LEWIS PICKLE FACTORY

LINCOLN HISTORICAL COMMISSION

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

MassachusettsPublisher@gmail.com 2012

LEWIS PICKLE FACTORY: INVENTORY FORM B

Lewis Street and Lewis Pickle Factory (1870) Location: Between Lewis Street and the railroad in Lincoln, Massachusetts Period of Construction Represented: 1870 Significance: Architecture; Industry Massachusetts Historical Commission: For guidance on the use of these files as well as access to additional files on historic properties in Lincoln and Massachusettsincluding more detailed individual inventory forms on each of the buildings located within the Lewis Street Areago to: http://mhc-macris.net/ It Began With a Pickle Video: For a related video of a 2011 presentation by Jack MacLean on the development of Lincolns commercial area, go to:
hhtp://lincolntv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=dd90a84d143a901ee635b4a1bb65cdc5

For a study of the buildings in the Lewis Street Area, see:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/109656885/Lewis-Street-Historic-Area-Lincoln-Massachusetts

FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Photograph
West and south faades from Lewis Street

Assessors Number

USGS Quad

Area(s)

Form Number

95 27 0

Maynard

276

Town: Lincoln Place: (neighborhood or village)

Lewis Street

Address: 20 Lewis Street Historic Name: Lewis Pickle Factory Uses: Present:
business and residential rental

Original: pickle factory and tenements Date of Construction: 1870 Source: Assessors Records of period Style/Form: Victorian Eclectic commercial Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: stone/cement

Topographic or Assessor's Map

Lincoln Rd

Wall/Trim: wood Roof: most slate; asphalt shingles on apartment end Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Also on the lot is a c. 1912 house at 26 Lewis Street, LIN.277

Major Alterations (with dates):

General shoring up and improvements in 1920

Condition:

poor

Moved: no |X | yes | | Acreage: 0.5 acres

Codman Rd

Date

Setting: The Lewis Pickle Factory borders the railroad

tracks that served as the impetus for its construction here. Situated on a side road off of the towns main road (Lincoln Road), it is the oldest building within a small village of commercial buildings, church, and apartments/ condos/ houses that now form the towns commercial center.

Recorded by: John C. MacLean Organization: Lincoln Historical Commission Date (month / year): June 2008

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

LINCOLN

20 LEWIS STREET
Area(s) Form No.

O
_X__ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.

276

Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community . While it once stood next to another elongated pickle factory off of the railroad tracks, the Lewis Pickle Factory is today architecturally unique in the context of the towns extant buildings. One of very few nineteenth-century industrial buildings in the town, and the only one that is still surviving, the vernacular Victorian Eclectic commercial building relates in terms of community development to the nearby 1870 Second Empire Wyman-Cook House (LIN.279) at the corner of Lincoln Road and Lewis Street and the adjoining gambrel-roofed 1884 Cook Brothers House (LIN.278), but it had also related to other nearby buildings constructed south of the railroad during 1869 and the 1870s (see 1875 map) which are no longer standing, including two other pickle factory buildings. Immediately to its east, the c. 1912 gambrel-roofed two-family Blodgett-Rooney House (LIN.277) is also located on the same lot as the Lewis Pickle Factory, sitting on the site of an earlier building associated with the Lewis Pickle Factory. Situated on a rise on the south side of the railroad tracks to Boston, the elongated pickle factory design runs perpendicular to the tracks, featuring a two-family tenement at the south (or southwest) end of the building, towards Lewis Street. The 2 -story tenement and attached elongated pickle factory to its north has a gabled roof running north to south along its entire length, broken on the west side by a protruding gabled extension above the tenement. It retains a slate roof over the pickle factory proper, but most of the roof above the tenement/apartment section is now asphalt shingled. The gabled south faade of the tenement, fronting on Lewis Street, is sided in wooden shingles, with partly asymmetrical fenestration of one-over-one windows on the first floor and two-over-two windows on the second floor. There is a set of three one-over-one windows in the attic, with the center window larger than the two side windows. The entrances for the tenement section and for the factory section are on the west faade. Here, the tenements protruding 2 story gabled side-hall section is clad in clapboards rather than shingles. The gabled section has a center window in the attic, three equally spaced windows on the second story, and spaced below them are two windows and a doorway, the doorway set to the left (north). The tenement fenestration follows that of the south faade, with one-over-one windows on the first story and twoover-two windows in the second story and attic. The doorway is fronted by a gabled porch with simple bracketed posts, as well as lattice work on the north side of the entry porch. To the north of the tenement, the west faade of the factory section is also clad in clapboards. Extending out from near the center of the factory section is a one-story hip-roofed enclosed entrance, with a pair of six-over-six windows (typical of ones used by R. D. Donaldson c. 1920) on its west elevation and a door on the north side of the entryway. A garage bay is located to the south of the protruding entryway, and two garage bays are to its north. While the current garage doors would be more recent, at least some of these three bays may date to the use of the building as a town barn beginning in the 1920s. North of these garage bays there is a twelve-over-twelve window, while an oversized three-pane window with a series of lights above is next to another entrance at the north end of the west faade. On the east side of the building, the roof extends the full length of the tenement and factory, broken by a chimney above the tenement section. The tenement is clad in clapboards, while this side of the factory is clad in flush boards. The asymmetrical windows of the tenement repeat the pattern of one-over-one windows on the first floor and two-over-two windows on the second floor, while an unadorned doorway is set at the north end of the tenement section. The factory section includes two additional doorways and a mixture of windows in its fenestration.

