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           This essay is an integral part of the historic buildings survey of Rockland, Massachusetts conducted in 1981. Here the historical and architectural context of the buildings detailed on the individual survey forms is described. The town of Rockland, Massachusetts lies approximately 20 miles southeast of Boston, ten miles inland from the Atlantic coast at Scituate and 30 miles from the cape Cod Canalat Sagamore. With an area of about ten square miles, it has gently rolling to flat topography with few significant slopes. Altitude ranges between 160 feet above sea level at the town center to 180 feet at beech Hill in the south and at the intersection of Liberty and Union Streets in the north. (1) Although Rockland has been an industrial community since the mid-nineteenth century, large parts of the town remain wooded. Most of the woodlands are in low lying swamps. These Large wooded tracts and the open fields which stretch out behind residential streets have contributed to the preservation of a somewhat rural quality in much of Rockland. Only along part of Union Street, on a few the side streets which lead off it near the town center and near the intersection of Union Street with Market, has this quality been altogether replaced by the quasi-urban intensity of twentieth-century America. A considerable portion of Rockland’s northwestern quadrant is part of the South Weymouth Naval Air Station. Before 1874, Rockland formed the East ward of the town of Abington and generally known as East Abington. Its history until that time

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(1) . Rockland Centennial 1874-1974, p. 7.

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is deeply enmeshed in Abington’s. Rockland architectural history may indeed be a useful way organizing the community’s history during its per-1874 development. Most of what is now Rockland was granted in 1654 to Timothy Hatherly by the Plymouth Colony Court. Known as the Hatherly, who never lived in Rockland, subdivided his grant into Great Shares at the end of the seventeenth century. A smaller part of Rockland was in Cornet’s purchase covered parts of Hanover, Hanson and the Beech Hill section of present-day Rockland.

Rockland’s first settlers were attracted to the area by its rich woodlands of pine and oak. the first mill is said to have been erected here in 1703 (2) by the Thaxter family near the present site of 313 East Water Street on what in now called Cushing Brook. The Thaxter’s also raised the first frame structure in East Abington there to house the slaves who tended the mill. (3) Benjamin Hobart wrote in 1866 that “the lumber manufactured by these mills was of grate use to the town, and was a source of great income.” (4) Farming also occurred in this early period, but as Hobart report’s it seems to have been little more than subsistence framing with little

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(2) . Benjamin Hobart, History of the Town of Abington, 1866, p. 3.

(3) . Idem

(4) . Idem.

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local production going for export. The principal farming activities centered on livestock as the soil of the town “...is generally better for grass and grazing than tillage.” (5) Architecturally the history of Rockland prior to 1874 falls into two unequal periods. In the first period which spans the years from 1700 to 1840, buildings of two major types were constructed. The fist type, which proliferated in great number, were five-bay principle elevations. The second period from 1840 to 1870 witnessed a shift from traditional Colonial ornamentation to the Greek Revival, Italianate, Gothic and Second Empire styles. Changes during this thirty-year period affected residential design less in plan than in decorative details.

The Cape Cod cottage is one of the best known and most frequently imitated forms in traditional American architecture. During the first century of Rockland’s history more Cape Cod cottages were constructed than any other kind of house. It persisted in Rockland until the last quarter of the nineteenth century when it was eclipsed by forms indigenous to the region.

The continued use of this house type reveals the inherently conservation-tive approach of Rockland’s residents to new building designs, a conservatism which persists to this day. The resistance to change of Rockland’s home builders is not unique to this community alone. It is a characteristic of the South Shoe and perhaps of all eastern Massachusetts outside the immediate Boston area. More significantly, the favor which Rockland’s residents showed to the basic Cape Cod type did not prevent changes in

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(5) . Ibid. p. 5

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plan and decorative details in response to contemporary architectural fashions. In deed, Rockland’s architectural history in its first 150 years trance the quite marvelous adapt ion of this indigenous form to change in taste and living style. From the first period of Rockland’s history no buildings survive. One of the oldest buildings still is said to have been constructed in 1745 by Samuel Green. It gives a good indication of how the farmers and millers of this community lived in the first half of the eighteenth century. The building is extremely important to Rockland’s architectural history as an early example of the Cape Cod cottage.

