BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
MAY 2 3 1989 692 FORM B - BUILDING AREA A FORM NO. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 80 BOYISION STREET BOSTON, MA 02116 118 Iown Wakefield Address 134 Water Street Historic Name Wakefield Rattan Co. Photo (3"x3" or 3"x5", black and white) Indicate address of property on back of photo. Staple to left side of form. Sketch Map: Draw map showing property's location in relation to nearest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate all buildings between inventoried property and nearest intersection(s). Indicate north Use: Present Multi-use manufacturing Original Rattan Factory DESCRIPTION Date 1889 source 1890 Map Style Late 19th early 20th vernacular industrial. Architect NA Exterior Wall Fabric Brick outbuildings Late 20th concrete L addition (1 story) connecting bldgs 10 & 11: late 20th c.concrete block warehouse. Late 20th c.
wood comm'1 Major Alterations (with dates) bldg--al1 noncontributing. Some openings filled, some new openings, #10 lowered. Condition Moved Good NA Date NA Acreage 5½ acres setting Near railroad tracks and cente depot, in large open space between tia old roads UIM REFERENCE 19/330220/4707480 USGS QUADRANGLE Reading,MA SCALE 1:25,000 Recorded by Architectural Preservation Associates Organization Wakefield Historical Commission Date March 1985 NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA STATEMENI (if applicable) This complex of 4 buildings is all that remains of what was once the largest producer of reed and rattan products in the world. Aside from its contributions to the local economy, the wakefield Rattan Co. also influenced residential, commercial and industrial development in the town.
The company's made so many contributions to what was then South Reading that the town was renamed in his honor in 1868. The buildings retain integrity baned ah nts nonor in founder, Cyrus Wakefield, of iocation, design, setting, materials, workmanshiP, oneeling and association, and the complex meets CriterionA ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE TURAL SIGNPICANCCDescrYbe important archrtectural features and evaluate in termsFP. features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the conmunity. The yard of the Wakefield Rattan Company and the Heywood-Wakefield Co. developed between 1856 and the 1930s into a complex of many buildings. Of these only four significant structures remain; all are brick, flat roofed and late nineteenth-early twentieth coner 190, ttardan ted ayde uldiy paralel and pendnalccoar ructed but relate in no very orderly fashion to each other.
Building #10 appears to have been taller but has been altered to one story. About thirty bays long, it is articulated with pilasters, each framing a window withiarched head. Granite foundations, sill and heavy watertable, which is used as a window sill, distinguish the building. Building #11 is set off from the others. Three stories high, it has spaced windows with undecorated building relates to the development of the community. The Wakefield Rattan Co., and after its merger in 1897 the Heywood-Wakefield Co., were of great importance to the town of Wakefield as a primary employer, generator of residential development, and impetus for increased industrialization. Its owner, Cyrus Wakefield (1811-1873), for whom South Reading was named in 1868, made a gift of a new Town Hall to the town.
The commercial buildings he erected in central Wakefield were also significant in shaping the business and industrial districts. Before its merger with the Heywood Brothers Co. in 1097, the factory, which covered eleven acres, was the largest producer of reed and rattan products in the worid. Its production made the word Wakefield famous for its elaborate and popular wicker furniture. It was also the largest manufacturer in town, employing 200 hands in 1863, and expanding to 1000 in 1873. The value of goods it produced in 1880 was nearly four times that of the next leading industry. Cyrus Wakefield came to South Reading in 1851, and purchased the property which had been the site of the town's first grist and saw mill (1650). The property, which included two mill ponds used in producing power, grew on either side of Water Street.
Before 1874 the course of that street was shifted south to skirt the yard. Fires in er epet va shated s0 the 1881s and 1899s forced the erection of new buildings. A major BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Maps, 1857, 1874, 1889, 1906. Greenwood, Richard. The Five Heywood Brothers, N.Y., 1951. Greenfield, Levi. A Completed Century, 1826-1926. Boston 1926. Wakefield Item, July 24, 1930. 134 Water Street Continuation: Architectural Significance hammered granite sills, and a corbeled cornice. Building#12, the largest and most elaborated, is four stories tall on high granite foundations. It is articulated with pilasters, and has corner pilasters whose heads are formed by a corbeled cornice. Shallow arched windows have granite sills, those of the first floor are long. A gable pediment is set in the middle of the south facade.
Building #13, the smallest, is two stories high, with low arched undecorated windows, and grainte sills. It has been altered for entry on the second floor. Continuation: Historical Significance fire c. 1972 nearly razed the yard, leaving these buildings. In 1906, among the 20 structures on the site, Building 10 was attached to the dye house, now demolished; Building 12 may have been a store house and Building 13 was the paint and varnish shop. The founder of the rattan and reed business in America, Wakefield's success in business was due to his inventing, with plant foreman William Houston, machinery capable of fully exploiting what had formerly been waste material used in ship dunnage, and the early capture of the markets for furniture and transportation upholstery. Large shavings were spun into mats, floor coverings and baling cloth.
