FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's number USGS Quad 1'01'111 NumberArea(s)

Massachusetts Historical Commission I 56·150 I IMarlborough I80 Boylston Street\ostoo, Massachusetts 02116

n -corded by Anne f.:nrbes

Organization for Marlboro Hist ComDl-._

Date _. 3/1519.5.

Town Ma r1hmough

Place (neighborhood or village) _

Prospect HiIJ

Address 72 Jefferson StreetS.H. Howe/B.A. Corbin sole

Historic Name factOl) and Koehler HeelPlate Factory

Uses: Present manufacturing

Original shoe-related mauufacturing.L.;

Date of Construction 1':arly 1890's

Source Sanborn maps

utilitarianStyle/Form

Architect/Builder unknown

Exterior Material:

Foundation brick

Wall{frim brick, wood, synthetic siding

Roof not 'lisible

Outbuildings/Secondary Structures at west

end' storage tanks, large one-story storehouse

Major Alterations (with dates), modern shed-

roofed addu on facade, 2-story addu Send wCOHug. metal extensions. 2-stOlY brick & woodaddn linking hrick fac~ & wood-frame N\Vbuilding. Most windows replaced.Condition f•.•.•a..•...ir . _

Moved [Xl no [ ] yes Date N/A,

Acreage 1 4acres

Setting South side of Jefferson along fanner

Marlboro Branch of Fitchburg RR; opposite

parkjball field Parking lot in fronL

iNvENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Kelleher Field

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)y

Form No.915

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PARKS AND LANDSCAPES FORM

VISUAL/DESIGN ASSESSMENT [J see continuation sheetDescribe topography and layout. Note structures such as bandstands, gazebos, sheds, stone walls, monuments, and fountains.Note landscaping features such as formal plantings, agricultural plantings, and bodies of water. Ifpossible, compare currentappenrarrce with original.

Kelleher Field is a roughly triangular park of about nine acres, stretching from Jefferson to FremontStreets. A football/baseball field occupies its main, center section, and a modern playground withwooden structures and benches is located in the west corner, at Jefferson and Hudson Streets. Thepark's most significant structure is the rare surviving concrete-block grandstand, which lines most ofthe Jefferson Street edge of the property. Although it has been altered somewhat by the additionof a raised wooden section over the center rear seats, and by modern decorative concrete openworkpanels that screen the eight large windows along the street elevation, the grandstand is otherwiselargely unchanged. The flat plane of the street wall is articulated by vertical and horizontal concretebands, and punctuated by the eight large windows, each with 32 panes visible through the concretescreening. The main entrance to the field is through a central archway in the grandstand, locatedbeneath a shallow-peaked gable, where the year "1939" appears in a circular concrete panel. Insidethe arched passage, double-leaf glass-and-panel doors on either side still open into the space beneaththe seats.

II,!

Flanking either end of the grandstand, facing the street, is a small, freestanding wood-frame ticketbooth. A chain-link fence rings the field. At the north edge along Fremont Street is a set ofwooden bleachers, backed by a fieldstone retaining wall. The only other structures in the park arelocated at the southeast end, where a chainlink backstop stands in front of a modern concrete-blockfood stand.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE I] see continuation sheerDiscuss history of use. Evaluate the historical associations of the landscapelpark wiin the community.

This recreation facility, located as it is in the densely-populated center part of the city, was thesubject of great civic pride when it was opened in 1939 as Ward Six Park. From the latter part ofthe nineteenth century through the early twentieth, baseball had been played on the open land ofProspect Hill north of Brimsmead Street, on what came to be known as the Prospect Hill BallGrounds. By the 1930's, residential development was progressing northward on the hill, however,Mildon Street was opened for new house lots, and the city developed this southern portion of theold Tayntor family farm for a new ball field. With its new concrete grandstand that accommodated1200 people, it was considered "one of the most modem and outstanding venues in the area."(Centennial '90.)

In about 1980, to honor two-time mayor Frank H. Kelleher, the park was renamed Kelleher Field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:Maps and atlases: Sanborns from 1912 (Prospect Hill ball grounds).The Marlborough Enterprise. 10/30/39.Centennial '90. 1990.Marlborough Dept. of Public Works: records and photos.

[ ] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, YOIl must attacha completed National Register Criteria Statement form.

fORM H - PARKS ANDlANDSCAPE FEATURES

USGS Quad

[Marlboro IMassachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston Street

......oston, Massachusetts 02116

y ):

Sketch MapDraw a map of the area indicating properties withinit. Number each property for which individualinventory forms have been completed. Label streets,including route numbers, if any. A ttach a separatesheet if space is not sufficient here. Indicate north.

Recorded h~y A_n_n_e_r~s, consultant

Organization for Marlboro His! Carom

Date 3Ll SL95

Area(s) Form No. Forms within

_Y __ ] [9i5--·I_--_--_~

Town. Marlborough

Place (neighborhood or village) _

Prospect HiJJ

Address Ieffe [son Street

Historic Name Kelleher Field/Ward Six Park.-

Ownership: [] private [X] public

Type of Park or Landscape Feature(check one):

[ ] park[ ] green or common[ ] garden[ ] boulevard/parkway[X] other hal1 field

[ ] farm land[ ] mine or quarry[ ] training field

Date of Construction __ 19_3_9 _

Source town records

Landscape architect __ ll~n_k_D_OWD~ _

Location of Plans _

Dot applicable

Alterations/Intrusions (with dates} _

!AI 1975- ge.neral upgrading. addition of

playground; concrete-block ..window screenpanels on grandstand.

Condition .._._ .._fa_i•..•.r/.,...go_o_d _

Acreage approxi1uate1y 9 acresIn primarily residential neighborhood

Setting at iotersectioD of Jefferson and Hud-

-son Streers..and IlOob to Fremont Turn-ofs..;

the centuJ:)! industrial buildings opposite

BUILDING FORM

ARCHITECfURAL DESCRIPTION [ ] see continuation sheetDescribe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildingswithin the community.

This large factory/storage building at the west end of Jefferson Street was once two buildings. Itsoriginal portion, built in the early 1890's, is a long rectangular two-story brick, flat-roofed building, 1with a large three-story square tower abutting the northwest comer. (See Section A on sketch map). fAlthough the old wire-glass windows of the main block have been replaced, the new sash is set intothe original double- and triple-unit segmental-arched openings. The four that line the west end ofthe upper story facade are unusually low in proportion. The windows of the tower, two bays on eachside, appear to have their original 6-over-6-sash. In recent years, brick, wooden, corrugated metaland synthetic-sided additions have been made to the north front, and east and west ends of thebuilding. The latter now links it to a long one-story wood-frame building with a shallow-pitched roof(Section B), its gable-end facing north toward Jefferson Street. That building, clad in synthetic sidingover its original wood shingles, has triple nine-light windows along the long sides. A hip-roofed ellabuts its northwest comer, and a shed-roofed ell extends to the rear.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [ ] see continuation sheet (Explain history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of thebuilding, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. /

This factory complex is one of the rare surviving illustrations in Marlborough of a smaller satellite plant--three, in fact--of a larger manufacturing company. In the early 1890's, after the large S.H. HoweShoe Company had expanded under the management of Louis P. Howe, it acquired this parcel offormer Tayntor/Howe farmland, and built the brick building. Although by 1894 S.H. Howe wasoperating four major factories in the West Village (the "Diamond A, F, a", and "M"), this was theirfirst building to have the advantages of a railroad siding location. Its original function is not known,but by 1906 it was used as a warehouse, as was a newer building just to the east. The large squaretower at the northwest comer of the brick building was used for tank storage.

In about 1910, Jefferson Street, which had formerly ended well east of this parcel, was extended past (a new 1906 roundhouse on the site of today's 36 Jefferson. (It was extended through to Hudson Streetabout twenty years later.) Shortly thereafter, B.A. Corbin & Son acquired most of S.H. Howe, (seeForm #117), and converted the brick building to a cut sole factory, storing leather in the eastwarehouse. At about the same time, the Koehler Manufacturing Company, which had moved intothe former "Diamond a" plant at the comer of Howland and Chestnut Streets, built the one-storywesternmost building for a heel plate factory. During the 1920's the brick building became theFrye/Corbin Box Company, a satellite business jointly formed by Corbin and the Frye Shoe Co. tomake shoe boxes. They used the large east warehouse to store paper for the boxes. By 1929 theKoehler Company was manufacturing miners' lamps at their main factory, and was using the formerheel-plate building for storage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [] see continuation sheetMaps and Atlases: Sanborns from 1896.Marlborough Directories.Marlboro Historical Society: Moineau photo collection.

[ ] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completedNational Register Criteria Statement form is attached.