National Register of Historic Places

Hammond Organ Factory

Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Listed
March 5, 1980
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
80000632

About this property

The Hammond Organ Reed Factory is a historic former factory building at 9 May Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Built in 1868 and enlarged in 1886, it is one of the city's few surviving Second Empire factory buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In 2007–2009, the building was restored and converted for use as affordable housing. The former Hammond Organ Reed Factory is located southwest of downtown Worcester, at the southeastern corner of May and Silver Streets. It consists of a series of connected structures, some brick and some wood-frame, extending on a roughly north–south axis. The original structure is at the northern end, facing May Street; it is a 2+1⁄2-story brick structure, with a high basement and a full third floor under its mansard roof. Its front facade is nine bays wide, asymmetrically arranged, with the original main entrance slightly off-center in the middle bay, accessed by a high stoop. Andrew Hammond was an ironworker who came to Worcester in 1851, where he worked at, and eventually took over ownership of, the organ reed business of Edward Harrington and Augustus Rice. Hammond built the oldest portion of this factory in 1868, and added to it several times over the next two decades, until the building reached its present configuration in 1886, at which time it employed an estimated 200 workers. Hammond is believed to be the largest manufacturer of organ reeds between 1890 and the advent of World War I. After standing vacant and crime-ridden for many years, it was converted into affordable housing in 2007–09. National Register of Historic Places listings in southwestern Worcester, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places listings in Worcester County, Massachusetts Our Projects: Hammond Organ Reed Factory Renovations – Worcester, MA, MIW Corporation

Location

9 May St.
Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts
42.25514, -71.81544

Categories

INDUSTRYARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Questions about this property

When was Hammond Organ Factory listed on the National Register?

Hammond Organ Factory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 5, 1980.

What type of historic resource is Hammond Organ Factory?

Hammond Organ Factory is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Hammond Organ Factory?

The period of significance for Hammond Organ Factory is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Hammond Organ Factory?

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