Perkins, Henry Company Machine Shop
170 Broad St
1865
Architectural Style
Significance
Architecture, Industry
Use Type
Machine Shop
Neighborhood
Henry Perkins Co.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Report
Architectural Significance
This is a 2-1/2 brick structure with a broad gable roof and chimneys at either end of the roof's ridge. It is 10 bays long and 4 bays wide. Its walls are pierced by segmental headed windows. 6/6 wood sash appears at the attic level. This
building represents a relatively rare example of a Civil War era machine shop building.
Historical Significance
Built c. 1865, this rectangular building was constructed to house a machine shop and pattern shop for Henry Perkins Co. The 1885 Sanborn atlas indicates that this building's main block housed a machine shop and pattern shop—its side wing (still extant?) contained a blacksmith shop. To the immediate east of this building were two large cisterns and a trio of small frame sheds (no longer extant). By the early 1890's this building was linked via a brick addition to the larger L-shaped moulding room/brass foundry building to the south. By the 1890's the plant had machine shop facilities for the making of tack and wire nail machines.