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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address <br /> LEXINGTON 7 OAKLAND ST. <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD A, H 3g <br /> BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: <br /> The property at 7 Oakland Street is significant as the site of one of Lexington's few major manufacturing establishments <br /> in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1882 Matthew H. Merriam moved his business which had been originally <br /> established in Charlestown in 1857 and constructed a single-story factory measuring 200 x 35 feet on this site for the <br /> manufacture of bindings and trimmings for the shoe industry. The building was constructed by Franklin Patch. An article <br /> appearing in the Lexington Minute-man on January 20, 1883 provides a detailed description of the construction of the <br /> building: <br /> The building is quite a model structure,being 200 feet long by 35 wide, one story,the roof being made of two- <br /> inch grooved and tongued plank, covered with tarred paper and shingled. The roof is supported by trusses and <br /> "ship's knees," so that the entire space is like one long,high-roofed hall. The space between the walls and floors, <br /> for some feet, are filled with cement,making them air tight and preventing mice or rats from gaining access, and <br /> the building is evidently capable of being picked up and launched on the water without fear of injury to <br /> it...Nearly all the work us accomplished by machinery,which is carried by means of a single shaft running the <br /> whole length of the building, a ten horse power engine applying the power in the centre,the boilers, etc.,being in <br /> a small building outside, at this point. The engine also supplies an immense water tank in the top of the building <br /> from which it is drawn off,by means of pipes,to closets, sinks, etc., as required. <br /> At the time of construction, a total of twenty-five men and women were employed. By 1890 the number had increased to <br /> thirty or thirty five workers,most of whom were women. In 1890 about half a million square feet of fine leather and <br /> morocco, and two hundred thousand yards of cotton cloth, including enameled cloth, Silesia and fine cambric,were being <br /> used in the factory each year,producing about eighteen million yards of goods. In 1890 it was said to be the largest and <br /> best equipped of its kind in the country and its products were sold to markets throughout the U.S. and abroad(Hurd: 631). <br /> M.H. Merriam& Co. was still in operation at the time of the 1935 Sanborn map. In 1947 the property at 7 Oakland Street <br /> was sold to the Adams Press(later Lexington Press). In May 2004 Supportive Living purchased the building and <br /> renovated it to accommodate fifteen persons with brain injuries. It is now known as "Douglas House". <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY: <br /> Hinkle,Alice and Andrea Cleghorn. Life in Lexington, 1946-1995. <br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington,revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, <br /> Vol. 2,p. 316. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. <br /> Hurd,Duane Hamilton. History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Boston: J.W. Lewis &Co., 1890. <br /> Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington: A Century of Photographs. Lexington Historical Society, 1980. <br /> Lexington Minute-Man,Jan. 20, 1883. <br /> Sanborn Insurance Maps,Lexington,various dates. <br /> Supplement prepared by: <br /> Lisa Mausolf <br /> March 2009 <br />