New England Confectionery Company
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Novartis Pharmaceuticals (New England Confectionery Company)
1926, Lockwood, Greene and Company; 2003–2004 exterior renovated, Tsoi/Kobus and Associates; interior renovated, Stubbins Associates. 254 Massachusetts Ave.
When Cambridge was once the candy-making capital of the region, the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) was the jewel in its crown and the oldest multiline candy company in the country. Oliver R. Chase of Boston, who formed Chase and Company in 1847, invented the first American candy machine. In 1901, this company merged with two other candy manufacturers to form NECCO. Lockwood, Greene and Company, the preeminent mill-engineering firm of the period, designed the six-story reinforced concrete factory faced with buff brick and limestone, as well as the smaller power plant. Horizontal windows, originally filled with steel factory sash and later replaced with glass blocks, generously light the interiors. Novartis has handsomely renovated the building for their pharmaceutical business, installing a sash configuration closer to the original design. Across Massachusetts Avenue at numbers 265–275, the MIT Museum (Donald Desganges, N51–52) inhabits former early-twentieth-century concrete and brick loft buildings and occasionally mounts MIT-oriented architectural exhibitions.
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Location: Cambridge, MassachusettsRegional Overviews:Architect:Styles:no metadata available
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Citation
Keith N. Morgan, "Novartis Pharmaceuticals (New England Confectionery Company)", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-CS6.
Print Source
Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 294-294.
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