The Earl Company Factory Rehabilitation/34 Tremaine Street LLC Development Receives 2025 Mayor Thomas M. Menino Legacy Award

Earl Company Factory, Leominster

Preservation Mass is pleased to announce that the Earl Company Factory Rehabilitation/34 Tremaine Street LLC is the recipient of a 2025 Mayor Thomas M. Menino Legacy Award.

The Earl Company Factory was purpose-built for local horn and celluloid manufacturing in 1899—it is one of only four known surviving wood-frame comb factories from the period in Leominster, one of the Commonwealth’s Gateway Cities. Downtown’s significant disinvestment over the last 50 years caused a high vacancy rate and the loss of several historic structures. The rehabilitation has contributed to ongoing revitalization in downtown and preserved a part of Leominster’s history.

The building has a wood clapboard exterior, a brick Power House, and smokestack. The first floor was designed for offices, finishing, and shipping, while the second floor housed manufacturing. The Factory remained in use for over 100 years, producing a range of plastic goods from combs to submarine dials for the Manhattan project inWorld War II. The last manufacturing tenant, Cornelius E. Buckley Company, closed in 2008. The building was vacant until the Buckleys sold it to Cougar Capital Management in 2021.

The project restored the façade with replica windows, replaced the asbestos siding with replica wood clapboard siding, rebuilt the Power House walls, retained the smokestack, implemented new building systems, reinforced the roof with structural steel, constructed code-compliant stairs, and replicated historic wood flooring. The property’s first-floor office was also converted into a residential unit.

The project holds 17 high-quality rental units and was completed in 2024 with development costs of $6.4 million. Funding included state and federal historic tax credits, Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) funding, conventional construction financing, and MassDevelopment loan financing. It will be individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.