BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
ENS SEP 2 7 1985 FORM NO. FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 80 BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02116 PHOTO: (3x3" or 3x5", black & white) staple to left side of form Photo number SKETCH MAP Show property's location in relation to nearest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate all buildings between inventoried property and nearest iatersection. Indicate north. . . AREA Cámbridre- Amendment to the Cambridge Multiple Resource Area (NR: 1933) Iowa Cambridge Address 70-12 AMow SureeStreet Historic Name Reversible Collar Company Building Use: Present Commercial, Offices Original Factory DESCRIPTION: Date 1860,1868,1870, 1875, 1889, 1907 ource Deed and Tax Recorc 11l Building Vernacular Style Second Empire ArchitectS.S.
Woodcock, Charles Gannett Exterios wall fabric brick, wood Outbuildings None Majos alterations (With dates) 1965, 1970 renovated for offices - Map; see attached map. Numbered arrows refér to direction of photographs above. For map, see attached. Numbers on map refer to Recorded by direction, of nunbered photos above Organization Kruger Associates, Inc. Date January 1985 Moved NO Date N/A Approx. acreage Less than one acre Setting_Mixed detached wood frame res- idential, with two-six story commercial and institutional build- ings. UTM References: 19/325820/4692900 (Staple additional sheets here) Valui Valmage shpo 8|1|85 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commnity: Cambridge Form No: Reversible Collar Property Name: Company Building Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE The Reversible Collar Building is a well-preserved example of middle and late nineteenth-century industrial architecture. Built between the early 1860s and 1907, it is typical of the mill building vernacular that evolved during this period. The building was a self-sufficient industrial complex complete with enclosed coal yard, power plant, and production floor. Its dignified facades illustrate the changing taste in formal architectural design. aneomudide theasablous mdiffadtandng ded tomnec thconserns tatrnave occupied it. Frame and masonry sections wrap around each other and structural systems abut and overlap. The masonry shell and post and beam structure of all sections, however, remain substantially intact. Building sections are described below in the order of their construction.
Together they form a unified complex illustrating the evolving forms of industrial architecture. Section A: This frame portion, now almost entirely embedded in later construction, appears to be an enlarged version of the original printing factory built on the site in 1862. It is a 4-story wooden post and beam structure. section B: Bullt in 1870, this portion is a four-story, brick bearing-wall structure with wooden posts, beams, and floors. There is a dentilated brick cornice above the third floor with shingled mansard or "French Roof "at the fourth floor. The stylistic feature gives the Mount Auburn Street facade a feeling of dignified urbanity popular in the 1860s and 1870s and marks the transition from gable-roofed to flat-roofed mill construction. An 8-foot by 32-foot, one-story high structure projects out on the west side.
It is of solid masonry construction with a brick barrel vaulted ceiling and 25-foot high chimney at the rear. It served as a fire proof engine house. Section C: This gable-front brick house is one story high with an attic and a full basement. It was built in 1870, probably as the factory office. The rear and side have double-hung wood windows with wood lintels and granite The front facade was rebuilt in 1889 to match the addition built along Section D:. Once freestanding, this engine house, built in 1877, has been almost entirely embedded in later construction. It is one story high. The exposed facade facing Mount Auburn Street has a dentilated brick cornice, segmentally-arched lintels and granite sills. A brick chimney towers 87 feet above the ground. The southern portion of this section is of fire resistant construction with an arched masonry ceiling supported on iron beams.
Shafting once entered the main complex from this building, transmitting rotary power to other parts of the factory. Continued Valuie lalmage shpo 811|85 Staple to Inventory form at bottom 1 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commnity : Cambridge Form No: Property Name: Reversible Collar Company Building Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Section E: This addition was built in 1889 and stretches 129 feet along Arrow Street. It was designed by S. S. Woodcock and is the first section to be designed by an architect. Woodcock desianed a large number of churches. schools and other public buildings in the Boston area between 1855 and 1901. A landscape architect as well as an architect, he was the designer of the Boston Public Garden.
