THE PERKINS PRINTING AND ENGRAVING PLANT

 

 

The Perkins building, tucked in behind and beside the Cushing property, has lived many lives in its 217 years, serving first as the workshop of silversmith, engraver, scientist, and inventor Jacob Perkins. The building was designed for stability and security - paper money was printed here using Perkins' anti-counterfeiting process.

Jacob Perkins moved to London in 1818 and died there in 1849. Back in Newburyport, his shop was used by his brother Abraham and other members of the Perkins family, and then as an industrial building of one kind or another until the 20th century. At one point before 1948, parts of the building and chimney were partially demolished to create a garage front, and five thousand bricks were given to restore the central chimney of the Jackman-Willett House in Newbury.

The Lagoulis family acquired the property in 1973, and in 2006, Jim Lagoulis asked for permission to turn "the vacant and deteriorating building" into apartments. As the oldest generally intact industrial building in Newburyport, preservation-minded people came out to try to save the building from the invasive renovations and alterations that would have been required to turn the building into living space.

In 2007, after a year of negotiations, the building was purchased by the museum with significant support from donors including the Newburyport Bank, and in 2008, the Community Preservation Act helped to fund the initial restoration and stabilization of the building.

These first crucial projects included rebuilding the roof, stabilizing three of the masonry walls, the interior structure, preserving wooden flooring, replacing a staircase and pouring a reinforced cement first floor. Wooden beams and one rusted steel beam were replaced with steel-reinforced wood. Stabilization was completed by May 2010, and the building was officially opened.

 

In 2017, the Museum of Old Newbury opened its first exhibition in the Perkins Printing and Engraving Plant, Captains and Currency. The exhibit told the personal and professional stories of the Brown and Perkins families in the second floor of the space, while the first and third floors were used for limited storage and programming, but was largely unused.

For more on the Museum of Old Newbury see:
https://www.newburyhistory.org/

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
VISITING JACOB PERKINS' HOMESTEAD (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v06n23a11.html)
JACOB PERKINS MINT BUILDING THREATENED (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n33a04.html)
IMPENDING SALE OF JACOB PERKINS NEWBURYPORT BUILDING (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n24a21.html)
KARL MOULTON ON THE JACOB PERKINS BUILDING (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n25a20.html)
JACOB PERKINS BUILDING RESTORATION UPDATE (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n51a21.html)
JACOBS PERKINS PRINTING AND ENGRAVING BUILDING OPENED (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n21a28.html)

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