{"nrhp_refnum":"85000497","name":"Ace Art Company","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"24 Gould St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.52235871600004,"lon":-71.10539198199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-02-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small brick factory and office building at 24 Gould Street in Reading, Massachusetts, built in 1924 by the Ace Art Company in the Art Deco style. It has been enlarged in 1933, 1941 and 1966.","why_significant":"The building is significant for its role in manufacturing photograph mounting corners and for its link to inventor Lester S. Riley, who designed the machine that produced them. It is a factory begun in 1924 that still operates in its original capacity. It is also the only example of Art Deco architecture in Reading.","narrative":"Ace Art Company's factory and offices at 24 Gould Street in Reading, Massachusetts, date to 1924 and remain in industrial use. The small brick building was designed in the Art Deco style by an unknown architect. Multicolored textured bricks are paired with oversized bricks and wide mortar joints to form a patterned surface. Four buttresses with concrete hoods are decorated with ceramic tiles, and a stepped concrete gable carries the company name in Art Deco lettering. Large windows emphasize the horizontal lines. Additions were made in 1933, 1941 and 1966, arranged at the rear to form a court, and the entrance was altered in 1966. The factory made mounting corners for photographs, a product invented by Lester S. Riley, who also designed a machine to produce them in bulk; the machine is protected by patents. The property was listed for this manufacturing history, its connection to Riley, its continuous operation since 1924, and as Reading's only Art Deco building.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Art Deco","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a factory and offices, the same as its original use; entrance altered in 1966.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.095447-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/8/7921/63792108/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85000497.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000497/b16a5648a6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000497/b16a5648a6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ReadingMA_AceArtCompanyBuilding.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ReadingMA_AceArtCompanyBuilding.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792108","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Art_Company","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4672954"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/ace-art-company-85000497/"}