The first floor is of brick construction with two frame floors above. The sills and the foundation are of ledge stone. Windows with projecting segmentally-arched brick lintels are evenly spaced along the first floor beneath a dentilated brick cornice. At the western end a large opening leads down by ramp to what was once an enclosed coal yard. Although it is an industrial building, it presents a dignified face to narrow, brick-paved Arrow Street, retaining the nineteenth-century atmosphere of the neighborhood. Section F: Built in 1907, this is the last significant addition to the building complex. It is four stories tall and of brick bearing-wall construction. It has broad, flush, segmentally-arched brick lintels with a air of double-hung windows in each opening. Sills and foundation are of feach openent. concrete.
The interior has cast-iron columns and steel beams on the first two floors and wood framing above. It replaced an older building on the site that had been demolished. This is a transitional building. It has simpler detailing and broader openings than most nineteenth-century industrial buildings, but still has traditional brick bearing walls rather than the concrete frame that was soon to become standard in industrial construction. Unlike earlier additions, the 1907 section had plans submitted to the Cambridge Building Department. This reflects the increasing public control over private building projects ocurring at the time. Charles Gannett is Tisted as the architect, Mitchell Sutherland as the "mechanic." The parts of the Reversible Collar Building embody the distinctive characteristics of the types, methods and periods of construction in which they were built.
They illustrate the transition from wood to metal framing, from pitched to flat roof construction, from open masonry framework, from stone sills and foundation to concrete, and from elaborate nineteenth-century facades to the simple functional construction of the twentieth century. The forms and details are similar to those in other Cambridge industrial buildings of the time. Riverside Press built a mansard-roofed addition to their plant in 1867 that may have been the model for the 1870 addition to Reversible Collar. The Lamb & Ritchie Sheet Metal Factory's 1909 addition uses the same broad segmentally-arched openings with paired double-hung windows used on the Reversible Collar Buildings' 1907 addition. Both the Riverside Press and Lamb & Ritchie buildings, like so many other historic industrial buildings in Cambridge, have been demolished.
Valui Talmage shpo 8/1 |85 2 Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commumity: Form No: Cambridge Property Name : Rempasy buicoingr Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE The Reversible Collar Building retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, feeling, and association. The people, products, and events associated with the site have made significant contributions to the broad patterns of our history. The building's construction and expansion program arecloselytied to parallel developmentsin Cambridge and American society, illustrating the historic associatlon between architectural, cultural, and economic growth. The building meets criteria A and C for listing on the National Register, with significance at the local level.
The site of the Reversible Collar Building was originally an open homestead and stable on the periphery of old Cambridge. It was first developed for industrial production during the early 1860s. Located between the developing industrial area of Cambridgeport to the east and Harvard College to the west, it was an appropriate site for a printing business. Unlike other industries, printing required large floor areas, rather than convenient transportation. Printers were able to locate away from Cambridgeport and East Cambridge where. industrial development clustered around the newly-built railroad tracks and canals. Allen and Farnham, Printers purchased the property in 1860, and by 1862 they had built an engine house and workshop on the site. In 1865 they sold the property to John Wilson, Eliab Metcalf and Frederick Dakin, the owners of University Press.
University Press is the oldest press in the United States, and along with the Riverside and Athaneum Presses, was responsible for Cambridge's return to prominence as a printing center. It is not known whether any of the existing buildings were built for the University Press or for Allen and Farnham,although Section Aappears to date from this period. In 1867, the property was sold to the Reversible Collar Company. The Reversible Collar Company began a 30-year building program that paralleled Cambridge's development as a major industrial power. The Reversible Collar Company was founded by George Snow for the manufacture of paper collars. The production of paper collars was an important industry in the early 1860s, but declined in the late 1860s with the growing popularity of cloth collars.