Continuation sheet 1

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

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Area(s) Form No.

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HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

276

Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. The transformative power of the coming of the railroad is part of the history and lore of America. In 1844 one of those rail lines, the Fitchburg Railroad, came to Lincolninitially linking the town with Charlestown, with separate transportation going from Charlestown across the Charles River to Boston. In 1848 the eastern terminus of the line was extend directly into Boston, while the railroad had extended west to Fitchburg by 1846, with lines continuing along northern Massachusetts and into New Hampshire and Vermont by 1850. For agricultural Lincoln, the railroad would bring a new means of transport for wood and some agricultural products to the Boston market; in time, it would bring some Boston businessmen to the town, and the development of country estates in the community. It also brought an end to the stagecoaches that had traveled through the town, and it changed the way mail and various goods came to the community. At the same time, the railroad station was placed away from the historic center of the town, in an area of open fields with no buildings around it. A new village ultimately would develop around the railroad depot, and that small village would become the towns commercial center. It is, however, perhaps surprising that it was not until 25 years after the railroad came to town that the first building was constructed around the Lincoln station. For Lincoln, the coming of the railroad did not result in a corresponding commercial development; when limited commercial development finally came, it related to the towns small-town agricultural character. The 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory was highly representative of the community through its role of supporting a local agricultural economyproviding a locally based market for agricultural products from Lincoln and surrounding towns. Aside from the station facilities north of the tracks, the first building to be constructed in the area of the railroad was the 1869 Underwood Pickle Factory, soon followed by the 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory facilities and the 1870 mansard-roofed Wyman-Cook House (LIN.278), as well as the Denham-Smith House that is no longer standing, all located on the south side of the tracks, along a private way that would become known as Lewis Street. The Wyman-Cook House across from the railroad station contained a store in the basement, and in 1872 a post office would also open there. Other residential buildings would follow, while later commercial activities focused on grain from the local farmers and coal shipped out from Boston. The pickle factories and the surrounding buildings that followed were located on a parcel acquired by Rufus Wyman in 1867, when he was in his early eighties. A widower, Rufus had moved to Lincoln in 1866, initially living in the brick Adams-Tarbell House (LIN.32). His 1867 purchase for $400 of 8 acres on the south side of the railroad tracks and east of Lincoln Road (including the pickle factory site) as well as a larger parcel on the north side of the tracks and east of Lincoln Road (Viles to Wyman,1867,Mid.Deeds1134:272thedeedgavethelargerlotas19acresLincolnAssessorslistedWymanscombined holdings here as 32 acres) would set in motion the development of what would soon become know as the South Lincoln village. A core part of Lincolns history, Wyman and his Smith heirs were the principal early developers of that village. Rufus had a granddaughter, Elizabeth Mary (Clement) Smith, whose mother had died when Elizabeth was a baby, with her father soon remarrying. It is likely that Rufus had long cared for his granddaughter, and since her marriage to George H. Smith in 1850, Rufus and the Smiths had been sharing a household. Indeed, while Rufus Wyman was assessed for the pickle factories until 1873, in 1874 they were under Elizabeth M. Smith, the administrix of his estate, and in a later deed she was referred to as his grand child and only next of kin (Mid. Deeds 1704:279). Given Rufuss age, it would seem likely that George H. Smith may have in fact been behind the construction of the pickle factories. Smith seems to have had an entrepreneurial bent; he was listed inSalemasbeinginvolvedinaclothingstoreinthe1850censuslivinginBostonasamarketerinthe1860censuswhilehe was listed in the 1870 census as being 41 years old and a farmer in Lincoln. However, he also appears in the 1870 Boston city directory as: Smith George H. & Co. glass, 41 Kilby, h[ouse]. at Lincoln, while in the 1872 Boston directory he appears as: Smith George H. & Co. bankers and brokers, 102 State, h. at Lincoln. Living in Lincoln but working in Boston, Smith was himself indicative of the changes made possible by the railroad coming to Lincoln a quarter-century earlier. With his business located on Kilby Street in Boston in 1870, Smiths place of work was but a little more than a block away from the two Boston firms that would rent the Lincoln pickle factories: Wm. Underwood & Co., located at 67 Broad Street; and W. K. Lewis & Brothers, located at 93 Broad Street. Both firms were leaders in the active pickle industry then based in Boston, which also included: Edward T. Cowdrey & Co.; the Globe Preserving Works, Caleb Poole Jr. & Co.; Skilton, Foote, & Co.; H. A. Snow & Co.; and the Union Pickle Works. Situated next to the railroad for transport yet close to their market-gardener suppliers, the Lincoln pickle factories gave Underwood and Lewis a strong local position with the farmers, and the presence of a buyer in their Continuation sheet 2

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Area(s) Form No.

