-Central Steel, taken by eminent domain for Assembly Square project.
-MS Walker, a liquor distributor behind the railyards off of Washington Street that will be demolished for the recently announced "Option L" MBTA Green Line facility.
One old-school factory that remains is Rogers Foam Corp. over on Vernon and Central Streets, which shares its building with artists and has done so for decades.
The number of industries that have gone away in Somerville and in Boston in general is staggering. I recall seeing a list years ago from the late 70's of the various industries that the B&M RR served in Somerville alone and it really was remarkable how many small industrial customers existed in the city even 30 years ago.
When I was serving ever-so-briefly on the historic commission, one of the buildings that had applied for demolition was a very ugly and plain cinderblock factory on Somerville Avenue next to the Wings Over Somerville location. While the building was totally unremarkable and merely had to be reviewed since it was built in 1946, the history of the factory was interesting. It was a pocket manufacturer. Literally, this place made pockets that were sent off to various pant-makers. When NAFTA passed in '96, and you could make pockets in Mexico for pennies on the dollar, the owner of the factory closed it down, sold the building, and split the proceeds with the workers, which is a rare thing indeed. There were hundreds of places like this back in the day.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-04 06:05 pm (UTC)-Central Steel, taken by eminent domain for Assembly Square project.
-MS Walker, a liquor distributor behind the railyards off of Washington Street that will be demolished for the recently announced "Option L" MBTA Green Line facility.
One old-school factory that remains is Rogers Foam Corp. over on Vernon and Central Streets, which shares its building with artists and has done so for decades.
The number of industries that have gone away in Somerville and in Boston in general is staggering. I recall seeing a list years ago from the late 70's of the various industries that the B&M RR served in Somerville alone and it really was remarkable how many small industrial customers existed in the city even 30 years ago.
When I was serving ever-so-briefly on the historic commission, one of the buildings that had applied for demolition was a very ugly and plain cinderblock factory on Somerville Avenue next to the Wings Over Somerville location. While the building was totally unremarkable and merely had to be reviewed since it was built in 1946, the history of the factory was interesting. It was a pocket manufacturer. Literally, this place made pockets that were sent off to various pant-makers. When NAFTA passed in '96, and you could make pockets in Mexico for pennies on the dollar, the owner of the factory closed it down, sold the building, and split the proceeds with the workers, which is a rare thing indeed. There were hundreds of places like this back in the day.