George Snow responded to the new demand by inventing and patenting a machine for uniting cloth and paper in continuous rolls. invention allowed for the economical production of quality goods and eliminated the painstaking hand work previously required. The Reversible Collar Company prospered throughout the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. It expanded its line of products to include colored, glazed, enameled paper and cloth-lined paper for maps and wall charts. This was a Continued Vauuie Talmage shpo 8|1 |8 Staple to Inventory form at bottom 3 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Commmity : Cambridge Form No: MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Property Name: Reversible Collar Company Building Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
period of rapid economic growth in Cambridge and the Reversible Collar Company took advantage of the same rail and port facilities and burgeoning immigrant population that brought prosperity to so many other industrial concerns. By 1893, the Reversible Collar Company had. outgrown its site, relocated to a new building several blocks away, and sold its building to the Boston Bookbinding Company. With the exception of the 1907 addition, Boston Bookbinding made only minor changes in the building, continuing to occupying it until 1951. Mathieson Higgins Inc., die cutters, bought the building that year. Along with several other manufacturing and printing concerns, they occupied it until 1967.
In the late 1960s the shortage of the office space in the Harvard Square area and the development of industrial areas in the suburbs of Boston combined to make the conversion of the Reversible Collar Building into office space economically attractive. When Mathieson Higgins moved their operations to Woburn, it brought to an end 100 years of manufacturing on the site. conversion of the Reversible Collar Building to office space was one of the conversions that have followed. The Reversible Collar Building is both typical and unique in its relation to other industrial sites in Cambridge. Its growth, gradual decline and conversion mirror the overall growth and gradual decline of Cambridge as an . industrial center. Yet it is one of the few industrial buildings in the predominantly commercial and industrial complexes that grew up along the railroad tracks and canals.
The Reversible Collar Building is a reminder of the complex origins of the Cambridge community and interdependence of all aspects of cultural life. 4 Vauui. Taemage shpo 8| 1|85 Staple to Inventory form at bottom - NPS Form 10 (7-81) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Item number For NPS use only received date entered Page / 1 411 Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Cambridge Multiple Resource Area MA Nomination/Type of Review 161. Mead, Alpheus, House Bolelentive Reviay Keeper Date/Signature Silliam H. Bracham 4.138; Attest 162. Snow, Daniel, House DOE/OWNER OBJECTION v Keeper SuöetentIve FevsAo Attest Welliam H.Brakam 4.13.82 determined elizebie 163. Wyeth, John, House V Keeper WelliamH.Bracham413-82 halle Five Karts Attest 164.
HomER-hovell HousE Keeper Ia Daü 12/22/83 Attest Subwbaative Revien 165. Reversible Collar Company Building Keeper buedan Ohapul 9-27-85 Attest Keeper IS. ys166. Ash Street Ilistoric District (Boundary Increase) Subsbeative Reviem 167. Berkeley Street Historic District (Boundary Increase) Entered 1n Nationel Rogister 6Keeper Xenn Gzas 5-14-87 168. Bertram Hall at Radcliffe College Entored National Register 169. Bennink-Douglas Cottages Eater eE Attest fakéeper AelmuByu 5-16 Attest fKeeper SlrueByen545-16 ROg16TS 170. Brabrook, E.
H., House Entered in : tise National Regiates Attest fukeeper Attest AeloraBye514-56 WASO Form - 177 ('R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Rer-# 85002663 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Substantive Review Reversible Collar Company Building(Cambridge MRA) Middlesex County MASSACHUSETTS Working No. AUG 1985 Fed. Reg. Date:224484 Date Due: _ 42LXS- Action: LACCEPT 4/28 9-22-8 resubmission -RETURN nomination by person or local government _REJECT_ owner objection Federal Agency: _ appeal Substantive Review: -sample request -appeal [I NR decision Reviewer's comments: cunstnuted 1860-190nitisa rpesentation Cambridgr Recom./Criterja_ Aceept, Atc.
