant employers in the region, employing close to 40 percent of New England's manufacturing workers in 1939. At the same time, the region's share of the nation's total workers in these industries fell to 32.7 percent for leather and leather products and 24 percent for textiles."> In Massachusetts, between 1920 and 1939, employment in boot and shoe manufacturing fell 35.5 percent (69,273 to 44,658). The town of Middleborough experienced comparable losses. Between 1920 and 1938, employment in boot and shoe manufacturing fell by 34.9 percent (2,073 to 1,348).

Phase 3 (1940 to present)

The established pattern of decline in the boot and shoe manufacture for the region and state did not reverse after the Second World War. Employment in the industry in Massachusetts decreased by 22.2 percent between 1946 (45,000) and 1960 (35,000). Deterioration of the industry continued in the following decades. The number of leather shoe workers in Massachusetts dropped 50 percent between November 1969 and November 1976 (26,350 to 13,200). Eighty-seven shoe factories closed in Massachusetts between 1964 and 1974.

Some positive efforts continued in Middleborough, but could not reverse the overall trend downward. In 1941, Robert Goldstein and his brother Alfred H. Goldstein bought out the interests of John E. Lucey in both the Leonard & Barrows and the John E. Lucey Shoe Company. Re-organized as the Plymouth Shoe Company, production continued to expand and in 1964 engaged about 700 workers. By 1970, however, citing the difficulties of meeting foreign competition and the lack of an import tariff to protect United States production as the cause, the Plymouth Shoe Company ceased operations, leaving 800 workers unemployed.

In the summer of 1972, the factory previously utilized by the Plymouth Shoe Company was purchased by Earth Shoe Company, a subsidiary of the Danish Company Kalso Systemet, Inc. The plant on Centre and Pearl streets became the sole American production facility of the firm. Benefitting from ads in national magazines, listing in the Whole Earth Catalogue, features on television shows, and adoption by American celebrities, Earth Shoes became very popular. Demand increased to the extent that the Middleborough factory could not keep up with production. By 1973, production had quadrupled to 250,000 pairs annually. In October of the next year, the Middleborough plant employed more than 200. By 1975, 100 outlets and mail order houses sold Earth Shoes. Still, the failure of the company to meet demand created issues between it and retailers that resulted in legal action. The company dissolved in 1977, but the brand survives and maintains its headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. The factory at the corner of Centre and Pearl streets was demolished ca. 1986, one hundred years after its construction, to make way for an apartment building.

As demand for quality men's shoes diminished in the face of competition from cheaper foreign footwear, the number of employees also declined at the Middleborough branch (No. 4) of the George E. Keith Company. In 1956, it was also acquired by the Plymouth Shoe Company. After being vacant for a period of time, the plant was destroyed in a spectacular fire on December 13^th, 1974.

In 1945, Walter C. Morris sold his factory and business to Charles W. Dean of Middleborough. The firm became the Dean, Morris Shoe Company, which immediately built a 5,000-square-foot addition and another 10,000-square-foot addition in 1959. Eighty workers were employed in 1961, but 3 years later their number had declined to 25. Also blaming losses on the competition from lower-priced imported shoes, the firm closed in 1965. The building stands today utilized by the Massachusetts Archaeological Society.

The Albert's Shoe Company continued until April 1965 when it closed also citing an inability to compete with lower-priced foreign imports. The factory burned in the same large conflagration on December 13^th, 1974 that also consumed the nearby George E. Keith Company and the adjacent LOBL Manufacturing Company, makers of hospital and surgical supplies, on Cambridge Street.

The Alden Shoe Company, founded by Charles H. Alden, which had relocated to Brockton in 1933, managed to prosper by concentrating on men's high-quality welted dress shoes and by developing specialties in orthopedic and medical footwear rather than attempting to compete with lower-cost, imported, mass-market consumer goods. In 1970, the company returned to a modern facility built in Middleborough. A family-owned business, the Alden Shoe Company in Middleborough is the only surviving legacy boot and shoemaking firm of the hundreds that formerly dominated the economy of the Commonwealth.