The Green house is a Cape Cod cottage (6) with its principle elevation five bay wide (two windows to either side of a central door). The house has a very low roof with lintels in the same plane as the plate. The roof is gable (i.e., two sides of equal pitch) and is punctuated by a heavy central chimney. In the gable ends, the house is three bays deep on the first story. Although the foundation is now made of made the nineteenth centuries, it probably had a massive granite block foundation. The house which has been moved twice is now located on Goddard Avenue and servers as a museum of local history.

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(6) . Cape Cod cottages came in several sizes known as a house, house-and-a-half and double-house (Connally, 1951). In Rockland this distinction is not useful as only “double-house” (five bays) can be found today. The Benjamin Clark house at 53 Pleasant Street and the house at 313 East Water Street may have been only a house-and-a-half (three bays), but they have been altered.

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Houses like the Green House were of plank board construction. This means that the spaces between the great posts which framed the house and held up the second story were filled with wide boards nailed to the sill below and the plate above. To the outside of these planks, clapboards and sometimes pine shingles were fastened to keep out the weather. On the inside, split lathing was attached to the planks and plaster spread over this. Plank board construction is easily identified since window frames in these houses project a few inches from the wall. In houses with suds which have a space between the inside and outside walls the frames are nearly flush with the clapboard or shingle siding.

In plan, the house was organized about the huge central chimney which is often a good guide for quickly dating Rockland’s ubiquitous Cape Cod cottages. Inside the front door was a small hall or porch with a room to either side. Straight ahead and framed into the massive chimney was a steep stair leading to the second story. The room to the right of the door served as a parlor or sitting room, the one to the left was a bedroom. In the rear of the house, the kitchen occupied most of the middle of the building with the fireplace as its dominant feature. To one side of the kitchen was a small bedroom. under it was a small root cellar. One gained access to it through a bulkhead hatch outside. Sometimes a trap in the bedroom also led to the below ground space. In general, most of the space under the early homes was a space. In general, most of the space under the early homes was not excavated. Corresponding to the bedroom on the other side of the cottage was a space of equal dimensions usually subdivided into a smaller bedroom toward the center of the house and a tiny pantry in the rear corner.

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In the second half of the eighteenth century, Rockland’s Cape Cod cottages began acquiring small square windows in the gable and elevations at eh peak of the gable and in the corners of the second story where the corner posts meet the roof. The house at 1126 Union Street is a good example of this type. Variations in this fenestration pattern occurred so that in the house at 1119 Union Street there is only one small window at the peak of the gable, while the house at 949 Union has two small windows where the corner posts meet the roof. Changes in entrance designs are also important in the evolution of the Cape Cod cottage in Rockland. In the earliest houses, a simple plank door was sometimes capped by a transom to light the hall. Towards the end of the eighteenth century entranceways began to show the influence of the Federal style. In the simplest Federal style entranceways, the door is flanked by sidelights with a very simple board across the three parts of the entrance to suggest an entablature. In tracing the evolution of any design feature of these cottages, it is important to remember that while innovations occurred, the traditional forms continued to be built for long periods thereafter.

The impact of the Federal style on Rockland’s Cape Cod buildings was perhaps a result of the introduction of the manufacture of shoes to the community in 1793 by Thomas Hunt. Shoemaking in this period was a home industry with members of the family participating to supplement meager farming resources. The income from shoemaking may have meant that the homebuilders of the period could afford a somewhat more decorated house.

Two Cape Cod cottages from the first part of the nineteenth century demonstrate how the building type could be embellished with Federal style

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details. These are the Josiah Torrey house at 428 Market Street and the John Hobart house at 221 Hingham Street. Both houses have delicate pilasters or engaged columns framing sidelights to either side of the door. Above the door a louvered fan spans the entire entranceway composition. Yet another excellent example of the impact of the Federal style on Rockland is the Warren Hunt House at 979 Union Street. Hunt was one of Thomas Hunt’s seven sons and a carpenter-joiner. The house has a wealth of details which cannot be found elsewhere in the community in the same period. Particularly noteworthy ins the row of finely carved dentils under the cornice and a fret molding in the frieze. The doorway is distinguished by plasters which are integrated into the entablature which runs the full length of the house. Another elegant feature are wooden quoins cut to resemble stone. For all the stone which abounded in Rockland’s field, stone construction never found favor among early farmers and millers. These New Englanders remained firm in their obedience to the simple and basically unadorned wooden forms of their obedience to the simple and basically unadorned wooden forms of their pioneer fathers. Derived from rural English medieval sources, these houses expressed the religious ideals and common sense requirements of everyday life in the wilderness. (7) Rockland’s farmer-shoemaker still seemed to live by these concepts as late as 1820.

