FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's number USGS Quad Area(s) 1'01'111 Number

Massachusetts Historical Commission I 56·150 II Marlborough I

80 Boylston Street
\ostoo, Massachusetts 02116

Town Ma r1hmough

Place (neighborhood or village) _

Prospect HiIJ

Address 72 Jefferson Street

S.H. Howe/B.A. Corbin sole
Historic Name factOl) and Koehler Heel
Plate Factory
Uses: Present manufacturing

Original shoe-related mauufacturing.L.;

Date of Construction 1':arly 1890's

Source Sanborn maps

Style/Form utilitarian

Architect/Builder unknown

Exterior Material:

Foundation brick

Wall{frim brick, wood, synthetic siding

Roof not 'lisible

Outbuildings/Secondary Structures at west

end' storage tanks, large one-story storehouse

Major Alterations (with dates), modern shed-

roofed addu on facade, 2-story addu Send w

COHug. metal extensions. 2-stOlY brick & wood
addn linking hrick fac~ & wood-frame N\V
building. Most windows replaced.
Condition ir
a..•...
f•.•.• . _

Moved [Xl no [ ] yes Date N/A

,

Acreage 1 4acres

n -corded by Anne f.:nrbes Setting South side of Jefferson along fanner

Organization for Marlboro Hist ComDl-._ Marlboro Branch of Fitchburg RR; opposite

Date _. 3/1519.5. parkjball field Parking lot in fronL

iNvENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Kelleher Field

Massachusetts Historical Commission

80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form No.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 y 915

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PARKS AND LANDSCAPES FORM

VISUAL/DESIGN ASSESSMENT [J see continuation sheet

Describe topography and layout. Note structures such as bandstands, gazebos, sheds, stone walls, monuments, and fountains.
Note landscaping features such as formal plantings, agricultural plantings, and bodies of water. Ifpossible, compare current
appenrarrce with original.

Kelleher Field is a roughly triangular park of about nine acres, stretching from Jefferson to Fremont
Streets. A football/baseball field occupies its main, center section, and a modern playground with
wooden structures and benches is located in the west corner, at Jefferson and Hudson Streets. The I
park's most significant structure is the rare surviving concrete-block grandstand, which lines most of I
,!
the Jefferson Street edge of the property. Although it has been altered somewhat by the addition
of a raised wooden section over the center rear seats, and by modern decorative concrete openwork
panels that screen the eight large windows along the street elevation, the grandstand is otherwise
largely unchanged. The flat plane of the street wall is articulated by vertical and horizontal concrete
bands, and punctuated by the eight large windows, each with 32 panes visible through the concrete
screening. The main entrance to the field is through a central archway in the grandstand, located
beneath a shallow-peaked gable, where the year "1939" appears in a circular concrete panel. Inside
the arched passage, double-leaf glass-and-panel doors on either side still open into the space beneath
the seats.

Flanking either end of the grandstand, facing the street, is a small, freestanding wood-frame ticket
booth. A chain-link fence rings the field. At the north edge along Fremont Street is a set of
wooden bleachers, backed by a fieldstone retaining wall. The only other structures in the park are
located at the southeast end, where a chainlink backstop stands in front of a modern concrete-block
food stand.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE I] see continuation sheer

Discuss history of use. Evaluate the historical associations of the landscapelpark wiin the community.

This recreation facility, located as it is in the densely-populated center part of the city, was the
subject of great civic pride when it was opened in 1939 as Ward Six Park. From the latter part of
the nineteenth century through the early twentieth, baseball had been played on the open land of
Prospect Hill north of Brimsmead Street, on what came to be known as the Prospect Hill Ball
Grounds. By the 1930's, residential development was progressing northward on the hill, however,
Mildon Street was opened for new house lots, and the city developed this southern portion of the
old Tayntor family farm for a new ball field. With its new concrete grandstand that accommodated
1200 people, it was considered "one of the most modem and outstanding venues in the area."
(Centennial '90.)

In about 1980, to honor two-time mayor Frank H. Kelleher, the park was renamed Kelleher Field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:

Maps and atlases: Sanborns from 1912 (Prospect Hill ball grounds).
The Marlborough Enterprise. 10/30/39.
Centennial '90. 1990.
Marlborough Dept. of Public Works: records and photos.

[ ] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, YOIl must attach
a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
 fORM H - PARKS AND USGS Quad Area(s) Form No. Forms within
lANDSCAPE FEATURES [Marlboro I _Y __ ] [9i5--·I_--_--_~
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street
......oston, Massachusetts 02116 Town. Marlborough

Place (neighborhood or village) _

Prospect HiJJ
y ):

Address Ieffe [son Street

Historic Name Kelleher Field/Ward Six Park.-

Ownership: [] private [X] public

Type of Park or Landscape Feature

(check one):

[ ] park [ ] farm land

[ ] green or common [ ] mine or quarry
[ ] garden [ ] training field
[ ] boulevard/parkway
[X] other hal1 field

Sketch Map Date of Construction __ 19_3_9 _

Draw a map of the area indicating properties within
it. Number each property for which individual Source town records
inventory forms have been completed. Label streets,
including route numbers, if any. A ttach a separate Landscape architect __ ll~n_k_D_OWD~ _
sheet if space is not sufficient here. Indicate north.
Location of Plans _

Dot applicable

Alterations/Intrusions (with dates} _

!AI 1975- ge.neral upgrading. addition of

playground; concrete-block ..window screen

panels on grandstand.
Condition .._._ .._fa_i•..•.
r/.,...go_o_d _

Acreage approxi1uate1y 9 acres

In primarily residential neighborhood
Recorded h~y A_n_n_e_r~s, consultant Setting at iotersectioD of Jefferson and Hud-

Organization for Marlboro His! Carom -son Streers..and IlOob to Fremont Turn-ofs..;

Date 3Ll SL95 the centuJ:)! industrial buildings opposite

BUILDING FORM

ARCHITECfURAL DESCRIPTION [ ] see continuation sheet

Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings
within the community.

This large factory/storage building at the west end of Jefferson Street was once two buildings. Its
original portion, built in the early 1890's, is a long rectangular two-story brick, flat-roofed building, 1
with a large three-story square tower abutting the northwest comer. (See Section A on sketch map). f
Although the old wire-glass windows of the main block have been replaced, the new sash is set into
the original double- and triple-unit segmental-arched openings. The four that line the west end of
the upper story facade are unusually low in proportion. The windows of the tower, two bays on each
side, appear to have their original 6-over-6-sash. In recent years, brick, wooden, corrugated metal
and synthetic-sided additions have been made to the north front, and east and west ends of the
building. The latter now links it to a long one-story wood-frame building with a shallow-pitched roof
(Section B), its gable-end facing north toward Jefferson Street. That building, clad in synthetic siding
over its original wood shingles, has triple nine-light windows along the long sides. A hip-roofed ell
abuts its northwest comer, and a shed-roofed ell extends to the rear.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [ ] see continuation sheet (

Explain history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the
building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. /

This factory complex is one of the rare surviving illustrations in Marlborough of a smaller satellite plant
--three, in fact--of a larger manufacturing company. In the early 1890's, after the large S.H. Howe
Shoe Company had expanded under the management of Louis P. Howe, it acquired this parcel of
former Tayntor/Howe farmland, and built the brick building. Although by 1894 S.H. Howe was
operating four major factories in the West Village (the "Diamond A, F, a", and "M"), this was their
first building to have the advantages of a railroad siding location. Its original function is not known,
but by 1906 it was used as a warehouse, as was a newer building just to the east. The large square
tower at the northwest comer of the brick building was used for tank storage.

In about 1910, Jefferson Street, which had formerly ended well east of this parcel, was extended past (
a new 1906 roundhouse on the site of today's 36 Jefferson. (It was extended through to Hudson Street
about twenty years later.) Shortly thereafter, B.A. Corbin & Son acquired most of S.H. Howe, (see
Form #117), and converted the brick building to a cut sole factory, storing leather in the east
warehouse. At about the same time, the Koehler Manufacturing Company, which had moved into
the former "Diamond a" plant at the comer of Howland and Chestnut Streets, built the one-story
westernmost building for a heel plate factory. During the 1920's the brick building became the
Frye/Corbin Box Company, a satellite business jointly formed by Corbin and the Frye Shoe Co. to
make shoe boxes. They used the large east warehouse to store paper for the boxes. By 1929 the
Koehler Company was manufacturing miners' lamps at their main factory, and was using the former
heel-plate building for storage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [] see continuation sheet

Maps and Atlases: Sanborns from 1896.
Marlborough Directories.
Marlboro Historical Society: Moineau photo collection.

[ ] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completed
National Register Criteria Statement form is attached.