In 1870 a loom was introduced to weave cane for chair bottoms, which become standard covering for the fast growing street car industry. The company also made elaborate, fanciful wicker furniture and baby carriages. Ornate, light, cheap and individualistic, the product sold nation wide, with retail stores, offices, factories and warehouses in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Kankakee. Wakefield was an originator and director of the Wakefield Savings Bank, the Wakefield Real Estate and Building Association, the Quannapowitt Water Co., the National Bank of South Reading, the Citizens' Light and Power Co., the South Reading Ice co., Boston and Maine Foundry Co. locally, as well as the Boston and Maine, Fitchburg, Nashua and Acton and Boston Railroads. He was active in developing a portion of the North End in Boston before his death in 1873.
His large and ornate Mansard style house on Main Street, demolished for the High School building, was inherited by his nephew, Cyrus 2nd, who took over the bankrupt firm, and died in 1888. NPS Form 10-900- (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 Section number. Page. Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Wakefield MRA Middlesex County, MASSACHUSETTS Nomination/Type of Review Date/Signature y/BL. Wakefteld Park p) sukatsidee Jorton frKeeper. BHOK Sange 3/2/90 Attest , V 82. Wakefield Rattan Company substantive Fovi Steeper Batt Sauge 7//84 Attest 33: Hakerteld savigodn, døNER. OBJECTHER 84. Wakefield Trust Company Entered 1n tbe National Begiater freoper telmngen 1/6189 Attest.. 85.
Wakefield Upper Depot Sxeeper elareBge 2/649 Entered 1n, the National Begister Attest 86. Warren, H.M., School Entered in the National Begister Ckeoper AelauDeen 1/6/84 Attest 87. West Ward School Entered inthe National Register /Keeper NelauaDzen /6/89 Attest Sur 88. Winn Street Railroad Bridge Substantive Review Keeper 89. Winn, Suell, House Entered 1n the National Rerlstar 90. Winship, Charles, House Attest firtopor Steluuetozan 7/a/89 Attest Sakeepor Dotl Sae 7/6/69 Attest UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Wakefield Rattan Co.
NAME: MULTIPLE wakefield MRA NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Middlesex DATE RECEIVED: DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: 5/23/89 6/22/89 DATE OF PENDING LIST: 6/06/89 DATE OF 45TH DAY: 7/07/89 REFERENCE NUMBER: 89000692 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: N DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: OTHER: N PDIL: N PERIOD: N PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: N N COMMENT WAIVER: N LACCEPT RETURN REJECT 7/6/84 DATE ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: rocally siguifidant remains of once larger complex.
At its peak, the Wiakefield potentiGrovided it appeare emlihel integrity to qualify as an NH Lufficienx REVIEWER( P Caqual Sistory DOCUMENTATION see attached comments y/N see attached SLR Y/N CLASSIFICATION _count _resource type STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION FUNCTION historic current DESCRIPTION architectural classification materials descriptive text SIGNIFICANCE Period Areas of Significance--Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect statement of Significance (in one paragraph) summary paragraph _completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other BIBLIOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHICAL DATA acreage UTMS _orbairy undary dascription ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION/PRESENTATION sketch maps USGS maps photographs OTHER COMMENTS Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Phone Signed Date _presentation ES KICHEN BUILDERS KITCHEN CABINET COMPANY A 118 134 Wate St.
wakoidolatan co haterels nn Iuru. 21050 5005510 20550 -4 79 5236 S'osl 255.5 82 101.65 14765 80 80A 7187 GE. 8046 12L.00 65.3 150 STREET TA5. 100 7314'00 120 116 i *g125D å 9930 10700 8100 100 fo508s 12i 118 16,350 8125 7460 102. 1/11342 M62020 =p125C 125B./ 7729 RA 1121 7800 ° 122g LI2IA 3335 30%6 7800 R1238124% 100 ROCKLAIYD -28 125A 6020 1288- 5076% 26 6793 9 129 300808 4200 s 132 STREET 133 fon "as" 71.20 $180". 189 40.39 190A '3490°5709 43 5 s8. */854850g 859 187A -185A07 000« B7B 186 7375 320 T52.97 VERIYON RAILROND 55400 82022 19133 192C 13726 1,92/02A 113.87 1062 134 WATER ST A 118 N SCALE: I"=80' (33V/ CI 7450 .06 51.30 10600 197 1.35 AGRES 580.
MELVIIX 365.65 192B 1 2.0 ACres 222.00 198 2.94 ACRES E+2.08 192 387 nch equals 80 feet 192D 3.2 Acres GOSEMENT 441.98 5.64 A21es STREET STREET 77725 69.05 n200E { 4125 72.13- 200B 4504 229) 4.69 200A PLAYGROUND 200 16695 120.0 A.W.Carleton Ciril Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000300