MassachusettsThe Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company at 360 Elm Street in Westfield is a 3 1/2-story red-brick industrial building with limestone trim built in 1887-1892, originally by the A.G. Barnes Whip Company. It exemplifies typical late-19th-century industrial construction, with a gable-end orientation to the street, segmental-arched windows with limestone sills, corbelled brickwork, and an original 40-foot elevator shaft; the interior notably retains much of its original whipmaking machinery, still in situ and in working order. Westfield, known since 1801 as "The Whip City of the World," once supported more than 60 whip firms and dominated the worldwide manufacture of carriage and harness-racing whips, and this building is the sole surviving operating whip manufactory. Listed under criteria A and C at the local level, it is significant for its association with the whip industry that constituted much of the city's economy and as an intact, well-preserved example of that industry.
Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company
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Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company is a landmark in Westfield, Hampden County. It is one of 3,654 landmarks documented in Hampden County, among 3,815 historic sites cataloged across the county on MassRoam.
The site sits at 42.1282, -72.7469 near Westfield. The nearest cataloged historic site is Bergin Lighting Company Building (landmark), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Century 21 Hometown Associates Business Office, House at 3 Emery St, and Sackett House.
This record is drawn from public historical records. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
The Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company factory at 360 Elm Street in Westfield was built about 1887 and is the best-preserved of the whip factories that once made the town a national center of whip production. Originally built for the A.G. Barnes Whip Company and later owned by the United States Whip Company, the brick building passed through several owners and uses, retaining much of its specialized whipmaking machinery. In 1957 it was acquired by the Westfield Whip Company, the last surviving whipmaker in a town that once had many, which still uses some of the original equipment. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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