276

neighborhood encouraged the local market gardeners to increase their cucumber production. As reported in a history of New England agriculture: Cucumbers and rhubarb were new Concord [Massachusetts] crops, grown under glass. One farm sold 25,000 cucumbers a year, together with two indoor crops of fresh rhubarb. Pickle factories, opened in Cranston, Rhode Island, Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Deerfield area, together with some in Vermont and New Hampshire, offered an outlet for what one grower called as profitable a crop as I ever raised. (Howard S. Russell. Long, Deep Furrow, p. 450). William Underwood, who founded Wm. Underwood & Co., started the canning industry in America. After an apprenticeship in the pickling and preserves industry, Underwood immigrated to New Orleans from England in 1817. He settled in Boston two years later, soon starting his trade there, shipping pickles, ketchup, sauces, mustard, jellies, and such around the world. Goods were hermetically sealed in bottles, but in 1839 Underwood pioneered in the use of tin cans, giving rise to the canning industry. The company also expanded into lobsters, fish, and other canned products, and while pickles were still their biggest product in the 1870s, in time the company would be remembered most for another of their products: Underwood Red Deviled Ham, which in 1870 became the first U.S. food patent. William K. Lewis (1808-1885) learned the canning industry while working for Underwood, becoming a partner in that firm in 1833. In 1837 Lewis joined with his immigrant father to establish their own competing business, Wm. and Wm. K. Lewis, which became W. K. Lewis & Brothers after the father died in 1859. The company would soon thrive under the armys demands for preserved food supplies during the Civil War, and they remained a profitable operation for many years. Listed in the 1870 Boston city directory as producers of pickles &c., like Underwood, the Lewis firm was engaged in bottling and canning a number of sauces, preserves, canned milk, and other products in addition to producing pickles. Each year, the firm made arrangements with local farmers early in the season. In a printed letter the firm sent out to local farmers, they wrote: We are now ready to contract for a supply of Pickles for the coming season. The price will be T HIRTEEN CENTS per hundred, delivered at our SALTING HOUSE, LINCOLN DEPOT, payable at the usual time./Please inform us immediately, by mail or otherwise, the quantity you desire to raise, and much oblige/Yours Respectfully/ W. K. LEWIS & BROTHERS./ 93 & 95 Broad St., cor. Franklin (John C. MacLean collection, quoted in MacLean, A Rich Harvest, p. 519). The pickle activities at Lincoln were described in an 1874 Boston newspaper article: The leading industry at the present time is in the line of pickles or cucumbers. Messrs. William Underwood & Co. and Messrs. W. K. Lewis & Brothers receive all the cucumbers for their extensive establishments here. The Messrs. Lewis have the largest assortment of canned fruits, vegetables, meats, etc., in New England. Their annual count of pickles taken in at Lincoln is between 5,000,000 and 10,000,000. Each afternoon the teams come in like an Eastern caravan, each with from two to ten barrels. The topic of business conversation does not commence here with the weather, but with pickles. It is for these that the rain descends and the sun shines and the gentle west winds blow. Even the stars in their nightly courses, temporarily removing their watch from human kind, look peacefully down on pickles. Price per 100, thirteen cents. (Not Far Away from Boston, Boston Daily Globe (August 27, 1874, p. 3.) In 1871 the Smiths built a substantial nearby residence at the intersection of Lincoln and Codman roads (in 1875 the Smiths residence was assessed at $5500, compared with the large Second-Empire Wyman-Cook House that was assessed at $3600). The same 1874 newspaper account stated: As you near the [Lincoln] station, the fine residence of Mr. George E. Smith rises upon an eminence, above every other object, and wherever you may go it will seldom be out of sight (Ibid.). With these two homes and the Codman House (LIN.11, National Register) nearby, the setting of the commercial Lewis Pickle Factory was an interesting mix of fine homes, some simpler residences, as well as commercial development. In 1885 much of the Smith property related to this residence (but not this Lewis facility, which the Smiths retained) was sold by the Smiths to Minnie Blodgett and her husband, railroad president W. K. Blodgett, and the Smiths left Lincoln (the residence was not depicted on the 1885 survey that accompanied the sale, but see and compare 1875 and 1889 maps and 1927 survey; the prominent SmithBlodgett House, once associated with the pickle factories, is no longer standing). As prime movers of the development that had taken place around the railroad station, the Wyman-Smith family left behind developments that permanently changed the face of the town. Another 1874 newspaper article had stated: A Thriving Village.Among the few New England villages which have experienced a rapid growth of late years is South Lincoln, on the line of the Fitchburg Railroad. The natural beauties of the place, and the superior railroad facilities, have attracted the attention of enterprising and wealthy men, and through their instrumentality fine residences and business blocks have arisen in this heretofore obscure town.Here are to be found the large pickle establishments of Messrs. Continuation sheet 3

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

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Area(s) Form No.

