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Essex Company Machine Shop, also known as Stone Mill or the Lawrence Machine Shop, is a historic machine shop on Union Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It was built in 1846 and added to the
To attract manufacturers, the Essex Company dammed the river with the
National Register of Historic Places
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 or "great artistic ...
in 1972.
History
The Essex Company was incorporated on March 20, 1845, for the purpose of creating a manufacturing town on theMerrimack River
The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into M ...
. The town eventually became Lawrence.
To attract manufacturers, the Essex Company dammed the river with the Great Stone Dam
The Great Stone Dam (also called the ''Lawrence Dam'' or ''Lawrence Great Dam'') was built between 1845 and 1848 on the site of Bodwell's Falls on the Merrimack River in what became Lawrence, Massachusetts. The dam has a length of and a height of ...
and created a canal to provide a power source for future businesses. The machine shop was created at the head of the canal as part of a foundry to service the Essex Company and tenant manufacturers. The facility consisted of the machine shop, a foundry, a forge shop containing 32 forges, and a chimney connected via an underground flue to the forges. The entire complex was warmed by steam and had power provided by two Fourneyron water turbines.
A branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad encircled the complex to allow for delivery of raw materials and coal.
In 1850, the complex employed 400 but was designed with the capacity to employ 800-1000 workers.
Description of the building
The machine shop building is one of the few remaining structures from the original Essex Company site. It is long and wide. It is four stories high and was designed to allow access to steam locomotives. The other surviving structure is the 142' (43 m) high chimney.See also
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Lawrence, Massachusetts
The following properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Lawrence, Massachu ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts
References
Buildings and structures in Lawrence, Massachusetts Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Lawrence, Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts {{EssexCountyMA-NRHP-stub