In 1967, manufacturing remained the largest source of employment in Middleborough, occupying 52.4 percent of the workforce. Shoemaking remained the predominant industry, supporting an average of 51 percent of employees in town. The C. H. Alden Shoe Company remained listed as one of the community's largest employers in 1971. By 1993, manufacturing employment had fallen to 25 percent of the workers in Middleborough. Winthrop-Atkins Company, Inc. and the Alden Shoe Company remained listed among the town's largest employers with 180 and 165, respectively.

Increasingly popular in the 1950s, production of athletic footwear really expanded in the 1970s to accommodate the growing participation in running as sport and increasing social acceptability of casual shoes as a result of more relaxed dress codes. Manufacturers utilized sophisticated marketing techniques involving famous athletes, invested in extensive research and development to generate high-tech models, and produced designs that made fashion statements of athletic shoes.

Although American companies profited from sales, most of these shoes were manufactured abroad. In 1995, domestically made athletic shoes accounted for only 10 percent of American sales. By 1997, only three firms, Converse, New Balance, and Hyde Athletics, maintained some production in the United States. Fully developed networks of subcontractors, lower wages, and tolerance for harsher work conditions in foreign, often Asian, countries attracted manufacturers.

Today ten shoemaking companies; Converse (Boston), New Balance (Brighton), Vibram (Concord, U. S. Headquarters), Rockport (Canton), Puma (Westford, North American Headquarters), Alden of New England (Middleborough), Wolverine (Waltham, Massachusetts, operations), Earth Brands (Waltham), Reebok (Canton), and Clarks (Waltham), have headquarters in Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe, referencing the state's past industrial concentration in shoe manufacture, noted: "The shoe factories were attracted by artisan and craft techniques honed in Massachusetts; their corporate descendants are here for the modern version of that artisan, a vast talent pool of innovators, working in advanced technologies such as robotics. Quoting Gary Champion, president of Clarks Americas, the article observed: "Massachusetts is where the heart of the footwear business is, … The skill is what brings us here, even still."

Building Description

The Leonard, Shaw & Dean Shoe Factory was erected in three major phases, the original factory (1896) and two substantial additions (1905 and 1911). Minor modifications occurred with the enlargement of the engine room (between 1906 and 1912); construction of a loading dock and elevator between (between 1925 and 1949) and creation of a three-story bathroom tower (after 1949). Located on a 0.79-acre lot on the northwest corner of the intersection of Peirce and Rice streets, the complex is situated in northern Middleborough Center, the social, commercial, and industrial area of town. The vicinity consists of a residential neighborhood of modest dwellings, largely of the same period as the mill, with some modern intrusions. With all of the three sections of the plant intact, the well-preserved factory remains comprised of three interconnected three-story, slightly pitched roofed, utilitarian, wood-frame structures. The original factory (1896) with two perpendicularly oriented additions (1905 and 1911) is organized into a U-shaped plan. This configuration encloses a small industrial courtyard sloping slightly toward the open boundary to the southeast along Rice Street where four large mature oak trees stand near the property line. The lot area north of the complex is largely flat and entirely open space, much of which has been paved as a parking lot.

In 2016, the Leonard, Shaw & Dean factory was the subject of a certified rehabilitation into 25 units of affordable housing. Original form, massing, stone foundations, and brick chimney/smokestack remain. All sections of the factory are so similar in utilitarian design and detail as to give the impression of simultaneous construction. Devoid of stylistic embellishment, decoration on the original mill building and on the 1905 and 1911 additions is limited to a boxed, molded cornice, 6/6 double-hung sash, and back-banded window and door trim.

Original, expansive fenestration patterns, characteristic of turn-of-the-20th-century shoe factories to allow extensive natural light to the interior, provide a strong horizontal emphasis. Banded groupings of two, three, or four openings fill each bay between structural columns on all elevations of the 1905 and 1911 additions. Minimal modifications to fenestration accommodated the creation of office space in the original factory.

Original fenestration patterns, except for the modifications on the original building, were retained or restored. NPS-approved replacement windows were installed throughout the complex. Artificial cladding was removed and original, varied facing treatments-clapboards on the original mill building; a combination of shingles (north and west elevations) and clapboards (south elevation) on the 1905 addition; and singles (north and east elevations) and clapboards (south and west elevations) on the 1911 addition, were reapplied. The two dilapidated sheds were removed and a two-story, wood-frame new construction was added along the south elevations of the 1905 and 1911 additions on the footprint of the engine house and an abutting shed.