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Underwood & Co., and W. K. Lewis & Co., stores, shops, and, last but not least, one of the finest railway stations on the line of the road. Near at hand are the fine estates of Ogden Codman, George H. Smith, Howard Snelling and others.(South Lincoln, Boston Daily Globe, April 8, 1874, p. 8.) In studying the history of the pickle factories, Sumner Smith [unrelated to George and Elizabeth Smith], who had been born in Lincoln in 1889 and who later owned the Lewis Pickle Factory, wrote a letter in 1954 in which he stated: As a result of a little research among some of the oldest inhabitants of Lincoln, I offer you the following information. While it seems likely that there are some inaccuracies, his oral-history account states: It appears that there were three pickle factories in Lincoln the so-called Lewis, Underwood and one other located across the tracks from the railroad station which later became the property of Cook Brothers and was used for grain store and burned in the late 1890s. The Underwood factory was on Route 117 and for many years was known as the Dr. [Stephen] Blodgett place, now owned, I believe, by Thomas Giles. The factory was converted into a horse barn which the Doctor used for boarding horses, and this building in turn burned, I would guess, in the 1920s or 1930s. I understand there was a blight which stopped pickle culture in the neighborhood and the factories were forced to go out of business. (Smith to Shaw, August 10, 1954). While Underwood may have utilized a barn on Route 117 (perhaps even before the pickle factory was constructed?), their main facility was the 1869 Underwood Pickle Factory along the tracks that was owned by Wyman and then the Smiths. Situated between the Wyman-Cook House and the Lewis Pickle Factory buildings, the Underwood building ran parallel to the tracks. The use of the Underwood building for pickling evidently ended in the early 1880s. In 1883 Elizabeth M. Smith sold about a half-acre lot with the building known now as the Underwood Pickle Factory to Albert A. Cook (Smith to Cook, Mid. Deeds 1630:330). As Cook Brothers, Albert and his brother would also build a house on the half-acre lot in 1884 (LIN.278). The 1887 Lincoln Assessors records listed Albert A. Cook owning a half acre, including the house and the Underwood Pickle Factory (assessed at $1500), but the 1888 assessment instead shows Cook Bros. (Albert and brother Arthur A.) owning a half acre with a house and a grain mill & elevator ($4500; see depiction on 1889 map). The Underwood Pickle Factory was no longer listed in the town assessments. The Cook Bros. Grain Elevator building shown on the 1889 map would seem to have incorporated the earlier Underwood Pickle Factory. As suggested by Sumner Smith, on March 23, 1895, the building was destroyed by fire: Saturday night the granary and elevator belonging to the Cook Bros. was burned. Some of the coal and grain was saved. A large company was gathered from the neighboring towns and the two fire companies were ready to do whatever could be done in the way of saving the surrounding buildings etc. (Lincoln, Waltham Free Press, March 29, 1895, p. 3). That fire brought an end to the former Underwood Pickle Factory. Although the Assessors usually listed each building separately, the two buildings running perpendicular to the tracks and identified as Pickle Factories on the 1875 were evidently collectively being classified as the Lewis Pickle Factory facility, with the Lewis Pickle Factory thereby having been assessed at twice (generally $3000) the value placed on the Underwood facility ($1500) by the Assessors. The westernmost of these two buildings is the extant Lewis Pickle Factory building, and it was probably the more important of the two (on the 1885 plan, it is the one identified as Lewis Pickle Factory (so called). The building to its east had actually be partly built on the neighboring property, and in 1871 Rufus Wyman purchase a strip of land lying under it for $100 (compared to the $400 he paid four years earlier for at least 27 acres), that stip running 159 feet long and from 13 to 19 feet wide (Martin to Wyman, Mid. Deeds, 1165:322). In early 1890 Elizabeth M. Smith sold that eastern pickle factory building to Minnie Blodgett (Smith to Blodgett, Mid. Deeds 1953:479); beginning in 1890 Blodgetts assessment included a house near Pickle Factory, assessed for $300 (the 1889 map, which already shows the Blodgetts as owners, suggests that like the extant building, it may have had a tenement at its south end, while the description and low assessment might suggest that the factory end was taken down or otherwise removed). That house near Pickle Factory stood until 1912, when it was replaced by the current Blodgett-Rooney House (LIN.277), bringing to an end this second Lewis Pickle Factory building. A central part of a larger 1870s complex of development around the railroad tracks, the extant Lewis Pickle Factory building continued to be owned by Elizabeth M. Smith until 1900. Ultimately moving to Boston, Smiths assessment for the Lewis Pickle Factory continued to be listed at $3000, but in 1896 that assessed value dropped to $1500, perhaps representing a delayed response to the 1890 sale. While workers at this and the other pickle factory buildings may have commuted here by train, at times the tenements attached to the buildings may have provided living space for the factory workers and others. Sumner Smith, writing in 1954 about the Lewis factory, stated that it was managed by a man named Pat Powers who went into Boston about everyday,withasuggestionthatPowerslivedatthefactoryforatime(SmithtoShaw,August10,1954the1880census shows Powers as a farmer, living elsewhere in Lincoln at that time). The building north of the tracks (see 1875 map; present-day Continuation sheet 4