Reviewer - industriad coupley and Prupe Discipline_ 9/27/85 significant fu ita associattim see continuation sheet _technical corrections cited below witk the Revezibla Gollar Compony Building. _substantive reasons discussed below Nomination returned for: - 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? 7. Description Condition excellent good fair deteriorated J ruins unexposed yes Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use no Check one - unaltered altered Check one -original site - moved date - 8.
Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) summary paragraph J completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national state local State Historic Preservation Officer signature title date 13.
Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to - Signed Date - Phone: _ Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet Reversible Collar Co. Building 25 it. Auburn St entuileg MRt Cambridge, MA Reversible Collar Co. Building 25 Mt. Auburn Cambridge, Manidse Men QUINCY SQ 5C.9R. B OW 202 Bow SDE WOLFE & CHU PESI 217 HARVARD 390.302.305.X9.302 OLO CAMBRIOGE CHURGSrOM LONGFELLONOTS COURT REMINGTON MASSACHUSETTS ARROW AF.A N D ATHENS : F THRU BU B OFF MT. AUBURN 208 INO OFF BLOO Reversible Collar Co. Bldg. 25 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA SOURCE: Sanborn Map Co., Inc. Cambridge, Mass. (1982) SCALE: 1" = 100'O" He TROWBRIDGE 212 ESULLIVAN 12 mr 30 212 DOWSE, INC. 166 NEW BOSTON ST. WOBURN, MASS.
01801 TEL: 935-6400 January 15, 1985 Carol Shull, Chief National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Department of the Interior 18th and C Streets, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20240 Dear Ms. Shull: Dowse, Inc. recognizes that the following property will be considered for Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places by the Massachusetts State Review Board at its February, 1985 meeting. Reversable Collar Building 10-12-14 Arrow St.., 25-27 Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge, MA 02138 Dowse, Inc. is aware of both the incentives and disincentives of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and other consequences of National Register listing and hereby waives by right the 30 day commenting period. Thank you. Very truly yours, Dowse, Inc. Ercuta t Gouseh. Granton H. Dowse, Jr. President cc: Sarah J.
Zimmerman Massachusetts Historical Commission CITY OF CAMBRIDGE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139 Tel. 498-9011 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT ROBERT W. HEALY City Manager March 12, 1985 Carol Shull, Chief National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Department of the Interior 18th and C Streets, NW Washington, DC 20240 Dear Ms. Shull: I recognize that the following property will be considered for Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places by the Massachusetts State Review Board at its meeting in March, 1985. Reversible Collar Building 10-14 Arrow Street and 25-27 Mount Auburn Street Cambridge, MA 02138 I am aware of both the incentives and disincentives of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and other consequences of National Register listing and hereby waive by right the 30-day commenting period. Thank you. City Manager RWH/mbf CC: Sarah J.
Zimmerman, Preservation Planning Director Massachusetts Historical Commission cert. mail #/ P682245805 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of Stat lichael Joseph Connolly, Secretar Massachusetts Historical Commission Valerie A. Talmage Executive Director State Historic Preservation Officer July 31, 1985 Carol Shull, Keeper National Register of Historic Places Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service P.O. Box 37127 Washington, D.C. 20013-7127 Dear Ms. Shull: I hereby request that the Multiple Resource Area nomination to the National Register for Cambridge, Massachusetts be amended to include the following properties: Reversible Collar Company Building; 25-27 Mount Auburn Street, T0-12 Arrow Street; Cambridge, Massachusetts.
As the designated State historic Preservation Office for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service. The evaluated significance of this property has been voted eligible by the State Review Board. Owners were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30-75 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment. Comments received to date Sincerely, Valeie Talmage Valerie A. Talmage Executive Director State Historic Preservation Officer Massachusetts Historical Commission VT/sac enclosure AUG 14 l 80 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116 (617) 727-8470