Rockland’s eighteenth and early nineteenth-century builders did not only construct story-and-a-half cottages. A second larger type paralleled

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(7) . William H. Pierson, Jr., American Buildings and Their Architects The Colonial and

Neo-Classical Styles, Vol. I, New York : Anchor Books, 1976, p. 60.

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the evolution of the Cape Cod home. This house was two stories high and like its smaller neighbors had a five-bay facade and a large central chimney. An early example is the David Ellis house at 696 Summer Street. Built in ca. 1775 it has a hipped roof with the ridge to the street and with its tripartite entranceway shows a trace of Georgian influence. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the two story form also showed the impact of the Federal style. Harvey Torrey’s house at 458 Market Street built in ca. 1800-1830, has a hip roof, and a federal style entranceway with a glazed fan whose radiating muntins are very much of the period. This entranceway is a high style variation of the louvered fan on the Josiah Torrey (Harvey's brother) Cape Cod cottage just up the street at 428 Market.

The Torrey’s father, William, a butcher whose enterprise attracted the packs which gave Dog Corner its delightful sobriquet, also built a two-story house (496 Market Street) as did David Lane (64 Union Street). These houses have gable roofs with the ridge parallel to the street, but most significantly they are brick-enders. In this distinctive form, of which there are many examples on the South Shore, chimneys are in the end walls and their entire wall in brick. These brick-enders represent the most extensive use of this building material in Rockland before 1880.

Rockland’s earliest buildings are found along the six streets which in the eighteenth century were the main links to neighboring towns. These streets had very different names in those first years. Market Street was called Pigeon Street, Liberty Street was Tinker Street. Upper Union was either Boxberry Street or Merchant’s Row. Summer Street was named after its first settlers, the Wilkes. Water Street was logically Mill Street

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and Hingham Street had less prosaic name Dye bark Street. Rockland’s first new road Salem Street which was laid out in 1752 called Gooseherd’s Lane.

The first important construction of new roads in East Abington took place in 1814. At that time, North Avenue and Webster Street were built and the north and south ends of the village were joined by the extension of Union Street to Market Street. An important sign of the thinking is that these three streets are basically straight. Moreover, orthogonal planning is present in the right angle intersections of north Avenue and Webster was straightened out to follow its present route. The natural patterns of the first settlers were overshadowed now when the apparent need of the shoemakers to move their goods quickly from place to place took precedence.

In the few years following the introduction of these streets, changes in building styles began to appear in Rockland. The Holbrook's and their neighbors on Salem Street built at least three houses in the 1820-1830 period in the Cape Cod mode, but with two chimneys widely spaced that were much thinner than those on the old fashioned houses was an opening up of the space between the tops of windows and the cornice on the five bay elevations. This change in design did not make the ceiling any higher on the first floor, but increased substantially the height of second story rooms. An easy but always reliable way to date quickly Rockland’s Cape Cod cottages combines a look at the space above the window tops and the size and placement of chimneys.

Rockland’s society in 1815 was a fairly homogeneous one. the

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stratification which later resulted from the organization of the shoe industry around increasingly larger and more centralized factories was yet to happen. In these first decades of the nineteenth century shoes were made in ten-by-ten foot shacks in the side yards. A single man or his family bought the leather and other necessary materials and put together the whole shoe. “In the absence of railroad accommodations,” writes Benjamin Hobart, ‘they used the more primitive way of packing shoes in large saddle bags, and ... trudging off to Boston,-- returning in due time with two or three sides of sole leather in one side of the bags, and, in the other, upper stock...” (8) This method of manufacturing shoes in a shop far from those who were to wear them eliminated the shoemaker who traveled from farm to farm and village to village custom making shoes. The early nineteenth-century growth.

While the shoe industry was growing so was Rockland’s population. Between 1790 and 1830 for example, the north end of town above Salem Street doubled in size. (9) It was in the last years of this 40 year period that the Greek Revival style began to have its effect on Rockland building.