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Ridge Road) that had been owned by Elizabeth M. Smith also could have provided housing for workers and others; Helena (Lennon) Dee wrote that when her parents were married in 1873 the witnesses were Patrick and Julia Powers, and after the marriage: They first went to live in what was called the Pickle Factory House on Ridge Road. Their first son, John, was born here on January 13, 1875. (Dee, Just Rambling Round.) In March of 1900, the Smiths long association with Lincoln and this building ended when they sold the pickle factory to Fred E. Cousins for $1000 (Mid. Deeds, 2803:206). Under Cousins, that year the building was identified in the Assessors record as a Barn & Store. A couple of years later Cousins may have made some improvements, as the assessed value increased some, and it was now listed as a House & Barn. Born in Lincoln in 1864, Cousins had been listed as a grocer in the 1900 census, but the focus of his work would change. Sumner Smith later recalled: Fred Cousins and his family occupied one apartment [in the pickle factory] for a time. He ran a coal and grain business from the factory (Sumner Smith. Smiths of Sandy Pond Road, p. 62), operating as Fred E. Cousins & Co. In 1907 he had acquired the adjoining 1884 Cook Brothers House, and on its lot he would build a new grain store in 1911, having already sold the pickle factory. In December of 1910 Mary A. Rooney, wife of Lincolns John W. Rooney, a laborer with the Lincoln highway department, sold a small farm on South Great Road near the railroad crossing (Rooneys Crossing) to Louise Ayer Gordon. Mary then purchased the former pickle factory from Cousins (Mid. Deeds 3593:43), and from 1911 until she died in 1920, Mary was assessed for the property, which continued to be listed as a House and store house by the Lincoln Assessors. Leading to controversy in the town, in 1920 her son sold the property to Charles Sumner Smith (John W. Rooney to Smith, Mid. Deeds 4363:442). The Lewis Pickle Factory had fallen into disrepair, but when it went on the market following Marys death in 1920, the Lincoln Selectmen took an interest in it. They wrote in their 1920 Lincoln Town Report (pp. 36-37): About the middle of the year the Selectmen learned that the old Lewis pickle factory property near the railroad station was to be sold and, after consultation among themselves and with other prominent officials of the Town, it seemed advisable that this property be purchased for Town purposes because it was well adapted to the uses to which it would be put. It had the possibility of having two desirable tenements which could be used to advantage in connection with the Highway and other departments in the Town and was centrally located. The question presented at once was whether a special Town meeting should be called to present the matter and have the action of the Town recorded before purchase was made. It seemed best, however, that, if satisfactory arrangements could be made, the purchase should be competed at once and the necessary repairs made so that the different departments, which would use this place, could be transferred to it before the end of the year. This policy was adopted, and the Chairman of the Board [individually] took title to the property on the payment of $4,200 and has since paid in improvements, alterations and repairs upwards of $10,000.00. The question now is whether the Town will own and control this property at the actual cost, or take other action in connection with the matter. The officials have acted in the matter in entire good faith, believing that it is for the interest of the Town to own such accommodations as are provided by this purchase. The chair of the Selectmen and purchaser of the property was Charles Sumner Smith (1857-1927), a community leader for many years and an important benefactor of the town, for whom the towns Charles Sumner Smith School is named. His son, Sumner Smith, later wrote about this transaction: There were two tenements in the south end of the pickle factory which were always occupied and which practically kept the main building in existence. The building has a slate roof which kept the water out, but age had taken its toll and the building was leaning out of plumb in places. My father decided to buy the factory to preserve it, and Mr. [Robert D.] Donaldsons men shored it up, plumbed it and straightened it out [Donaldson was also on the Board of Selectmen; it is also probably suggested that Lincoln carpenters Charles F. Foreman and William A. Harding were involved in carrying out the work (Lincoln, p. 41)]. Tom Coan then moved into one of the apartments and took care of the horses and the various rolling stock of the highway department which had previously been housed at different farms with varying success (Smith. Smiths of Sandy Pond Road, p. 62).