Original Building

The original section of the wood-frame factory is a three-story, slightly pitched-roofed, 80' x 38', 8 x 3-bay building erected in 1896 fronting on Peirce Street. The first floor of the west elevation (facade) is centered by a gable-roofed, enclosed entry (date unknown). It replaced an open freight platform with lateral stairs at either end which originally serviced a double-leafed entry surmounted by a simple hood.

Original fenestration on the first and second floors of the facade (west) was reconfigured from three to two windows per bay, likely by subsequent owner Winthrop-Atkins, to suit the lay out of office space added to the interior. Original tri-partite banded windows remain on the third floor of the facade of the original mill where open manufacturing space remained unaltered prior to the certified rehabilitation.

Fenestration patterns on the north and south elevations of the original mill first consisted of banded groupings of four windows per bay. On the north elevation, an enclosed entry, loading dock and elevator shaft (between 1925 and 1949) reconfigured as the main entry of the rehabilitated mill, occupy the eastern part of the first floor. A shallow, hip-roofed porch, servicing entry to the interior stair in the northwest corner of the building, shelters the western end of the first floor. On the second floor, a single window west of the elevator shaft illuminates the stairway. The original formation of four banded windows per bay remains east of the shaft on the second floor and east and west of the shaft on the third floor.

On the south elevation, similar to the facade, realignment of fenestration on the first and second floors reflects accommodations to office space. The asymmetrical pattern of triple single and paired windows on the first floor and the balanced organization of two triple windows centered by a paired window opening on the second floor remains. Original quadruple-banded windows within each ten-foot bay continue across the third floor.

On the east elevation of the mill, the northernmost bay is occupied by the west end of the integrated 1905 addition. A 29'4" x 25', one-story brick rear ell housing an 11'-wide engine room and a 14'-wide boiler room remains, but has been somewhat modified and obscured over time. Extending northwest of the rear ell to adjoin the corner created by the perpendicularly oriented 1905 addition is a one-story brick expansion (1907) of the engine room. A shed-roofed, wood-frame second story stands on the original boiler room location.

Southeast of the original one-story brick ell is a freestanding 60'-high, 5'6"-square brick chimney/smokestack. Two small, dilapidated one-story wood-frame utilitarian sheds (post-1949), one abutting part of the south elevation of the original boiler room, the other adjoining part of the east elevation of the engine room, were demolished in the rehabilitation.

A small section of the south elevation of the 1896 brick boiler room near the chimney survives exposed. The common-bond brick wall houses double-leafed wooden doors with four-light glass panels in a segmental-arched opening surmounted by a double-row lock arch. Also visible above the doorway is the original slightly pitched shed roofline beneath the added wood-frame second floor.

On the east elevation, south of the boiler room, first- and second-floor openings represent reconfigurations for interior office space. A symmetrical formation of a single window between paired windows exists on the first floor. Two paired windows with a single window and doorway in the southernmost bay occupy the second floor. As on the other elevations, the original tri-partite window openings remain on the third floor.

As manifest in the modified fenestration patterns described above, subsequent to its utilization as a shoe factory, modern, dry-walled interior partitions and finishes created office space on both the first and second floors. An enclosed three-story stairway added in the northwest corner of the building remains. The third floor remained open mill space with unfinished, exposed stud walls. All floors are now residential units.

1905 Addition

The first major expansion of the mill complex, built in 1905, is the three-story wood-frame, two-by-five-bay, 50'-by-32'-wide section perpendicularly oriented off the northeast corner of the original mill. Entirely utilitarian in design, it maintains the spare exterior detail of the original mill. On the north elevation, tri-partite banded window openings with back-band trim occupy each bay of each level and distinguish it on the exterior from the north elevation of the subsequent, abutting 1911 addition.

