Simonds Manufacturing Company, Building No. 1, 23-55 North Street, Fitchburg

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The building is significant as part of the plant of Simonds Manufacturing Company, a maker of saws and machine knives. From the late century to the present, the company has been one of Fitchburg's major manufacturers. This build- ing was used for hardening processes, in which the saw blades were treated with heat and chemi- cals, and also for blacksmithing, in which the saws were tempered by repeated hammering. Its single-story height, monitors, and steel inter- nal framing are characteristic of early century mill design for heat-process buildings. Description: The building is a single story in height and is made up of three gable-roofed bays of unequal sizes; each has a large ridge monitor. The overall plan measures x with Building Nos.

2 and 3 intersecting at an angle at the northwest corner, where there is a common elevator. Walls are of brick; the segmental- arched window openings have stone sills and are mostly boarded up. Windows include two types of double-hung wooden divided sash and metal pivot sash; the tall openings have pivoting transoms. The monitors are fitted with small pivoting metal windows and are detailed with widely spaced curved brackets along the eaves and embossed-tin siding applied to the ends. The building's main entrance is on North Street, adjoining Building Nos. 1 and 2, above which an elaborately corbelled parapet conceals the roof. The west bay has a loading door on its south elevation.

Attached to the east elevation is a frame shed, 10' x 26' in plan, that covers part of the rail- road spur that led into the interior of the complex. The shed also provides a covered pass- way to the similar Building No. 14 to the east. SIMONDS MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Building No. 1 (Simonds Saw and Steel Company) HABS No. HA-1265 -A (Page 2) Description: The interior is largely open, with clear spans (continued) within each of the three bays. Rows of plate- girder posts support angle-iron trusses for the roof and monitors. Frame partitions form a small room at the northwest corner and a some- what larger room, with a mezzanine for an upper level, at the southeast corner. A large riveted box beam in the west line of posts apparently marks the location of some heavy process or machine.

There is a trench of unknown purpose in the concrete floor in the east bay. Other than extensive steam lines and plumbing support- ed by the roof trusses, there are no other remains of original industrial processes. When built this building had its own smokestack, but by it was gone, suggesting that elec- tricity or gas had replaced coal as a source of heat. History: The west and center bays of this building were built as part of the reconstruction of the company's Fitchburg plant. The east bay was added about replacing an earlier two-story portion that had been used for stock storage and tooth punching.