Rockland’s introduction to the Greek Revival was slow. The two-story porticos with tall columns and a cubic house whose narrow end faced the street was not adopted. Rather, the Revival features. The Zenas Lane II house at 90 Union Street is one example of this development.

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(8) . Hobart, 151-152.

(9) . Separate population figures for Rockland prior to the town’s incorporation in 1874 are not available.

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On the main elevation the entranceway is slightly recessed behind the barest suggestion of flanking pilasters which support a narrow entablature. Either side of the front door sidelights similar to those found on Federal style houses light the hall. Just above the windows a frieze board reaches out to corner pilasters which are also minimally defined. In the gable end, cornice return and a raking cornice are Greek Revival cornice moldings.

Through the 1830’s, these Greek Revival elements received greater definition. Pilasters became wider with more strongly articulated capitals and the dimensions of the various parts of the entranceway increased as well. 959 Union Street, in spite of alterations, typifies these stylistic changes. During this period, the two-story house also evolved. The Moses Blaisdell house at 956 Union Street received the full Greek Revival treatment. Built in 1838 , it has paneled corner pilasters, a heavy entablature over the front door and well defined cornice returns. Early nineteenth-century builders in Rockland still respected even in this two-story form the Colonial five bays to the street and did not build houses with the gable ands on the principal elevation. A notable exception to this pattern is the Rice house on 15 Webster Street. Originally located on Union Street, it is the only Greek Revival house in Rockland with a colossal Ionic portico. With its narrow end to the street, it borrows its shape and ornamentation from the ancient Greek temple form which lies at the root of this nineteenth-century American design.

The O’Brien house at 122 Salem Street built ca. 1848-1857, is an

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important intact example of another kind of Greek Revival design which was to have a legacy in Rockland lasting into the first years of the twentieth century. The gable end to the street, simple entablature, cornice in the window lintels are all Greek Revival elements which did not last. What survived, however, was the small story-and-a-half square block with the Italianate, Queen and even Colonial Revival features later found expression.

Under the influence of the Greek Revival, the Cape Cod cottage under-went remarkable transformations between 1840 and 1855. In one manifestation, the gable and of the house is constructed to the street and a door with sidelights and entablature placed in it. At the same time, a side elevation retained the five-bay organization with a central door as in the traditional Cape Cod house. The Albert Lane house at 234 North Avenue presents such an arrangement of doors, The windows and elevations.

The turning of the Cape Cod house so that the gable end was to the street also produced another change in this cottage plan. With the building taking up less of the lot’s width, an ell seems to be an addition, yet in many others it is clearly part of the original design. The ell, such as can be seen on the Dexter Holbrook house at 495 Salem Street, produced a small enclosed yard in front of the building creating a self-contained unit more turned in upon itself than in other designs of the period.

Another prevalent development was even more radical because it meant sacrificing interior space of the Cape Cod cottage to decorative elements

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which only fashion dictated. In this version of the Cape Cod house the ridge of the ridge of the gable roof is perpendicular to the street and one of the gable end bays is sacrificed to a recessed porch which reaches back two or three bays of the long elevation. Under the porch is the main entrance with sidelights, pilasters and minimal entablature. Two delightful adaptations of the Greek Revival occur as a result of this recessed porch which is itself a marvelous vernacular interpretation of local architectural design.

The first of these is the extension of the cornice return in the gable end to the full depth of the porch. The result is a starting asymmetry created by a conventional cornice return to one side and an extra long one over the porch. In both instances at the porch corner and at the corner of the house the cornice return is supported by a pilaster. The second feature which gave rise to some delightfully playful forms is found in the porch posts. In its more traditional expressions these posts take the form of a baseless Doric column such as on the house at 14 North Avenue, 36 Union Street, 83 Union Street or 818 Union Street. In some of the later houses of this recessed porch type, builders expressed the fact that these columns were purely decorative and doing no work. Instead of columns, the porch supports were replaced by light wood compositions some suggesting columns as at 495 Salem Street where a capital is implied or others in a more fanciful vein such as the ones on the house at 43 Hingham Street.

The posts on this last example are a minimal sign of a growing awareness in Rockland of mid-nineteenth-century picuturesque styles such as the Gothic Revival. Although the Gothic Revival was clearly known it did not attract many home builders in this area. The Stoddard house at 163 Hingham Street with its carved vergeboard and steep gables is an exception. The 13

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Gothic Revival is also the source of the steeply pitched gable on the Cape Cod cottages at 399 Market Street and 53 Pleasant Street among others.

