The Boston Manufacturing Company was a business that operated one of the first factories in America. It was organized in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy Boston merchant, in partnership with a group of investors later known as The Boston Associates, for the manufacture of cotton textiles. It built the first integrated spinning and weaving factory in the world at Waltham, Massachusetts, using water power. They used plans for a power loom that he smuggled out of England as well as trade secrets from the earlier horse-powered Beverly Cotton Manufactory, of Beverly, Massachusetts, of 1788. This was the largest factory in the U.S., with a workforce of about 300. It was a very efficient, highly profitable mill that, with the aid of the Tariff of 1816, competed effectively with British textiles at a time when many smaller operations were being forced out of business. While the Rhode Island System that followed was famously employed by Samuel Slater, the Boston Associates improved upon it with the "Waltham System". The idea was successfully copied at Lowell, Massachusetts, and elsewhere in New England. Many rural towns now had their own textile mills.
The First Parish Church is a historic church at 50 Church Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, whose Unitarian Universalist congregation has a history dating to c. 1696. The current meeting house was built in 1933 after a fire destroyed the previous building on the same site. It is a Classical Revival structure designed by the nationally known Boston firm of Allen & Collens. The church building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church Complex is a historic multi-building church complex at 133 School Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Established as a parish in 1835, it is the city's oldest Roman Catholic establishment. Its 1858 Romanesque Revival church and 1872 Second Empire rectory are particularly fine architectural examples of their styles. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The American Waltham Watch Company Historic District encompasses the former factory of the Waltham Watch Company, the leading American watch manufacturer of the 19th century and the city's largest employer. Located on Crescent Street and the banks of the Charles River, the surviving elements of its manufacturing facility date from the 1870s to the 1910s, and include particularly fine industrial Romanesque architecture. The buildings have been converted to a variety of commercial, industrial and residential uses since they ceased being used for watchmaking in the 1950s. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The American Watch Tool Company is a historic factory complex at 169 Elm Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1877 as a spin-off from the successful American Watch Company, and was used for the production of watchmaking tools until 1904. The four-building complex traces the evolutionary history of this business. The factory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Waltham Gas and Electric Company Generating Plant is a historic power company generator building at 96 Pine Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Built c. 1900–1909, this large concrete-and-stone building is an essentially unaltered early power generation plant, although all of its window openings have been filled with concrete. It originally housed a steam power generator, and was sold by Waltham Gas and Electric to Boston Edison, who converted it to an electrical substation in 1917, a role it continues to fulfill.
The Waltham Gas Light Company was a historic industrial facility located at 2 Cooper Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. It was one of the oldest industrial complexes on the South Side of the city, with brick buildings dating to 1854–55, not long after the founding of the company. The Waltham Gas Light Company was founded in 1853 to provide natural gas for "illumination, fuel, and power" to the area. In 1886 the company added an electrical generation plant to the property, which lay in an area roughly bounded by the Charles River, the Boston & Maine railroad right-of-way, and Cooper Street, which now serves an access to the municipal parking garage just west of the company property. The company shut down in 1909, transferring its electrical business to Boston Edison, which still operates an electrical substation in a nearby former company building. The other company buildings were converted to other manufacturing uses, and were demolished in 2007.
The United States Watch Company is a historic factory complex at 260 Charles Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Built in 1886 and enlarged in 1901, it represents one of the most successful spinoffs of the American Waltham Watch Company, Waltham's dominant watchmaker of the late 19th century. When the complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, it was the last watch factory left in the city.
The Stark Building is a historic commercial building in Waltham, Massachusetts. The three-story brick building was built in 1891 by John Stark Jr., the owner of a successful manufacturer of watchmaking tools. It is one of Waltham's few surviving and well-preserved Queen Anne commercial buildings, having only received significant alteration to its storefronts. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Boston Manufacturing Company Housing are historic residential housing blocks at 380–410 and 153–165 River Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. The housing was for the Boston Manufacturing Company (BMC), the earliest modern manufacturing facility in the United States. The housing was built in the nineteenth century and the two blocks of buildings were separately added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The building at 202–204 Charles Street in Waltham, Massachusetts is a well-preserved example of multi-unit residential housing built in the city in the early decades of the 20th century. It was built in 1913, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Charles Baker House is a historic house in Waltham, Massachusetts. Built about 1880, it is one of the city's best examples of Stick style architecture, and a good example of worker housing built for employees of the Waltham Watch Company. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Waltham Public Library is the public library of the city of Waltham, Massachusetts. Its main location is in the Francis Buttrick Library, an architecturally significant Georgian Revival building built in 1915, funded by a bequest from Francis Buttrick, a major landowner in the city. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Piety Corner Historic District encompasses one of the oldest settled areas of Waltham, Massachusetts. It is centered on a major road intersection, the junction of Totten Pond Road with Lexington and Bacon Streets, and includes the city's largest single concentration of well-preserved 19th and early 20th-century houses. It extends south from Totten Pond Road along Bacon Street as far as Greenwood Lane, and along Lexington Street to Beaver Street. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The O'Hara Waltham Dial factory was a historic building at 74 Rumford Avenue in Waltham, Massachusetts. The three-story brick structure was built in 1897 by Daniel O'Hara, and housed his company, a spinoff from the Waltham Watch Company which specialized in the manufacture of a variety of clock faces. The building had distinctive corner towers with paneled brick surfaces, although these were a later addition. O'Hara's company operated until the late 1950s; the facility was then used in the manufacture of traffic signals and luggage.
The Lawton Place Historic District is a historic district on Lawton Place between Amory Road and Jackson Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. The district preserves some of the nation's oldest textile mill worker housing. The duplex houses located on the south side of Lawton Place were built c. 1815-17 by the Boston Manufacturing Company (BMC), the first mill to process textiles entirely under one roof. They were originally located at what is now the Waltham Common, and were moved to Lawton Place in 1889. On the north side stands a rowhouse that was built in 1889; it is the last instance of a type of row housing that was once commonly built for mill workers. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Harrington Block is a historic commercial and retail building at 376–390 Moody Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. The three-story brick building was built 1884-85 by Charles Harrington, a local real estate speculator who was also employed by the Boston Manufacturing Company. It is one of the city's few Queen Anne commercial building, and is the oldest commercial building on Moody Street to escape major alteration. The ground floor originally housed retail establishments, while the upper floors were residential.
The Gale–Banks House is a historic house at 935 Main Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. This farmhouse was built c. 1798, and is one of the finest Federal style houses in the city. It is also significant for its association with Waltham native son, Governor of Massachusetts, and general of the American Civil War, Nathaniel Prentice Banks, who purchased it in 1855 and made it is home until his death in 1894. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Fuller–Bemis House is a historic house at 41–43 Cherry Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built c. 1776, and is one of Waltham's few 18th century houses. It was built when the south side, where it is located, was still part of Newton. It was converted into a two-family structure in the 19th century. Its relatively plain Georgian styling sets it apart from the later 19th century housing that surrounds it.
The Lenoir Dow House is a historic house at 215 Adams Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in 1888, during the building boom of the 1880s on Waltham's south side. Built to house workers at the Waltham Watch Company, the house is a well-preserved Queen Anne Victorian, with an asymmetrical facade, hip roof topped by iron cresting, and a porch with ornate woodwork. Lenoir Dow, the first owner, was a machinist.
