Keeping an Eye on Southbridge, Mass. (Part II)

From Dave Brigham:

Welcome to the second, and final, installment in my short series about Southbridge, Mass. (see July 30, 2021, "Keeping an Eye on Southbridge, Mass. (Part I)"). Once known as the Eye of the Commonwealth, due to the importance of optical product manufacturing in town, Southbridge is home to tons of beautiful old commercial buildings, churches, storefronts and homes, as well as remnants from the city's heyday as a manufacturing center. In this post, I will spend quite a bit of time on the former American Optical facilities, as well as current and former churches and other neat stuff in and around downtown.

Let's start with the elephant in the room.

(The one-time headquarters of American Optical, located along Mechanic Street. The building is now home to the Southbridge Hotel & Conference Center.)

The company that became American Optical was founded in 1833 by William Beecher, who had set up a jewelry business in Southbridge seven years prior. In 1843, Beecher was the first in the United States to produce a pair of steel eyeglasses, according to the company's web site.

Eventually, Beecher's apprentice, Robert Cole, bought the business. In 1869, American Optical was founded via the merger of at least a handful of companies, if I'm reading this document correctly.

In the ensuing decades, the company reached milestone after milestone, from manufacturing the first rimless spectacles in 1874, to becoming the largest optical company in the world in 1892, to developing the original "aviator" glasses in 1935. In 2019, the company moved its manufacturing to Illinois. American Optical had by that time already begun to reduce its footprint in Southbridge.

According to the web site for a guy named Dick Whitney (also linked in the prior 'graph), who worked at AO, the company closed its various operations in phases over the span of a few decades. The glass plant shuttered in 1979; the fiber optics business was sold in 1981 and is now Schott Fiber Optics, which is located in Southbridge, including in some of the former AO buildings; the company's casting and lens-making operation moved to Mexico in 1992; the warehouse closed in 2001; AO Ophthalmic R&D closed in December 2006; and AO Safety announced the closure of its manufacturing outfit in June 2009.

There is still an AO facility on Ashland Avenue, a little more than two miles from the former American Optical main campus. There are other optical industry facilities in town, as well. Lensmaster Optical, for instance, doesn't manufacture spectacles, but it does make "coating frames, vacuum chamber fixtures, vacuum chucks, diamond tool truing, templates and processing fixtures." I don't know what any of that means. United Lens provides plenty of services (but not spectacles), such as thin film coating, polishing, annealing and precision machining for industrial clients. There is also the Optical Heritage Museum, which has galleries featuring, among other things, antique spectacle frames and cases; protective eyewear; an American Optical collection; and a history of Southbridge.

Let's get back to some photos of the former American Optical complex.

There is a mix of old and new buildings on the site, some occupied, many not. Some buildings have been rehabbed and are occupied by companies including Stonebridge Press, SBC Energy and Franklin Realty Advisors, which I believe owns the site; others are awaiting redevelopment and new tenants. I was a little unsure whether I was trespassing, so I just drove along, taking pictures and waiting for someone to tell me to stop. Nobody did.

Now known as the Southbridge Innovation Center, the property contains 1.2 million square feet of commercial, industrial, manufacturing and hotel/conference space, spread across 150 acres, of which 20-30 are developable.

Southbridge Associates, an arm of Franklin Realty Advisors that operates the complex, has announced plans to add neary 150 affordable housing units, a training site for Massachusetts law enforcement, walking trails and public water access to the Quinebaug Reservoir. Having explored many former mill towns, I'm well aware that all of these visions may not come to fruition.

(Cool sculpture across the street from the former American Optical headquarters.)

I wish Southbridge and Franklin Realty Advisors all the best in their redevelopment efforts.

OK, let's move on to a few more things I stumbled across on my second visit to Southbridge. After exploring the old American Optical site, I walked through the downtown a bit more, as I had during my prior trip.

Located between Central and Foster streets, the Corner Pocket seems like a tidy little place. It is located directly behind the Ammidown Building, below.

Built in 1874 and currently home to Savers Bank, this handsome brick structure was named, I assume, for Holdridge Ammidown, who was an early owner of the business that eventually became American Optical.

A little further east along Main Street I really dug the sign outside Gordon LaSalle Music, which has been in business since 1979.

