Wachusett Shirt Company

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Wachusett Shirt Company
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Location Leominster, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°31′39″N71°45′23″W / 42.52750°N 71.75639°W / 42.52750; -71.75639 Coordinates: 42°31′39″N71°45′23″W / 42.52750°N 71.75639°W / 42.52750; -71.75639
Area 3 acres (1.2 ha)
Built 1887 (1887)
Architect Paul Weber, F.A. Whitney
NRHP reference # 82004476 [1]
Added to NRHP July 8, 1982

The Wachusett Shirt Company is an historic industrial complex at 97-106 Water Street in Leominster, Massachusetts, United States. The five-building complex was developed between 1887 and 1910, and was home to one of the city's leading employers until the 1930s. Most of the complex converted into a residential complex known as Riverway Apartments in 1981. [2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. [1]

Leominster, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts, United States

Leominster is a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the second-largest city in Worcester County, with a population of 40,759 at the 2010 census. Leominster is located north of Worcester and west of Boston. Both Route 2 and Route 12 pass through Leominster. Interstate 190, Route 13, and Route 117 all have starting/ending points in Leominster. Leominster is bounded by Fitchburg and Lunenburg to the north, Lancaster to the east, Sterling and Princeton to the south, and Westminster to the west.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

Description and history

The former Wachusett Shirt Company complex is located northeast of downtown Leominster's Monument Square, flanking Water Street just southwest of Monoosnuc Brook, which was historically the source of the mill's power. The complex consists of five buildings: four buildings on the west side of Water Street, three of which are adjacent, and one building on the east side. Four are of brick construction, and range in height from two to four stories. A wood-frame bridge passes over Water Street, connecting two of the buildings. The original main mill is the east side building: it is a T-shaped four-story structure, with an elaborately decorated Renaissance Revival projecting stem. The three-building structure across the street includes a wood-frame structure, and is more simply decorated. Adjacent to it stands the two-story office building, whose most prominent feature is its main entrance, which is recessed in a large round-headed arch. [3]

The shirt industry was a major employer in Leominster between about 1880 and 1930. Its genesis was with a company founded in 1880 by G.F. Morse, one of whose employees, George Gane, founded the Wachusett Shirt Company in 1882. He eventually took on as a partner F.A. Whitney, who had an established mill complex (northeast of this one) where carriages and chairs were made. The company worked in those premises until 1887, when the first of this complex's buildings was built. The success of the company and the concentration of experienced shirtmakers brought Cluett Peabody & Company, maker of the Arrow brand of shirts, to Leominster. The shirtmaking industry peaked in the city in 1902, with 3,000 workers, and had declined to 1,500 by 1915. Wachusett Shirt went out of business in the 1930s. [3]

Cluett Peabody & Company

Cluett Peabody & Company, Inc. once headquartered in Troy, New York, was a longtime manufacturer of shirts, detachable shirt cuffs and collars, and related apparel. It is best known for its Arrow brand collars and shirts and the related Arrow Collar Man advertisements (1905–1931). It dates, with a different name, from the mid-nineteenth century and was absorbed by Westpoint Pepperell in the 1980s. The Arrow name is still licensed to brand men's shirts and ties.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts Wikimedia list article

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) designated in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts. It includes listings from all Worcester County communities through which Massachusetts Route 2 passes, and those that lie to their north. This includes the communities of Ashburnham, Ashby, Athol, Fitchburg, Gardner, Harvard, Lancaster, Leominster, Lunenburg, Phillipston, Royalston, Templeton, Westminster, and Winchendon. National Register listings for other communities in the county are listed elsewhere.

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