The changes in building styles at mid-century reflected a society undergoing significant transformation in its economic and social order. As early as 1820, the process of uniting groups of shoemakers under one roof with several of them performing specialized tasks had begun. This increased the volume of trade and altered the economic structure of the town as wealth began to concentrate in the hands of Rockland’s entrepreneurs. The first firm, Loud and Hunt, functioned between 1820 and 1830.

The construction of the Old Colony Railroad which was completed in 1845 contributed in the factories to reach markets easily. The construction of the railroad also brought an important immigrant group to Rockland as the Irish workers remained after the completion of the line.

Between 1840 and 1860, Abington’s major market was New Orleans. Trade with this southern city “gave a spring and great encouragement to the shoe trade and did much to make this town what it is in this leading manufacture.” (10) These ties to the South caused a severe at the start of the Civil War; however, the demand for goods for the Union Army soon repaired most of the damage.

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In 1869, the Hanover Branch Railroad linked Abington directly to the main line of

the Old Colony Railroad and provided a significant stimulus to the town’s shoe industry

and its economic growth. This good fortune of Rockland’s shoe manufactures had its impact on building design as well. Travel to many parts of the country as well as a desire to express this new found wealth coincided with the popularity of the Italianate style, a basically neo-classical design which stressed a freedom of plan and decorative features such as bays, brackets and paired windows and doors. In general. round forms contrasted with rectangular post lintel patterns of the Greek Revival.

As in all things new, Rockland was not quick to embrace the Italianate style. At first, it was simply crossed with the Greek Revival. The Dexter Holbrook cottage at 495 Salem Street has cornice returns in its gable end under which a cornice supported by Italianate brackets is applied duplicating the pediment implied by the cornice returns. Large Italianate house appear in Rockland in the 1860’s. For the most part they continue to mix Greek Revival and Italianate forms. The George Wood house at 812 Union Street, for example, is a two-and-a-half story ell-shaped building. The late Greek Revival influence is seen in the gable end to the street of one of its principle elevations, in the cornice returns, in the heavy cornice pilasters and in the heavy entranceways which have wide pilasters supporting large entablatures above them. Even in plan the house is more Greek Revival than Italianate. yet applied with all these Greek elements are paired brackets and heavy window caps out of the Italianate idiom. The round arch window hood of the window in the gable end and its round light is also an Italianate feature. Although none

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survive, evidence indicates that factories were built at this time in the sane style. (11)

Two large Italianate house appear in this period near one another at 31 Union Street and 233 Market Street. Built by successful shoe manufactures, these houses are more purely Italianate than most of those constructed in Rockland. The square massing, wide overhanging eaves, double doors and brackets are all signs of Italianate design. The round arch hood over each one of them is a distinctive Italianate feature. It was common at this time for Rockland’s shoe manufactures to locate their homes near their factories. Thus, W. G. Perry’s house, 233 Market Street, shared the lot with his plant.

An interesting pair of simple houses built side by side at 275 and 283 Market Street by Nathaniel and George Briggs are good examples of the Italianate. Both have a five-bay facade to the street and a strong central element stressed by double windows in the second story, double doors below and a porch with chamfered paneled posts. The earlier house built in 1874 has brick foundation. In this period brick began to replace granite as the major foundation material of Rockland’s homes.

Both of the Briggs brothers at the time they built their houses were shoemakers. Their houses make a very significant point about Rockland’s working class homes. Form the every beginning the workers of Rockland’s found ways of constructing for themselves simple but elegant residences. Perhaps because they fit large families with many working members in small spaces, or because they shared these houses with renters, Rockland’s workers lived in relatively well-designed free-standing homes on rather

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(11) . Hobart, Engraving facing page 290.

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Large parcels of land. It is, furthermore, and interesting aspect of Rockland’s architectural history that the simple worker’s cottages of every style have survived where the elegant homes of some the later shoe factory owners have not.