Continuation sheet 5

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The Selectmens 1920 proposal that the town purchase the pickle factory for use by the highway department created some controversy, part of which may have related to the respective involvements of selectmen Smith and Donaldson. In the 1921 Town Report (pp. 27, 29) the Selectmen added to their previous argument for purchasing the building: Our reasons for this belief are, that the location of this property is central; it provides the Town with ample and convenient accommodation for the Highway Department, which never before has had a permanent place; it also provides convenient accommodation for the Forestry and Moth Department; there is also a large area of 1,100 sq. ft. which can, when necessity arises, with a minimum of expense, be used by the Fire Department and for the storage of transportation barges for the schools.The necessity for such accommodations as are offered in this building will be, we believe, more and more apparent as the years go by. [After discussing the financial benefits, they concluded:] The annual expense for upkeep of the premises will be very small and, barring accidents, [it] will be in as good condition 100 years hence as at the present time. It is true that when this property was purchased [by Smith] it was not expected that the total cost completed for use would be as much as it was, nevertheless, the Board believes that it is economy from every standpoint for the Town to have the room and accommodation which this purchase provides. Rather than approving the proposed purchase, the Town Meeting that year decided to set up a committee to study the proposal. The following year the committee reported back against the purchase. Their report stated in part: The area of the Pickle Factory lot appears to be materially less than 20,000 square feet [the lot is now larger]. The buildings cover something more than one-third of the land and are placed within six feet of the eastern boundary. The south end and a part of the west side of the buildings appear to be on the extreme edge of the lot, in fact it would seem that the openings about the cellar windows are over the Blodgett line, and that the north end of the house extends over the line and encroaches on the private way, the fee of which is part of the Blodgett estate. The building is divided into a large barn and a two-tenement house. The greater part of the building is old, and originally was of light construction. A certain amount of patching has made it inhabitable, but it is far from being in good shape. The tenements are in the south end of the same building, so that neither the barn nor the tenements get light or air at the point of connection. In the opinion of the Committee the property is far too expensive for the present needs of the town and is not suited to the uses proposed, and offers no opportunity for expansion or adaptation in the future if the needs of the town change or develop. Whether the time has come for the town to have its own barn may be open to question, but in any event this Committee unanimously and strongly advise against the purchase of the Pickle Factory property. (Henry E. Warner, James E. Baker, and Henry R. Page report, February 15, 1922, separate supplement to the 1922 Town Report). By a vote of 126 No to 67 Yes, the Town Meeting of March 6, 1922, voted against the Selectmens proposal to purchase the Pickle Factory for the Highway Departments use. Although the controversy over the Pickle Factory was resolved against the wishes of the Selectmen, the building did serve as the Town Barn for many years. In 1921 the town paid Charles S. Smith $200 for Rent of Stable for Six Months and $75 for Rent of Tenement for Three Months. Thereafter, into the 1930s, Smith and then his son were generally paid $400 each year for the rent of the Pickle Factory for use by the highway department, while highway worker Thomas F. Coan (who later became superintendent of the department) occupied one of the tenements and took care of the town horses and equipment. Later in the 1930s the annual rent increased to $780, and the town continued to rent the facility as a Town Barn until the late 1940s. In 194849 a town-owned Town Garage was constructed on a larger lot to the east of the Pickle Factory, and the towns equipment was moved into that facility in the spring of 1949. Reflective of the broader changes occurring in the country, the towns highway operations were slowly starting to evolve during the years that the Pickle Factory was being used as a Town Barn. In the 1923 Town Report (p. 30), the Selectmen stated: Continuation sheet 6

