Southbridge-Sargent Manufacturing District

Three factory buildings near Worcester's railroad junction make up this district, which dates from 1866 to 1892. The construction of the rail lines in the mid-nineteenth century drew manufacturers to the area, known as the Junction, and it stayed an active industrial center until the mid-twentieth century. Later demolitions left only fragments of that past. The oldest building, the Sargent Card-Clothing Factory at 300 Southbridge Street, is a brick structure with a mansard-roofed third storey and a square tower at its west end. It housed a maker of machine cards for the textile industry. At 5 Sargent Street, the Rice and Griffin factory produced mouldings, doors and architectural ornament. The 1892 Whitcomb Manufacturing Company building at 125 Gold Street is a utilitarian two-storey brick building, and the firm made copying presses and machine tools. Together the buildings represent local card-clothing and building-materials manufacturing, and the properties remain in industrial or commercial use.