Another style competed with the Italianate during the period 1865-1880. Known as the Second Empire style, the distinguishing feature is a mansard roof in the upper story of a building. The homes of several leading businessmen were constructed in this mode, as well as homes for the middle and lower classes. The Alonzo W. Perry House at 115 Union Street and the Joseph S. Turner House at 144 Webster Street illustrate two variations of large Second Empire homes built in the 1870’s. The Perry House s two stories high with dormers flanked by stylized pilasters supported a shed roof. The Turner House contrasts sharply as a three story building with simple pedimented dormers. Elements of both houses are found on smaller homes. For example, the Henry B. Arnold House at 25 Pacific Street, built for a shoe factory foreman, is ornamented with dormers similar to those on the Perry

House. AT 122 Pacific Street is a house constructed by a local developer and for many years rented b y working class families. Its boxy appearance, diminutive brackets and pedimented dormers are similar to the Turner House.

Rockland’s most outstanding example of the Second Empire style, and perhaps the best example of nineteenth-century architecture in this town, is the R. J. Lane House, built circa 1874 at 21 Union Street. This unusual residence has extraordinary deeply recessed round arch windows articulated by heavy architrave moldings on each elevation. The central pavilion on the west elevation has a segmental arch entrance above is a canopy

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supported by brackets. On either side of the pavilion are two very narrow, deeply recessed round arch lights. The windows in the mansard roof are especially interesting as the are set in round-topped dormers whose concaves side reflect the profile of the mansard. Also distinctive are the heavy modillion blocks which boldly trace the lower cornice of the roof giving definition to the large concave dormer over the central pavilion. In order to accentuate the curvilinear character of the entire design, the building’s corner posts are rounded on the exterior corners.

The Second Empire style achieved somewhat more popularity in Rockland’s commercial architecture. Most examples have been destroyed, such as the Standard Building, or seriously altered, such as the first rice Building. The best surviving example is the former Randall’s Express Building, constructed around 1874 next to the railroad tracks at 167 Union Street. A relatively plain example of the style, the building’s distinguishing feature are the large veranda and corner bay window added later in the nineteenth century.

The advent of the Second Empire style in Rockland roughly coincided with the formation of the town itself. The immediate cause of secession was the construction of an expensive school building in Abington Center in 1871. he initial appropriation was viewed as more than what was proportionally spent on other schools in the town, but when costs exceeded expectations the issue became a cause celebre. This provided an issue to rally the inhabitants of East Abington in favor of separation. The convincing rationale for a break, however, was provided by the belief that their village was destined to develop into an industrial center larger than

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the rest of Abington. (12)

The new town of Rockland was formed in 1874, its name deriving from the local rocky soil. The proponents of the new town proved correct in their predictions of industrial supremacy, although this did not occur immediately. A Bird’s-Eye View of Rockland as it appeared in 1881 provided an accurate record of the town as it was on the eve of its most significant period of industrial expansion, lasting some thirty-five years.

This development was actually part of a continuing trend in the growth of the companies. In 1857 forty-three shoe factories were replaced by a few large companies. In 1857 forty- three shoe factories existed in East Abington. By 1881, this number declined to seventeen.

At that tine they were still mostly, small, locally owned companies scattered throughout the town. The number continued to diminish to fourteen in 1885, nine in 1896, and finally six in 1906. At the same time those that survived grew large, concentrating shoe production in the hands of a few companies.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the two largest factories were J. S. Turner on Park Street and E. Lane and Co. at the foot of Union Street. In 1892 a trolley car system was constructed in Rockland, allowing shoemakers to travel easily to and from work across town. The presence of this system was essential for Rockland to attract new industry. Indeed, by 1896 R. Lane and Co. had gone into receivership and a Boston-based firm, Rice and Hutchins, had built their “Factory C” near East Water Street. They were followed in 1900 by the Hurly Shoe Company of Brockton which built a factory on Church Street. Six years later

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(12) . The Rockland Booklet Committee, Rockland Centennial, 1874-1974, p. 8.

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another Brockton firm, the Emerson Shoe Company, constructed a factory building on Maple Street. In 1910 the four largest factories in Rockland belonged to Rice and Hutchins, Hurly Emerson and E. T. Wright and Co. Of these only E. T. Wright was a native operation. Two smaller Rockland shoe companies also existed at that time J. E. French and Co. Grove Street and J. W. Spence and Co. (formerly Turners) on Park Street.

Clearly the shoe industry continued to dominate life in Rockland. Even many of the other small factories could be related to this industry. Prominent among these during the early 1900’s were, the Thompson shoe sine factory, and S. E. Packard and Son’s paper box factory on Grove Street.

