{"nrhp_refnum":"77001412","name":"Boston Manufacturing Company","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"144 Moody St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waltham","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.373159981500066,"lon":-71.2355901587143,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-12-22","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1977-12-22","areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture","Invention"],"significance_levels":["national","state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A textile mill complex on Moody Street in downtown Waltham, Massachusetts, on the north bank of the Charles River. It has sixteen buildings built between 1814 and 1921, a granite dam, and remnants of a head and tailrace, built by the Boston Manufacturing Company.","why_significant":"The Boston Manufacturing Company, founded in 1813, is described as the first truly modern factory in the United States, combining spinning and weaving under one roof and using power looms. The nomination extends an earlier landmark designation to cover all remaining company industrial structures, arguing for state and local significance since most surviving industrial space was built after 1850.","narrative":"This mill complex on Moody Street in Waltham sits between the railroad and the Charles River. It holds sixteen buildings erected from 1814 to 1921, along with a granite dam built in 1847 and raised in 1850, and traces of the race that carried water to the mills. The Boston Manufacturing Company began here in 1813 and produced its first cloth in early 1815. Historians quoted in the document call it the first truly modern American factory, because it brought spinning and weaving together under one management and one roof. Paul Moody's machine shop developed power looms and other equipment. Later brick mills, a picker house, boiler and engine houses, and a finishing building show growth through the nineteenth century, with the 1873-80 mill the largest. The district extends an earlier landmark designation that covered only part of the site, since most of the surviving industrial space dates after 1850. Several altered buildings are noted as no longer contributing.","period_of_significance":"1813-1922","architect_builder":"Paul Moody","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is marked excellent and good; some buildings have been altered, adapted as a restaurant, or partly boarded up. The complex is occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.895959-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/59/7959/63795959/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/77001412.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001412/1e5dae6a33-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001412/1e5dae6a33-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Daderot","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_Manufacturing_Company_mill_complex,_Waltham,_MA_-_2.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_Manufacturing_Company_mill_complex,_Waltham,_MA_-_2.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795959","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Manufacturing_Company","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2074499"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/boston-manufacturing-company-77001412/"}