Harding-Winter Street Manufacturing District - Worcester MA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Harding and Winter Street Manufacturing District contains a group of 3 to 6 story buildings built between 1870 and 1898. The buildings are located immediately east of the former Blackstone Canal bed. The canal was filled in to form Harding Street. The district was a major center for boot and shoe manufacturing in the 1880s. The shoe industry grew to be the 3rd largest industry in Worcester. The manufacturers employed 2600+ persons in 1885, with 25% of those workers working in the Heywood and Walker Factories. In the 1890s the Hill Envelope Factory brought to the area one of the city's largest and oldest envelope manufacturers. After the closing of the Walker Company during the 1890s a few small businesses located to the area such as the Israel Underwear Factory and Worcester Stained Glass Works.

Today the buildings are in various conditions from empty and deteriorating to vital living and enterprise space. The Hill Envelope Company building is now an apartment complex called the Canal Loft and the Worcester Stain Glass Works is a restaurant. The JH & GM Walker Shoe Factory is unoccupied and not in the greatest condition. The office buildings for Walker Shoe Company and Israel Underwear Company have been torn down.

Street address: 28-88 Winter St Worcester, MA USA 01604 County / Borough / Parish: Worcester Year listed: 1980 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1850-1874 Historic function: Industry/Processing/Extraction Current function: Industry/Processing/Extraction/Domestic Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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