Waltham station

The Boston Manufacturing Company was a business that operated one of the first factories in America. It was organized in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy Boston merchant, in partnership with a group of investors later known as The Boston Associates, for the manufacture of cotton textiles. It built the first integrated spinning and weaving factory in the world at Waltham, Massachusetts, using water power. They used plans for a power loom that he smuggled out of England as well as trade secrets from the earlier horse-powered Beverly Cotton Manufactory, of Beverly, Massachusetts, of 1788. This was the largest factory in the U.S., with a workforce of about 300. It was a very efficient, highly profitable mill that, with the aid of the Tariff of 1816, competed effectively with British textiles at a time when many smaller operations were being forced out of business. While the Rhode Island System that followed was famously employed by Samuel Slater, the Boston Associates improved upon it with the "Waltham System". The idea was successfully copied at Lowell, Massachusetts, and elsewhere in New England. Many rural towns now had their own textile mills.

The Central Square Historic District is a historic district encompassing the central town common of the city of Waltham, Massachusetts, and several commercial buildings facing the common or in its immediate vicinity. The common is bounded by Carter, Moody, Main, and Elm Streets; the district includes fourteen buildings, which are located on Main, Elm, Lexington, and Church Streets, on the north and east side of the common. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.Although Waltham was settled in the 17th century and incorporated as a town in 1738, it had no recognizable town center until the 1830s, when the nearby Boston Manufacturing Company gave the town the land that now serves as its central square. The area was further enhanced as a central location by the arrival of the railroad, and the construction of the Moody Street bridge across the Charles River, both in the 1840s. Waltham was incorporated as a city in 1884. Its City Hall, a 1924–26 Georgian Revival building designed by William Rogers Greely, stands on the common at the corner of Main and Elm Streets. The oldest municipal building in the district is the 1887 fire station at 25 Lexington Street; it is a brick Queen Anne structure designed by local architect Samuel Patch. It stands next to the 1890 police station building, designed by Hartwell & Richardson. A row of commercial buildings stand across Main Street, facing the common. Many of these were designed by architect Henry W. Hartwell, as was the Music Hall building at 15 Elm Street. Most of these buildings were built between 1880 and 1920.

Waltham ( WAWL-tham) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning, spawning what became known as the Waltham-Lowell system of labor and production. The city is now a center for research and higher education, home to Brandeis University and Bentley University as well as industrial powerhouse Raytheon Technologies. The population was 65,218 at the census in 2020.Waltham has been called "watch city" because of its association with the watch industry. Waltham Watch Company opened its factory in Waltham in 1854 and was the first company to make watches on an assembly line. It won the gold medal in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. The company produced over 35 million watches, clocks and instruments before it closed in 1957.

The Moody Street Historic District is a historic commercial district at Moody and Crescent Streets in Waltham, Massachusetts. It consists of eight commercial properties facing Moody Street as it runs south from the Charles River toward Newton. The area was developed between about 1880 and 1950, and is a reminder of the city's economic prosperity in that time. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.One of the most prominent buildings in the area is the Cronin's Landing complex, located at the north end of the district between Crescent Street and the river. This architecturally eclectic building was built in stages between 1879 and 1930, serving most notably as a department store. Predominantly Art Deco in its styling, it also has Panel Brick and Colonial Revival elements. It has been rehabilitated into residences on the upper floors and retail space on the first floor. The building at the northeast corner of Moody and Pine Streets (240-254 Moody) is the only single-story building in the district. It was built in the 1930s, and features modern storefronts separated by ziggurat-style stone piers. Across Pine Street stands a two-story Georgian Revival building (266-274 Moody), built c. 1900. It also has modern storefronts, with Doric piers in between, and an unaltered second story facade. At the southeastern corner of the district stands the four story brick Romanesque Revival building built for the Ancient Order of United Workers in 1887.The southwest corner of the district is anchored by the Art Deco F. W. Woolworth building, built 1948-49; the storefront still shows evidence of its use as a Woolworth store, and is one of the city's finer examples of Art Deco styling. Next to this building stands the Lincoln building, a Romanesque Revival structure built in 1887 that once housed the Adams Department Store. A small modern brick building stands north of the Lincoln building, and does not contribute to the district's significance. The Hall building, a two-story brick Georgian Revival building, anchors the southwest corner of Moody and Crescent Streets, across Crescent Street from the Cronin building.

The James Swasey House was a historic house at 30 Common Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Built c. 1846, the 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was a well-preserved example of vernacular Greek Revival architecture, of a sort that were typically built at the time as housing for local mill workers. James Swasey, the carpenter who built the house, and his wife occupied the house into the 20th century.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Sometime thereafter it was demolished or moved; a modern condominium stands at the site now.

The Daniel French School is a historic school building at 38–40 Common Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Built in 1847 by a prominent local educator, it is a well-preserved example of vernacular Greek Revival architecture, and is important for the role it played in Waltham's 19th century educational environment. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It is now a residential duplex.

The Waltham Gas Light Company was a historic industrial facility located at 2 Cooper Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. It was one of the oldest industrial complexes on the South Side of the city, with brick buildings dating to 1854–55, not long after the founding of the company. The Waltham Gas Light Company was founded in 1853 to provide natural gas for "illumination, fuel, and power" to the area. In 1886 the company added an electrical generation plant to the property, which lay in an area roughly bounded by the Charles River, the Boston & Maine railroad right-of-way, and Cooper Street, which now serves an access to the municipal parking garage just west of the company property. The company shut down in 1909, transferring its electrical business to Boston Edison, which still operates an electrical substation in a nearby former company building. The other company buildings were converted to other manufacturing uses, and were demolished in 2007.The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, and has not been delisted since its demolition.

The Gilbrae Inn is a historic residential building in Waltham, Massachusetts. It was built as a two-story wood-frame structure by the Boston Manufacturing Company sometime between 1827 and 1854 as a boarding house for its workers. In c. 1870 the mansard roof and third floor were added. It is the only known surviving boarding house built by the company. Its name derives from a cloth pattern manufactured by the company.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The William Gibbs House is a historic house in Waltham, Massachusetts. Built c. 1830–54, this 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house is one Waltham's few temple-front Greek Revival houses. It has four two-story Corinthian columns supporting a fully pedimented gable with a deep, dentillated cornice. It was probably built in the 1840s by William Gibbs, a hat manufacturer, and was sold by him to another hat maker who lost it to foreclosure.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The Trinity Church, formerly the First Congregational Church, is a historic church in Waltham, Massachusetts. The present church building, an architecturally distinctive blend of Romanesque and Georgian Revival styling, was built in 1870 for a congregation established in 1820. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The Waltham Public Library is the public library of the city of Waltham, Massachusetts. Its main location is in the Francis Buttrick Library, an architecturally significant Georgian Revival building built in 1915, funded by a bequest from Francis Buttrick, a major landowner in the city. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The E. Sybbill Banks House is a historic house at 27 Appleton Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Built in 1892, it is an excellent local example of vernacular Queen Anne styling. It was built for E. Sybbil Banks, the spinster daughter of Nathaniel Prentice Banks who was also a prominent local civil servant. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.