Boston, MA ~ 1646 * The North Battery of Boston Harbor was built by Major-General John Leverett in 1646 at the bottom of Copp’s Hill at Merry’s Point. We now know the location as Battery Wharf. This battery was built from timbers and filled with earth. A strategic point of defense, it covered both the … Read More
HATFIELD, MA Long ago, in the days before we knew better, tobacco was a principal crop in the Connecticut River Valley. The rich alluvial soil was ideal, and farmers planted the big leaf from Bennington to Hartford. Tobacco barns are still a common sight throughout the valley. Longleaf Lumber recently purchased the wood from several … Read More
MILTON, MA ~ 1870 The recent sale of the Milton storage house for Baker’s Chocolate, a building on the National Historic Register, resulted in a win-win for the site’s new developer and Longleaf Lumber. Altering the outside of an historic structure is not allowed once historic status has been bestowed upon a building, but interior … Read More
DANVERS, MA ~ 1874 One of our most interesting and recent sources of reclaimed wood is the Danvers State Hospital. Construction began on this incredible red brick Victorian Gothic style structure in 1874. Soonafter, in 1878, patients were admitted. Although it was architecturally designed by Boston’s Nathaniel Bradlee, its functional design was informed and inspired … Read More
Quincy, MA ~1933 Quincy’s Fore River Bridge was built in 1933 just below the giant Fore River Shipyard. Thousands of ships have passed under this drawbridge over the past eight decades, including the U.S.S. Wasp and the U.S.S. Massachusetts, both built at the shipyard. By 2004, the bridge was beyond operational repair and demolition began. … Read More
STATEN ISLAND, NY This building was unusually clean when Longleaf Lumber first visited with an environmental consultant. Once the Staten Island manufacturing home of Proctor & Gamble’s Ivory Soap division, the entire structure effervesced hygiene. Port Ivory was built in the 1930s, not far from the Goethal’s Bridge to New Jersey. Proctor & Gamble has … Read More
SOMERSWORTH, NH ~ 1823 During the early 1800s, settlers moved north from Dover, New Hampshire, up the Salmon Falls River in search of water power and land. They built gristmills and sawmills along the river as they went. In 1823 the Great Falls Manufacturing Company purchased their first mill (which included a gristmill, land, and … Read More
AMERICAN CHESTNUT Longleaf has acquired a large quantity of American Chestnut logs which have been discovered in the deep hollows of the Appalachian Mountains. These logs were part of the old growth forest of chestnut devastated by the blight of the early 20th century. The trees were so large that despite the fact that these … Read More
FALL RIVER, MA ~ 1821 Serving many purposes over the years, this building was built in 1821 to house the operations for the Fall River Iron Works, which played an important role in the development of the Fall River textile industry. Located on the shores of Mount Hope Bay near the mouth of the Taunton … Read More
BAKERVILLE, CT ~ 1859 The Old Mill of Bakerville, CT, built in 1859 by John Scott Baker, was a three-story building that replaced a tannery on the same site. The mill had hydro powered wooden wheels with metal shafts churning water that streamed from a reservoir above it. These wheels turned belts for machines on … Read More