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Early in the year when the roads were made almost impassable by the heavy and continuous snows, a Packard truck which was loaned to the Town by the State, and the tractor and plow which was purchased from the Town of Concord, were of great assistance in keeping the roads in passable condition. The necessity for their use the present winter up to the writing of this report has been very inconsiderable, but the Town has this equipment on hand and in condition for immediate use when the necessity arises. It has been demonstrated, it seems to the Board, beyond question, that for ordinary highway use a truck is infinitely more expensive than the horses, and its use should be and will be confined to places and seasons when and where it can be used more economically than the teams. In the 1926 Town Report (pp. 41-42), the Superintendent of Streets reported that the Packard truck on loan from the state was no longer usable. The first truck that was owned by the town (a White Motor Company 3-ton truck) was purchased for $3000 to replace it. Nevertheless, the highway department still operated out of the old Pickle Factory primarily by the use of horse power. Aside from the Packard, the Superintendent reported: The condition of the Highway Department is about the same as last year, the property consisting of six (6) horses, four (4) sets of double harness, two (2) single harnesses, five (5) double carts, one (1) single cart, one (1) two-horse wagon, one (1) oil spraying wagon, three (3) sleds, fifteen (15) horse snow plows, and one (1) trucksnowplowallinfairlygoodcondition. In the 1930s, a change would come in this primary reliance on horse for highway work. In the 1932 Town Report (pp. 91-92) of highway expenses, Sumner Smith was paid $400 for Rent of Barn (the Town Barn, former Pickle Factory) and the neighboring Dohertys Garage was paid $91.50 for storing a truck. Thomas F. Coan received $360 for Care of Horses and Daniel E. Sherman $384.35 for hay, while George H. Pierce received $306 for Use of Tractor and Rices Garage was paid $500 for the use of 1 Truck, while an additional $1,386 was paid out to the highway department for Use of Truck and horses. Two years later, in addition to payments covering the year to Smith for rent and Coan for maintaining the barn, Daniel E. Sherman received payments of $110 and $149.80 respectively for use of a horse and for hay. Dohertys Garage was receiving just $47 for Storage of Truck, while the highway department received an appropriation of $2,229 for Use of Trucks. The changing emphasis in the payments reflects the movement from horses to trucks, although a majority of the trucks used at this point were being rented rather than owned. Slowly transitioning during the years since 1921 when it first used the Pickle Factory as the Town Barn, Lincoln and the highway department were moving into a new motorized age. Despite these important changes, the Pickle Factory continued to serve the towns needs as a Town Barn until the post-war period, when the population of the town started to increase more dramatically, and new school, Town Barn, and other facilities were needed to serve the growing community. Since its use by the towns highway department from the 1920s to the 1940s, the Pickle Factory has continued to provide housing in its two tenements, and business space in the main part of the building. For many years it housed manufacturing space for the R. A. Allen Co., manufacturers of the Allen Bicycle Racks for use on automobiles. These bicycle carriers are a Lincoln-based product, developed in 1967 by Lincoln resident Richard A. Allen in his Lincoln garage. For the most part, the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century passed Lincoln by. While Lincoln was an agricultural town at the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were a number of small shops used by blacksmiths, cordwainers, and other craftsmen. There had been a ropewalk in the community in the eighteenth century, and for a brief time in the nineteenth century there would be a woolen mill, but in general the towns larger industries were family-owned saw and grist mills as well as two family-owned tanneries. Indeed, as industries developed elsewhere, these smaller family shops and operations in Lincoln declined as they could not compete, so that by the middle of the nineteenth century Lincoln was even more focused on agriculture than it had been at the beginning of the century. Even the coming of the railroad to town in 1844 did not bring industrial development, and when industries did develop along the railroad a quarter of a century later (pickle factories, a grist mill and grain elevator, and a coal business), they would be industries tied to the local agricultural economy. Today, while a number of the towns early barns survive, from among the towns shops, mills, and other business buildings of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, only the 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory can be identified as still standing. Itself a rarity in the towns history, it is Lincolns oldest industrial building. Containing a tenement section at one end of the building, it also reflects the social history of the town as it appears to be the oldest extant tenement in the community. Moreover, aside from the buildings of the railroad station itself, the Lewis facility was just the second building to be constructed around the station, making it an early contributor to the gradual evolution of this area from one of open fields in 1869 into Lincolns commercial village today. Part of the towns agricultural and commercial history, the first established facility for the towns highway department, and a place that has historically contributed to the towns diversity including its town-worker housing, the Lewis Pickle Factory reflects the communitys character and roots as it stands today as the oldest building in that core Lincoln village. Continuation sheet 7

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

LINCOLN

20 LEWIS STREET
Area(s) Form No.

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Detail from 1875 map of South Lincoln showing pickle factories

Detail from the 1889 map of South Lincoln showing the Lewis Pickle Factory building site south of the tracks Continuation sheet 8

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

LINCOLN

20 LEWIS STREET
Area(s) Form No.

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Railroad
Pickle Factory

276

Lincoln Road

Codman Road

(above left) Detail from a survey showing the lands sold by Smith to Blodgett as they were later divided in 1927; Lewis Street buildings were not depicted. The Lewis Pickle Factory lot was bounded on the south and east by this property (notation showing Pickle Factory has been added; survey rotated so northeast is at top). (John C. MacLean Collection) (left) 1927 survey superimposed on current Assessors map of the same area. Lot 95 27 0 at top right is the pickle factory lot. The finger of land that was shown to its east on the 1927 survey is now mostly a part of this pickle factory lot; the gambrel-roofed, two-family Blodgett-Rooney House was built upon this finger section of the lot, east of the extant pickle factory. (above right) 1885 survey showing the pickle factory buildings and the other buildings on Lewis Street; written on the extant pickle factory are the words Lewis Pickle Factory (so called), the words so called are suggestive that it was no longer so used, while the name also suggests that this was the primary building of the pickle factory operation. Continuation sheet 9