On the opposite side of Main Street I spied what I'm guessing are the remnants of a thrift store.

A block in from Main Street, along Elm Street, is the Southbridge Evening News (I'm bummed to report that I missed a ghost sign nearby, a photo of which I'd seen on Flickr).

Built as a private home in 1832, this Greek Revival building is known as Tiffany-Leonard House, per MACRIS. In 1812, according to MACRIS, Bela Tiffany and his father and brother, James and Lynman, and Samuel Slater formed Slater & Tiffany, which operated the first cotton mill in Webster, which is about 10 miles east of Southbridge (MACRIS misspells Tiffany's first name as "Bella."). Bela (and perhaps his kin) sold his share in the busness in 1816, after a downturn in the market. He moved his family to Southbridge and had this home built in 1832. Businessman Manning Leonard acquired the home in 1855; his family owned the property until the late 19th or early 20th century, I believe. The rear wing on the house is a later addition.

The Southbridge Evening News is published by Stonebridge Press, which operates 10 other newspapers, including the Auburn News, the Blackstone Valley Tribune and the Woodstock Villager.

Just steps away from the newspaper office on Elm Street is the Romanesque Revival Southbridge Town Hall.

Built in 1888, this beautiful building served as town hall and the high school until 1927, when a new school was erected, per MACRIS. The fantastic statue in front honors the men of Southbridge "who served their country in the war for the preservation of the union."

The rest of this post relates to former and current churches, including ones located in non-traditional places.

You wouldn't know it to look at this old warehouse/factory/mill, but it's the back of a church. This is one of a handful of industrial buildings along Dupaul and Goddard streets. I've been unable to find out how old the buildings are, are what their original uses were.

Currently, this particular building is home to the Southbridge Church of Christ. I've seen plenty of "storefront" churches before, but not many located in former industrial sites.

This isn't the only house of worship located in the old manufacturing/storage buildings.

Iglesia de Mesias has found a spot, too.

And finally, fronting nearby Marcy Street is Iglesias Pentecostal de Dios Vivo.

This house of worship is located in the same building as Paul's Automotive, a machine and repair shop.

Located on the corner of Main and Hamilton streets, the former Southbridge Universalist church dates to 1841.

This Greek Revival stunner has been, according to MACRIS, home to a book store, a clothing store, apartments and office space over the years. I'm not sure what's in there today.

Just a little north-northwest from that church is the First United Methodist Church/Sovereign Grace Chapel.

Erected in 1843, this wonderful Greek Revival church appears to be in great shape.

I'll finish this post with arguably the most amazing building in Southbridge, and one of the most stunning churches I've ever seen. My photos don't do it justice.

Completed in 1916, the Notre Dame Church "is constructed of white marble with a red Spanish tiled roof, and measures 190 feet in length," according to the web site for the St. John Paul II Parish. "The nave is 78 feet across and the transept is 123 feet across." The tower rises 210 feet, and the level of detail on this building is amazing.

The church -- despite its size, it's not a cathedral, as Notre Dame isn't the church of a bishop who is the pastor of a diocese -- was built for the French-Canadian population that had moved to Southbridge to work at the mills. "By 1852, the Catholic community had multiplied such that land was bought for the first Catholic Church which was dedicated on September 15, 1853 in honor of Saint Peter, Prince of Apostles," according to the church's web site. "By 1869, the French-Canadian community had grown to the point that it became its own parish on November 29. A large wooden church was built on Pine Street and completed for an opening Mass at Midnight for Christmas of 1870. The parish grew quickly with an influx of immigrants from the farms of Canada to the mills of Southbridge."

I didn't get inside, but my favorite detail on the outside is the massive bronze doors.

There are five pairs of doors. "They were cast by Gorham’s of Providence, RI," according to the church's web site. "The theme of the decoration of the doors is the Mysteries of the Rosary. The style of the doors is French Romanesque, with an ornamental border and moldings adopted from some French cathedrals; they are molded in mezzo relief. The outer borders hold niches with statuettes representing the 12 Apostles. The total weight of all five pairs of doors is more than seven tons; they open on hydraulic hinges installed in 2004.

OK, that wraps up Southbridge. In the near future I'll be posting at length about Stafford Springs, Connecticut.