{"nrhp_refnum":"76001964","name":"Tremont Nail Factory District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"21 Elm St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wareham","county":"Plymouth County","state":"MA","lat":41.766500000000065,"lon":-70.72268837751767,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-10-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A district of nine buildings at 21 Elm Street in Wareham, Massachusetts, centered on a nail factory building erected in 1848 beside Parker Mills Pond. Seven buildings serve nail making and two are workers' houses.","why_significant":"It is the oldest cut nail factory still operating in Massachusetts and one of the oldest in the country. The 1848 factory and its later buildings form a significant industrial complex. The nineteenth-century, skill-based processes still used to make cut nails also illustrate how goods were produced in that era.","narrative":"Beside Parker Mills Pond on Elm Street in Wareham, this group of nine buildings forms a working nail factory. The main building, a large shingled structure raised in 1848, measures 240 by 90 feet and carries a cupola with a cast iron bell dated 1851. Nearby stand an office converted from a Federal style house, pickling and storage sheds, a store house, a carpenter's shop, a former cooper's shop used as a store, and two workers' houses from the early 1900s. Nail making here traces to a cooperative of nail makers formed in Wareham in 1819, and the Tremont Nail Company has run the plant since the 1880s. Steel is pickled, cut into strips, then fed through cutting machines, several original to the factory, that cut and head each nail. The machines were once driven by a waterwheel and now run on electricity. It is recognized as the oldest cut nail factory still operating in Massachusetts.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and still in operation making cut nails; condition listed as excellent and unaltered. Machinery is now electric rather than water powered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.552597-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/8/7966/63796608/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76001964.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001964/99fe0f9fd7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001964/99fe0f9fd7-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tremont_Nail_Wareham.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tremont_Nail_Wareham.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796608","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremont_Nail_Factory_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7838153"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/plymouth-county/tremont-nail-factory-district-76001964/"}