Two bays of the west elevation project beyond the original mill. On the first floor, the enclosed entry, elevator shaft, and loading dock (between 1925 and 1949) adjoin the west elevation of the addition. Paired windows continue to define the second and third floors of the west elevation. The south elevation, previously obscured on the first floor by the expanded engine room (1907) and a small, one-story shed (post 1949, not extant) and characterized on the second and third floors by tri-partite banded window openings is now abutted by two-story new construction allowed in the certified rehabilitation. The new structure stands on the footprint of the earlier engine room and shed. The east end of the addition was incorporated into the 1911 addition.

The interior of the 1905 addition was constructed as open mill space on all levels with a single east/west column line down the center of the floor. Residential units organized off a linear corridor along the original south elevation were constructed in the 2016 certified rehabilitation.

1911 Addition

The three-story, wood-frame, 110' x 32' (39' on the north elevation), third (principal) section of the facility, built in 1911 perpendicular to the 1905 addition, completes the U-shaped plan. Almost completely unaltered, it maintains the simple, unornamented, utilitarian design of the rest of the mill. Original symmetrical patterns of banded fenestration survive on all elevations. The five-bay-wide north elevation contains an extra bay where it joins the 1905 addition. Paired windows in each bay distinguish it from the tri-partite banded windows on the north elevation of the 1905 addition.

Although the eleven bays along the east elevation vary in width south to north (from the 10'1" first bay, 9'9" second to eighth bays, 10'5" ninth and tenth bays and the 10'10" northernmost bay), these size discrepancies are almost indiscernible. Tri-partite banded, 6/6 double-hung sash windows occupy each bay of each floor on the east elevation providing a strong, horizontal emphasis.

Four bays of double windows on each level define the south elevation. A slight slope to the southeast leaves the stone foundation more exposed to the street.

The eight-bay west elevation is characterized by tri-partite banded, 6/6 double-hung sash windows in each bay. As part of the recent rehabilitation, a platform at the south end of the west elevation was removed, as was an adjacent door opening with a modern overhead door, replaced by windows.

Abutting the 1911 addition in the north corner of the courtyard is a three-story, 10' x 25', one-by-two-bay wood-frame addition built to house bathroom areas on each level.

The interior of the 1911 addition was constructed as open mill space on all levels with a single north/south column line down the center of the floor. Open space with a few partitions remained on most of the first and third floors. Partitions and modern finishes were utilized to create office spaces in the southern three-quarters of the floor space on the second level. All levels of the 1911 addition have been renovated to residential units. Ancillary Sheds and Successor Utility Buildings.

When operated as a shoe factory, the courtyard was occupied only by a one-story building described as a "cement house" (not extant; first shown in the 1901 Sanborn map; enlarged and relocated between 1906 and 1912; removed between 1912 and 1925), a one-story shed (not extant; present between 1912 and 1949) with adjacent coal bin (not extant; present between 1912 and 1949) centered along the Rice Street lot line. Two small, dilapidated one-story frame utility rooms/sheds (post-1949) adjacent to the engine and boiler houses, constructed when the property was controlled by its subsequent owner, Winthrop-Atkins Company, a manufacturer of photo mounts and calendars (owner/occupant 1937-1944; owner 1937-1973) were removed in the rehabilitation.

North and west elevations Original Mill, north elevations 1905 and 1911 Additions (2011)

West (facade) and north elevations Original Mill (2011)

South elevations Original Mill and 1911 Addition and partial view west elevations Original Mill and 1911 Addition (2011)

South elevation Original Mill (2011)

Mill yard (2011)

South elevation boiler house and chimney/smokestack (2011)

Mill yard looking toward east elevation Original Mill and south elevation 1905 Addition (2011)

Mill yard looking toward east elevation Boiler House and Engine House of Original Mill and south elevation 1905 Addition (2011)

Mill yard looking toward cast elevations of Original Mill, Boiler House and Engine House of Original Mill and south elevation 1905 Addition (2011)

Mill yard looking toward west elevation of 1911 Addition (2011)

Northeast corner of Mill yard (2011)

Mill yard looking toward east elevations of Original Mill, Boiler House and Engine House of Original Mill and partial south elevation 1905 Addition (2011)

Mill yard looking toward east elevations Boiler House and Engine House of Original Mill, partial south elevation 1905 Addition and south elevation 1911 Addition (2011)

South and east elevations 1911 Addition (2011)

Interior first floor Original Mill looking through to 1905 Addition (2011)