New England Confectionery Company Factory facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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New England Confectionery Company Factory
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New England Confectionery Company Factory
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 Location in Massachusetts
Location in the United States
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| Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
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| Area | 3.3 acres (1.3 ha) |
| Architect | Lockwood, Greene & Co.; Hegeman Harris Co., Inc. |
| Architectural style | Moderne |
| NRHP reference No. | 05001209 |
| Added to NRHP | November 9, 2005 |
The New England Confectionery Company Factory, also known as the NECCO Candy Factory, is a historic building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's located at 250 Massachusetts Avenue. This large factory complex includes the main building, a power plant, and a modern parking garage.
The factory takes up most of a city block. It's bordered by Massachusetts Avenue, Cross Street, Albany Street, and Lansdowne Street. The building was made in the Moderne style. It uses strong concrete and is mostly covered with light brown bricks and limestone. Some parts of the building have smooth concrete as their main surface.
A cool feature of the factory was its water tower. It used to be painted to look like a giant roll of Necco Wafers candy! When the building was changed for use by Novartis, the water tower stayed. Now, it's painted with a colorful DNA pattern. This factory was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. This means it's an important historic site.
The Story of the NECCO Candy Company
The New England Confectionery Company, or NECCO, started in 1901. It was formed when three candy companies from the Boston area joined together. One of these companies, Ball and Fobes, had bought another candy maker in 1860. This company had early versions of the machines used to make Necco Wafers. Ball and Fobes also figured out how to print words on hard candies.
Building the World's Biggest Candy Factory
The NECCO factory building was constructed between 1925 and 1927. It was designed to be the company's only place for making candy. Before this, NECCO had factories in Boston. This new factory in Cambridge replaced them all.
At the time, it was the largest candy factory in the world! An engineer from the company, F. C. Lutze, designed the building. It was built by Lockwood & Greene. The factory was built in the Moderne style, which was popular for its sleek and simple look.
NECCO used this factory as its main production site for many years. They made candy there until 2003. After that, the company moved its operations to Revere.
Gallery
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This picture shows the Necco Factory in 2004. You can see the water tower painted like a roll of Necco Wafers. This photo was taken just before the tower was repainted with the Novartis design.
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A closer look at the famous water tower.
