Putnam Nail Factory, 12 Ericsson Street, later used by the Lawley Shipyard and later still by Seymour Ice Cream Company. These buildings are on the pending list for designation as a Boston Landmark.
S.S. Putnam & Company
The Putnam Nail company began the manufacture of curtain fixtures, horseshoe nails and other types of hardware at Neponset in 1859. In 1860 thirty-three tons of horseshoe nails were manufactured during the entire year. In 1891 nearly ten tons were produced per day by over 400 employees.
Silas S. Putnam was born in Hartford, NY. At an early age he apprenticed with a jeweler and watchmaker in Syracuse, NY. He learned quickly, but finding this employment too confining, he went to Boston where in 1843 he entered a dry goods store. He encountered an upholsterer having difficulty in securing a window shade to its roller. Mr. Putnam invented and patented a self-adjusting curtain fixture and a method of keeping the shade attached to its roller. He quit the dry-goods business to begin manufacture of his curtain fixtures, which had received a good deal of notice. In 1872 the annual production of curtain rollers by the Putnam Co., if stretched in a continuous line, would have reached halfway around the globe. His company also manufactured a popular kind of clothes hook made to swing on a bracket.
Mr. Putnam gave his attention also to the invention of a machine for the production of horseshoe nails. Machines had from time to time been made to cut or punch the nail from sheets or plates of iron rolled to a proper thickness, either hot or cold, but it had been found impossible to produce a nail as compact, firm, tough, and strong as could be made by hammering it out on the anvil, whereby the grain of the iron is compacted, refined, and made more ductile and tenacious; though many nails so cut or punched out have gotten into use, yet the best order of smiths refused to use them.
In the year 1850 Mr. Putnam conceived the plan of forging horse nails by machinery from the red-hot rod, in a manner similar to that of the blacksmith; and devoted much time, money, and severe thinking in projecting and perfecting a machine which would make nails equal, if not superior to those made by hand. After several unsuccessful attempts, each of which lacked some small item of perfection, he at last constructed a working machine capable of making a nearer perfect nail than is possible to be made by and, and possessing all the desirable qualities of the very best handmade nail, at a much less cost.
Putnam’s Horse Nails were adopted for general use by the U.S. Army as the “Government Standard Horse Nail.” In 1872, Mr. Putnam’s factory in Neponset used a 200 hundred horsepower Corliss engine to drive his machinery, and it employed over 200 employees in making nails. The company used only machines of Mr. Putnam’s invention, the first of which was put into operation in 1859.
The company lasted at least to the beginning of the 20th century, but the 1910 Bromley atlas shows the business at this site to be the Magnesia Co. of Massachusetts. The 1918 Bromley atlas shows the Geo. Lawley shipyard.
The following is from the Port Norfolk AREA FORM from Boston Landmarks Commission prepared as part of 1994 Survey of Dorchester. Dated April, 1995 and recorded by Edward W. Gordon.
Much more intact is the former Putnam Nail Co. / George Lawley & Son Inc. Shipyard buildings on the north side of Ericsson Street, including the 3-story, 4-bay x 25-bay red brick industrial structure currently housing Seymour’s Ice Cream at 12 Ericsson Street.
Finally the northern tip of the Port Norfolk peninsula has also been associated for many years with local industries. The General Isaac Putnam Nail Company began the manufacture of horseshoe nails at Neponset in 1860 and by 1869 was clearly located on Ericsson Street at Port Norfolk. In 1860, thirty- three tons were manufactured during the entire year; by 1890, nearly ten tons of nails were produced on a daily basis. According to the 1869 Taxable Valuation of the Town of Dorchester, the Putnam Nail Co. at what is now 12 Ericson Street encompassed a “Horse Nail and Curtain Fixture Factory”, Engine House, Blacksmith shop, Counting-room Building, 2 lumber buildings, a Dry-house, Oil factory building and store house, 5-tenements (presumably for company workers) and a 37.00 ft wharf along with marsh, beach and flats. The 1874 Atlas indicates that the Putnam complex encompassed 120,000 square feet of solid ground and 149,916 square feet of flats together with a large Nail Shop, Engine Room, machine shop, office, four stables and two unlabeled buildings. By 189,. a gas holder was situated on the Putnam premises. By l898, the Putnam Company encompassed 435,000 square feet. The Putnam Company property passed to the Magnesia Co. of Massachusetts during the early 1900s–property which included 19 buildings of stone, wood and brick along with the circular gas holder. The Magnesia Co. was a short-lived enterprise, replaced by 1918 by the well known George Lawley and Son Inc. Ship Yard. During the boom years of the 1920s, Lawley’s Boatyard was building beautiful yachts such as the “Yankee” of America’s Cup fame. By 1933, the Lawley Corporation encompassed 30 buildings. Today. Seymour’s Ice Cream occupies the large late-19th-century brick utilitarian building at 12 Ericsson Street. Further research beyond the scope of this survey is needed to identify structures from the Putnam, Magnesia Co. and Lawley periods. Clearly several small brick and granite buildings to the east and north of the main ice cream plant date to the mid 19th century. This property represents one of the most intact, historically significant industrial/commercial sites in Dorchester.
Sources:
The Great Industries of the United States: Being An Historical Summary of the Origin, Growth, and Perfection of the Chief Industrial Arts of This Country. Hartford: J.B. Burr & Hyde, 1872.
Orcutt, William Dana. Good Old Dorchester: A Narrative History of the Town, 1630-1893. Second edition. Cambridge: The University Press, 1908.