Emerson Shoe Company

The Emerson Shoe Company is a historic industrial property located at Maple and Plain Streets in Rockland, Massachusetts. Built about 1891 and repeatedly enlarged, it is the largest wood-frame structure in Rockland, and was home to one of its largest employers in the early 20th century. Now converted to residential use, the factory complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.[1]

Emerson Shoe Company
Location51 Maple St., Rockland, Massachusetts
Area2 acres (0.81 ha)
Builtc. 1891 (1891)
NRHP reference No.100002542[1]
Added to NRHPJune 1, 2018

Description and history

The former Emerson Shoe Company factory is located in a mixed industrial-residential area in Rockland, at the northwest corner of Maple and Plain Streets. Its oldest portion is a 2-1/2 story structure lining Maple Street, while additions and extensions run along Plain Street. It was built using typical timber-framed "mill construction" techniques of the 1890s and 1900s, with sections ranging in height from two to four floors.[2]

The oldest portion of the complex was built about 1891 by Hall, Gallagher & Foulke's Shoe Company, later renamed George W. Hall & Company. In 1906 the building was purchased by R.B. Grover & Company, a Brockton-based shoemaker founded in 1889 whose factory had been destroyed by fire. Grover was best known for producing the "Emerson shoe", and renamed itself in 1901. The company was one of Rockland's biggest employers, enlarging the premises in 1906, and again in 1909 and 1916. The company failed during the Great Depression in 1931. The factory saw a variety of industrial uses thereafter, and was in the 2010s converted into residential loft-style housing.[2]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. "MACRIS inventory record for Emerson Shoe Company". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
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