Essex Company Machine Shop

Essex Company Machine Shop
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Lawrence, Massachusetts
Built	1846
Architect	Unknown
Architectural style	No Style Listed
NRHP reference No.	72000138
Added to NRHP	November 9, 1972

Essex Company Machine Shop is a historic machine shop on Union Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It was built in 1846 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

History

The Essex Company was incorporated on March 20, 1845 for the purpose of creating a manufacturing town on the Merrimack River. The town eventually became Lawrence.

Site plan of the Essex Company complex as it appeared in 1850. Note that north is at the bottom of the plan.

To attract manufacturers, the Essex Company dammed the river with the Great Stone Dam and created a canal to provide a power source for the 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 measures 404' (123 m) by 64' (19.5 m). 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
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts