Pierce Organ Pipe Factory

Organ pipes have been made at 10-12 Pierce Street in Reading since 1852, when Samuel Pierce opened his factory there. Pierce had trained with a local cabinet maker and with organ builders in Boston, moved to Reading in 1846, and began making metal pipes in an ell of his house the following year. The factory grew into a business that also produced other organ parts and sold to buyers in the United States, the British provinces, Jamaica and South America. By 1854 the building held 14,000 square feet of floor space and employed 50 people. The original building resembled local houses, with its gable end to the street, heavy granite foundations, eight bays and a cupola. Additions were made to the north, west and south between 1854 and 1950, and asbestos siding now covers the walls. The Dennison Company later took over and built electrically powered organs, including console organs for movie theaters. It is one of few remaining 19th-century industrial buildings in town and the only one still serving its original purpose.