Wool-d You Like to Join Me For a Walk?

From Dave Brigham:

(Plaque at the corner of Summer and Melcher streets recognizing the century from 1900 to 2000 as the time when Boston was the wool capital of the United States.)

I never tire of walking around Boston. I can always find new and interesting photo subjects, even in places that I've walked by and driven past before. Recently I strolled along the section of Boston's Summer Street once known as the center of the nation's wool trade. From the summary of a 2008 Boston Landmarks Commission report covering the Fort Point Channel Landmark District: "Boston became the nation’s most important wool marketplace, and the center of the wool trade was Summer Street." These buildings were used as warehouses by other industries over the years as well.

Located just slightly southeast of the South Station train terminal, across the Fort Point Channel, this area of Summer Street is notable for the uniformity of the beautiful old warehouses and manufacturing buildings erected by the Boston Wharf Company, which developed the Fort Point Channel neighborhood between 1836 and 1882, per Wikipedia. You'll know you've arrived when you see the Boston Wharf Company sign (see photo below), which has lit up this South Boston neighborhood for more than 100 years, I believe. For a nice history of this area, check out this Boston.com article.

"The Boston Wharf Company parceled out all of the lots and laid out all of the streets from scratch, naming the streets after officers in the company and principal tenants in the buildings: Binford, Farnsworth, Melcher, Midway, Sleeper and Stillings streets, Necco Court, Thomson Place," per Wikipedia. "The Boston Wharf Company constructed most of the buildings for the manufacture and storage of a wide variety of goods, beginning with sugar and molasses and branching out into the wool trade by the end of the 19th century. Concurrently, the company enlarged its operations to become a chief developer of warehouse and industrial facilities for local railroads and shipping companies. This district made Boston the main production and marketing center for wool for clothing and fabrics during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After the wool trade declined, the district's buildings were abandoned. Artists gradually moved into the large, well-lit warehouse loft spaces, thus creating New England's largest enclave of artists, the Fort Point Arts Community."

Fort Point is still home to more than 300 artists, per the arts community web site, including painters, photographers, sculptors, designers, ceramicists, performance artists, jewelers, book artists and digital media artists. The neighborhood, like so many others in Boston, has seen development encroach in recent years, what with the massive projects that have taken over the adjacent Seaport District.

But this small stretch of historic buildings, part of the Fort Point Channel Landmark District, and others in the vicinity, remind residents and visitors alike of times gone by, and will most likely stay pretty much intact for the foreseeable future. Let's see what's there, starting with the south side of the street.

In the photo above we're looking at the same buildings in the previous photo, from the other side. This is 263 Summer (left) and 253 Summer (right). 253 was built in 1902 as part of the New England Confectionary Company factory. For more on Necco's buildings in this area, see April 22, 2018, "Fort Point Channel -- It's Electric!"; for more on the company history, see January 5, 2019, "There Was No Way-fer to Necco To Carry On." Tenants at this building include Amazon.com.

As for 263, I haven't found anything about its history, or list of current tenants.

Built in 1910 of yellow brick, 273 Summer, above, is home to a showroom for Knoll, Inc., a furniture and interior design company. The company lists its address as 281 Summer, so I'm not sure if it has moved since I took this photo, or if the preferred address is 281, since the buildings are adjacent, and perhaps connected internally. Below is 281 Summer:

Businesses at 281, which dates to 1904, include TIBCO Software, publisher McGraw-Hill and architecture firm Dimella Shaffer.

Walking along this side of Summer Street, amid all the beautifully restored and maintained warehouse and factory buildings, I was pleasantly surprised to get this view.

This is the side of 326 A Street, which passes below Summer at this point. I wasn't able to determine what this word salad of old painted ads said, but somebody else was: Terkelsen Building and Terkelsen Machine Co., which, according to a Flickr user I found, manufactured "spiral washing machines."

Next is 311 Summer, built in 1904 by Morton Safford, who designed and constructed many buildings in this district, for the Dwinell-Wright Coffee Company.

This building was sold last year to a Qatar-based investor for $38.5 million. It is home to Stantec, an architecture and interior design firm.

Next is 321 Summer Street, built in 1911 for the Howes Brothers Leather Company.

The leather company went out of business in 1994, I believe. There was a For Lease sign on the building when I snapped the picture. Not sure what might have moved in since then.

Next is 327-333 Summer Street, below.

This one was built in 1911 by the Boston Wharf Company and was at one point occupied by Joseph Middleby Jr., Inc., a bakery supply company. I'm not sure what, if anything, is currently located here. The building suffered from a major fire in December 2013.

This is the extent of these wonderful buildings on the south side. Let's check out the north side of Summer Street.

The first one on the north side is #320, below, built in 1888 by Morton Safford for J.S. Williams Stores. The space is now home to software company LogMeIn.

Right next next door is 312 Summer, below, which was built in 1904 as a wool warehouse.

I'm not sure what's in here now.

The next building on our tour is a little more grand than the others: 300 Summer Street, aka The Artist Building.

Built in 1898, this beauty is so special it even has its own web site. According to the site, "The southern sides of the lower levels of the building feature an exposed seawall from the early days of filling the 'South Boston Flats.' The steel-reinforced concrete beams include iron fasteners from which once hung bales of wool. The modest arching stairwell tiles are by architect and builder Rafael Guastavino.

The Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) acquired the building in 1992 and converted it to 48 primary residence live/work studios and seven arts-related commercial condominiums, per the web site. I featured this building in a previous post about Somerville and Charlestown, as 300 Summer was once home to Acme Bookbinding (see March 16, 2019, "Where Am I? Somertown? Charlesville?").

Our penultimate stop is 280 Summer Street.

Built in 1898 by Boston Wharf, this place is now home to workout supplements company Force Factor, among others.

Finally, we reach 274-278 Summer. I'll admit, there are a few more buildings on the north side of the street; I don't recall why I didn't snap their pictures.

This is another Boston Wharf building designed by Morton Safford and built in 1898. Current tenants include Vanderweil Engineers.

To read more -- a LOT more -- about this historic district, check out the Boston Landmarks Commission's study report on the Fort Point Channel Landmark District.

For more about the spoils (and losses) of the local wool trade, see December 18, 2018, "Checking Out America's First Condo Complex," about Beaconsfield Terraces in Brookline, Mass., which was developed by wool importer Eugene Knapp.