| In
1884,
Edward Rivett
and C. A. W. Crosby founded the Faneuil Watch Tool Co.;
according to
Rivett's
obituary "the first 'factory' was a wooden extension of his
own home,
at
472 (or 474?) Washington Street. The former number is listed
as
Rivett's
business location in 1880. Early FWTCo. ads list the factory
address as
"Faneuil Station", with the office at 474 Washington. Later
(sometime
between 1893 and 1897, from ads in "The Keystone"), the
mention of a
separate office is dropped. Interestingly, in an 1880 Boston
directory,
Edward
Rivett is listed as "watchmaker, 472 Washington Street.,
boards 7
Staniford
Pl." The 1988 Universal Atlas of Metropolitan Boston does
not show a
Staniford Place, but Staniford Street is right downtown,
only a short
(5 or 6
blocks) walk from the nearest end of Washington Street. |
|
|
By 1892
[ad in
January
issue of "The Keystone"] FWTCo. has begun building its
permanent
factory. The floor area is given as 9775 sq. ft., and as
there are
three floors,
the ground "footprint" may be about 32 ft x 100 ft. The ad
has a
woodcut showing a horse-drawn wagon at the central door,
no railway.
E.
Rivett's home address
in various Boston directories for the period between 1892
and 1905 is
listed as
"1 Crosby Street, Faneuil" -- did C. A. W. Crosby act as
"developer" and create a subdivision? The 1988 Universal
Atlas for
Metropolitan Boston does not show a Crosby Street; there
is a Crosby
Place, but
it is in Roxbury, off Hampden Street.
|
| The
Rivett factory in 1892 |
| In
1908,
the company,
now know as Rivett Lathe Mfg. Co., announced that it had
completed a
new
addition to its factory, which doubled their capacity. The
original
block built
in 1892 now has been extended to the left, with the
extension roughly
double the
width and perhaps 2/3 the length of the original building.
There is
also a
double-width, but much shorter, extension on the right, with
a rather
cute bay
window -- the office? For the first time, the B. & A.
Railway is
shown, but
the delivery wagons are still horse-drawn. |
|
|
Later
(1910)
ER's home
address is given as 20 Riverview Road. At that time, the
factory's street address is given as 1 Brooks Street,
Brighton
District.
Riverview and Brooks intersect at their west and north
ends,
respectively; it
would be interesting to know how close together those two
addresses
were. No
wonder ER was "the first one there in the morning and the
last one at
night" ("Keystone" ad in 1908)
|
| The
Rivett factory in 1911 |
| Stone's
1930
book
"Massachusetts Industries" states: "In 1915 a substantial
addition to the plant was completed. A further addition to
the plant
doubling
its previous capacity was completed in 1920." |
|
|
|
| The
Rivett factory in 1918 |
|
The
buildings in the old Rivett location were demolished "when
the Turnpike Authority decided to route its Mass. Turnpike
extension from Route 128 into Boston along the Boston and
Albany Railroad right of way". [A. Hunt, 1993] Four acres
was purchased nearby, and a new facility constructed which
was "a modern one—story plant with generous parking area
which didn’t exist before. The new plant had some 60,000 sq.
ft. of factory floor and 20,000 sq. ft. for office and
engineering. The new plant was without elevators, had
undercover receiving and shipping, overhead cranes to all
machines arranged for flow from raw material through
production to finish storage and assembly. It was modern and
efficient." [Hunt] Operations began at the new plant in
1961.
|
The Rivett factory in 1966
|
