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The M.M. Rhodes and Sons Company is a historical button factory complex at 12 Porter Street in Taunton, Massachusetts. Established in 1861 and operational until 2014, it was one of the first successful papier-mâché shoe button manufacturers in the United States. Its surviving factory complex is one of the last early 20th-century complexes left on Taunton's once heavily industrialized south side. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.^[1]

Description and history

The Rhodes Company factory is a complex of seven connected buildings, occupying 1.9 acres (0.77 ha) on the southeast side of Porter Street, southwest of downtown Taunton. Its main building, constructed in 1880, is a long three-story brick structure oriented perpendicular to the street. The other buildings of the complex are attached to this one, roughly forming a U shape with a central courtyard that is open to Porter Street. The oldest building on the site, is a c. 1865 wood frame building that extends along Porter Street southwest of the main building. This building was expanded several times between 1865 and about 1922.^[2]

The M.M. Rhodes and Sons Company was founded in 1861 by Marcus Morton Rhodes, when he first began renting space on this site. Rhodes manufactured a variety of items, including parts for hoop skirts and a variety of nails and tacks. He eventually designed a papier-mâché shoe button-making machine, and this became one of the mainstays of the company business after supplies from France were cut off by the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. This prompted him to enlarge the physical plant, building the main plant that served the company until its closure in 2014. It remained a family-run business during this entire period.^[2]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Taunton, Massachusetts

References