The architecture of these industrial buildings changed considerably from the Italianate style shoe factories of the mid-nineteenth century. The new buildings achieved near anonymity in design. These multi-story functional structures were intended to allow for innumerable additions, all repeating the basic formula of a clapboard frame structure with a low-pitched gable roof, sometimes including a monitor, and banks of double-hung sash to provide adequate lighting. This traditional mill design never expressed the more advanced concepts in factory construction which were prevalent in other industries.

Many changes in architectural fashions accompanied the growth of the shoe industry. In general, however, the town continued to build in traditional ways and was slow to reflect the most recent stylistic developments. Few of Rockland’s leading businessmen constructed large mansions during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. this reflected perhaps the fact that much of the community’s industrial wealth did not

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One of the large late-nineteenth-century home of architectural merit is the Amos Phelps House, built in 1891 at 379 Union Street. This Queen Anne style structure was the work of S. M. Turner, a local builder responsible for many homes in this area. It is marked by such distinctive features as a multi-planed roof, two story octagonal bay which rises to a turret, projecting gable ends with saw tooth shingles and recessed porches and windows.

The house is also notable for the use of polychrome stone for the foundation. The absence of large numbers of new homes for the wealthy does not reflect a lack of residential construction for the lower and middle classes, where the population of shoe workers continued to increase. Nor did changes in the nature of the shoe industry in Rockland affect the housing patterns of the working class. It is characteristic of Rockland that the large tenement houses found in other late nineteenth-century factory towns did not predominate hare. Most workers continued to live in small houses on half-acre lots, sometimes renting rooms to other workers. This lack of congested conditions must have contributed to a sense of small town rural life in what was a busy industrial center.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century there were basically two overlapping trends in the 1860’s and 1870’s into the 1880’s, often with the traditional L- shaped plan. Examples of this type, characterized by the use Italianate style lintels and brackets, can be found at 104 and 114 West Water Street and at 566 Webster Street. The first two were constructed for factory foremen, while the latter was built by a family of shoe workers

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In the majority of homes built during 1885-1910,however,Queen Anne Style influences predominated. The dwellings at 24 Grove and 25 Monroe Street’s for example, illustrate the small-scale workers cottages which are identical in plan but vary considerable in ornamentation. These rectangular structures have a main entrance and a bay window on the gable end facing the street. Over the door can be found a canopy supported by brackets,while the bay window and gables frequently contain a rich display of Queen Anne ornamentation. Typically this would include shingles and vergeboard in a variety of shapes and patterns.

More elaborate examples of housing for shoe workers are typified by the Queen Anne style residences at 100 Union Street,494 Webster Street,64 Hart stuff Street and on Franklin Street between Stanton and school Streets. These homes were generally built for factory workers who often took on boarders. Often times these houses were built by local developers who would rent them for a number of years to a family which would later purchase the property.

The house at 100 Union Street features ornamentation commonly found in Rockland. Its decorative details illustrate the great variety of textures typical of the Queen Anne style. The rich diaper work in the gable end is repeated in the pediment over the front porch. On the second story the exterior is surfaced alternatively with bands of diamond and scalloped shingles, while the first story has wooden shingles.

This decorative treatment of the walls is continued around the sides of the house which is not commonly found in Rockland. Large homes for factory foremen and other wage earners in supervisory positions were also frequently built during the late 1800 and early 1900.The house at 390 Webster Street was erected in 1884 for a foreman at

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E. T. Wright shoe factory. Queen Anne style ornamentation is again present, especially concentrated in the gable ends and on the bay windows. The asymmetrical plan, however, is considerably large and includes multiple porches typical of the style. It is these small and moderate sized homes which to a large degree define the character of Rockland’s historic residential architecture.

The Queen Anne style also figured prominently in Rockland’s commercial architecture, although few examples remain. The Webster Block, designed by the Boston firm of J. Williams Beal and Sons, was a particularly fine example which burned in 1923.

Ironically, two of the most unaltered nineteenth-century commercial buildings in Rockland are the two very late examples to the Italianate style, both built in the mid-1880’s. The two buildings at 365-75 Union and Webster Streets, provide and illustration of retardataire stylistic influences in this town.

