REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED
The Amesbury Carriage Museum invites members of both New England chapters of the SIA to tour industrial Amesbury Massachusetts on September 10. Registration begins at 9:00 with the tour starting at 9:30 am. Space is limited to 40 people. Please register by September 6 to ensure your place for the day.
The tour includes several special opportunities – access to early textile and carriage-making buildings, a process tour through an operating, traditional silver workshop, and a visit to a 21st-century innovation center and maker space.
Tour leaders will provide an orientation to the town and describe the museum’s ongoing effort to research, survey, and catalog the industrial history of Amesbury. Coffee and lunch are provided in the registration fee. Don’t miss out - the day promises to be full of interesting information and unusual industrial sites.
While Amesbury is well known as a center for carriage manufacturing, volunteer researchers are uncovering a broader history of industry and innovation. Abundant water power and water transportation attracted entrepreneurs and industrialists as early as 1641. They built grist mills and sawmills on the falls of the Powow River, followed by iron works, nail-making mills, textile factories, hat and shoe shops, and carriage and automobile works. Industrial figures Ezra Worthen and Paul Moody, well known for their successes in Waltham and Lowell, got their start in Amesbury’s textile factories.
Volunteer researchers will describe what they’ve found during the first six months of the Amesbury Industrial Survey. A walking tour of industrial sites will fill most of the day, including visits to Old Newbury Crafters, manufacturing companies, and Amesbury Industrial Supply, old-style hardware store. Building owners have saved these structures from the wrecking ball and adapted them to innovative 21st century uses.
The registration fee of $20 per person includes morning coffee and lunch provided by The Noshery, Amesbury. Please note - the annual SNEC-SIA business meeting will be held during lunch.