Why Is This Here? The Story Behind the Location
What's Behind the Mills58 Site
Recently I went to drop off my Laser Printer to Advanced Laser Printer Service which happened to operate from 58 Pulaski St Peabody MA. I was surprised on arrival to find it in a spacious and well built brick factory building from 1890 backing up to the Waters River...
Source J Daly
The history, captured in pictures on the halls, intigued me...The pictures featured a pigskin delivery truck, men tacking hides and a picture of the United Leatherworkers Local.
But this was far from the Peabody Square leather factories and I wanted to know more about the place.
I looked online and found plenty about the current state of the buildings, e.g. stories about fires breaking out there during its derelict days, how the refurbishments started as an idea and then became reality as was developer Edward Greeley reinvented the space, But I did not find much about the history of the buildings. The extensive online history of Peabody at the Peabody Historical Society and Museum covered lots of ground about downtown tanneries but not this particular building. I wend to libraries and sourc books with no luck. Ted Quinn's Book, Peabody's Leather Industry - Arcadia Publishing; Illustrated edition (February 18, 2008)
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offered pages and pages of vintage Peabody Tanning Industry photos and stories, but no Mills58.
So I reached out to the Peabody Historical Society and Museum
In less than a week, Nora, Assistant Curator of the Peabody Historic Society had researched the mystery "..reviewing historic maps, directories and deeds from the South Essex County registry of deeds online portal" and reported this information back to me with this illustrated time line.
She found the first "factory" instance at the site. From Nora's letter, "...In 1890, the property was owned by A. I. Ames, and he operated a fertilizer company out of this location. Attached is an advertisement from the 1890 Peabody directory." I noted especially a schooner tied up next to the factory in this picture.
Nora also included a map from 1897 that includes the Ames Co. at that location.
I had wondered why a leather factory would locate so far out of Peabody Square where the other tanneries operated and where the railroad lines dropped the skins? This riverside location no doubt relied on water transportation to ship the fertilizer as it backed piers into the Waters River. From there a coastal schooner could reach far and wide, as pictured.
Nora continues, "... By 1914, the area is taken over by AC Lawrence Leather Company and Peabody Tallow Co. .... At this time, the AC Lawrence Leather Co. had their main plant on Crowninshield Street in downtown Peabody."
Nora continues, "...AC Lawrence merged with the Swift Company. The Swift Company owned 58 Pulaski until 1953. At that time, it was sold to a realty trust - Ropet Realty Trust, and it has continued to change hands until the present iteration of Mills58. "
So that explains a bit more of these very sound, brightly daylighted and now very pleasing modernized buildings.