All of Rockland’s surviving churches were built or remodeled during the late nineteenth century. All but one are typical of ecclesiastical architecture of the period, in which Gothic, Romanesque or Queen Anne style influence are present. The Congregational Church, designed by Minneapolis architect Warren H. Hayes, is especially prominent for its picturesque silhouette created by the combination of numerous tower and spires. In contrast is the Channing Unitarian Church by Boston architect Theodore Minot Clark. Its low profile and understated manipulation of masonry building materials (fieldstone, slate, stucco and brick) make this 1889 church one of the most important examples of ecclesiastical architecture in the region.

It is characteristic of Rockland architecture that little change in fashions was evident during the early years of the twentieth century,

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not with standing the fact that these years coincided with major expansion of the shoe industry. A number of houses, such as 60 George Street and 65 Union Street, demonstrate the persistence of Queen Anne style plan and ornamentation an small and medium sized homes constructed in the early 1900’s.

A few merchants and factory owners did build in the more fashionable Colonial Revival style. One of the earliest is the former house of Stephen M. Howe's at 48 Union Street. Constructed between 1892-1896, its symmetrical plan, hipped roof and portico supported by Ionic columns are typical of the style. The principle entrance has sidelights, pilasters and a lunette, while directly above a Palladian window is similarly embellished with classical pilasters and curvilinear Adamesque muntins. On the south elevation a two- story bow-shaped bay flanks a round arch corner porch, both of which contribute to the elegance of the house’s design.

Examples of this style are not numerous. Alfred W. Donovan built a large Colonial Revival residence with a two-story columned portico at 384 Union Street around 1910. His partner, Edwin T. Wright, also constructed a mansion in that style on Webster Street, which is no longer standing. Most of Rockland’s merchants continued to live in their mid- nineteenth-century homes. An exception to the general absence of unusual residential architrave built during the twentieth century is the house at 154 Union Street, constructed in 1903. The rustic character of the design, which includes shingle siding, a gable roof with exposed rafters, a foundation of large round fieldstones and heavy vergeboard with intricately carved floral patterns, gives the house a “Swiss Chalet“ styling . Combined

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with that are Colonial Revival details such as the Ionic columns on the second story porch. Certainly the most architecturally important building constructed in Rockland in this century is the Rockland Public Library, built in 1903-4. This Classical Revival building has a simple plan in which the library is articulated about a rotunda which is expressed on the exterior as a stepped dome on a round base. In the rotunda are eight marble columns of light-colored sienna marble. To either side of the rotunda are reading rooms with classical mantelpieces of oak, while on the rear are service rooms linked by a fireproof stack area. The entrance is flanked pilasters and by Ionic columns in antis on a central pavilion whose corners are defined by quoins. To either side of the central block are triple windows with heavy Mullins and a transom. Terra cotta quoins define the corner of the building, while a terra cotta cornice with guttae binds the entire composition. The roof of the building is enlivened with terra cotta cresting in an anthemion design.

The years of greatest prosperity for Rockland’s shoe industry occurred during the period leading up to and including World War I. Production was increasing during the early 1900’s, and when war broke out in Europe important foreign contracts were obtained. With America’s entry into the war in 1917, the four leading companies in Rockland all obtained large Navy contracts. The period of the 1920’s must have been less prosperous. but the town was still able to construct two large brick school buildings. Several new commercial building buildings were erected on Union Street after serious fires in 1923 and 192. These buildings include the Bigelow Block, built circa 1924 at 295-305 Union Street, and the Phoenix Block, constructed at

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315-327 Union in 1929. Designed in the neo-classical style characteristic of suburban architecture of that period, those buildings are ornamented with a rich variety of molded concrete classical details and are Rockland’s outstanding commercial buildings.

The Great Depression profoundly affected Rockland, as it did most industrial communities. Three large shoe companies, Rice and Hutchins, Emerson and Hurley, left Rockland during the 1930’s Only the town’s native company, E. T. Wright and Co.., survived the ravages of these times. In this context of closing factories and little new construction a post office building was erected on Webster Street in 1932-33.

Architecturally its distinctive design by the firm of J. Williams Beal and Sons combines neo-classical with quasi-modern elements.

Today the factories of Rockland’s once thriving shoe companies house light industry. Much of the town’s historic commercial architecture has been lost since 1930’s, leaving only a handful of intact survivors. Although scattered, many examples of historic residential architecture remain in relatively unaltered condition.

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