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

LINCOLN

20 LEWIS STREET
Area(s) Form No.

276

West faade from Lewis Street

Continuation sheet 10

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

LINCOLN

20 LEWIS STREET
Area(s) Form No.

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(left) South (or southwest, at left) and east (southeast) faades; (right) north (or northeast) faade (faces railroad tracks)

Aerial views of the Pickle Factory, the Blodgett-Rooney House (LIN.277) on the lot (east side of the pickle factory), and their setting

O
Continuation sheet 11

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

LINCOLN

20 LEWIS STREET
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BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES

276

Boston Globe. Cook, John G. Shropshire Lads: The Lewis Brothers of St. Louis and Boston, in Missouri State Genealogical Society Journal Vol. 20, no. 1(2000), pp. 36-40. Dee, Helena (Lennon). Just Rambling Round. [1966], copy in Lincoln Archives Collection. Lincoln Assessors Records. Lincoln Historical Society. Lincoln. Images of America Series. (Charleston, SC, 2003). Lincoln Town Reports. MacLean, John C. A Rich Harvest: The History, Buildings, and People of Lincoln, Massachusetts (Lincoln, MA, 1987). Middlesex County Registry of Deeds, South District, bk 50857, p. 578. Russell, Howard. A Long, Deep Furrow; Three Centuries of Farming in New England. (Hanover, NH, 1976). Smith, Sumner. The Smiths of Sandy Pond Road. (Lincoln, MA, 1983). Smith, Sumner letter to Frank Shaw, August 10, 1954, Lincoln Archives Collection. Underwood, W. Lyman. Incidents in the History of the Canning Industry of New England, in A History of the Canning Industry by its Most Prominent Men. Arthur I. Judge, ed. (Baltimore, 1914). U.S. Census records, various years. Waltham [Massachusetts] Free Press.

Continuation sheet 12

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Community LINCOLN

Property Address 20 LEWIS STREET

Area(s)
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Form No.
276

National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form

Check all that apply: Individually eligible Eligible only in a historic district Potential historic district

Contributing to a potential historic district

Criteria:

B A

C B

D C D E F G

Criteria Considerations:

Statement of Significance by_____John C. MacLean____

___________________

The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. Lincolns last surviving nineteenth-century industrial building, the Lewis Pickle Factory is eligible for the National Register individually or as part of a district through its important local historical contributions to fostering the development of the South Lincoln/Lincoln Station village, for its contributions to Lincolns and the regions agricultural and commercial history, its role in the towns highway department history, its contributions to the towns historic diversity of housing, and as a surviving representative example of a simple commercial type that combined factory and tenement use. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century generally passed Lincoln by; unable to compete, the smaller family shops and operations found in Lincoln declined, leaving Lincoln at mid-century more focused on agriculture than it had been at the beginning of the century. Even the coming of the railroad in 1844 did not bring industrial development, as a quarter of a century passed before there was construction around the Lincoln station. Then, with the building of the Underwood Pickle Factory in 1869 and the Lewis Pickle Factory in 1870, Lincolns current-day commercial village near the station saw its beginnings. The Lewis factorys location near the farmers/suppliers encouraged local market gardeners to increase their cucumber crop, while its setting next to the railroad tracks provided easy transport to the headquarters and shipping of Bostons W. K. Lewis & Brothers, one of the countrys leading bottling and canning firms of the nineteenth century. One of very few nineteenth-century industrial buildings in Lincoln, the vernacular Victorian Eclectic Lewis Pickle Factory with its attached two-family tenement and simple lines and treatment particularly continues to relate historically to the nearby 1870 Second Empire Wyman-Cook House and store (LIN.279) and the adjoining gambrel-roofed two-family 1884 Cook Brothers House (LIN.278), while the 1912 gambrel two-family Blodgett-Rooney House (LIN.277) is on the same lot as the factory. Today, indeed, while a number of the towns early barns survive, from among the towns shops, mills, and other business buildings of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, only the 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory can be identified as still standing. Itself a rarity in the towns history, it is Lincolns oldest industrial building. It also reflects the social history of the town, as it appears to be the oldest extant tenement in the community. Moreover, as one of the first buildings to be constructed in the area around the station, it was an early, important contributor to the gradual evolution of this area from one of open fields in 1869 into Lincolns commercial village of today. Part of the towns agricultural and commercial history, later (1920s1940s) the first established facility for the towns highway department, and a place that has historically contributed to the towns diversity including its town-worker housing, the Lewis Pickle Factory reflects the towns character and roots as it stands today as one of the two oldest buildings in the New England village it helped foster.