Preservation Plan: Rogers Locomotive Works Erecting Shop

Clarke Caton Hintz

From executive summary: "The subject of this preservation plan is the Rogers Locomotive Works Erecting Shop at 2 Market Street, Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey. Constructed in 1873 by the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works to assemble locomotives, the four-story brick building housed the sheet iron shop on the 4th floor, the pattern shop on the 3rd, the machine shop on the 2nd and the erecting shop on the first. From the double doors, completed locomotives would leave the building. The building was used in the manufacture of locomotives for about 40 years. It was then used for textile manufacturing and eventually for storage after it was sold by Rogers. In 1978, the title to the building was transferred to the City of Paterson by the Great Falls Development Corporation in exchange for (1) a 50-year lease on the second, third and fourth floors of the building; (2) a promise to rehabilitate the building using available Federal grant funds; and (3) a promise to “create a museum or cultural center on the first floor of the building. In 1982, the Paterson Museum was relocated here, and the building continues to be used as museum and office space. The lease expires in 2028. The original brick building is a four-story 25 x 5 bay long rectangle. Brick piers separate full height recessed bays. Topped by denticulated brick arches, these bays house windows and doors which are capped by denticulated or segmental brick arches. The top of the arched bays abut brick dentils which wrap around the entire building, including the gable ends. These dentils are topped by a wood cornice. The roof is a gable with dropped side aisles on the east and west elevations which create clerestory windows at the fourth floor. Several one and two-story brick additions were appended to the east elevation in the 19th century. With the exception of the northeast addition which has segmental brick arched windows on the north elevation and a corbelled belt course on the east elevation, the additions are largely unadorned with decorative elements limited to the courses of arched brick headers which top most of the window openings. All the sections are topped by wood cornices. This report will document the existing conditions at the Rogers Erecting Shop and will provide prioritized recommendations to guide all future capital investments in the property. While individual projects have been undertaken, no comprehensive project has been completed on the building in almost 40 years. This report will inform the necessary capital projects." Funding for this project was provided in part through a fiscal year 2015 Historic Preservation Fund grant to the City of Paterson (project number NJ-15-104) administered by the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office (grant number P15AF00186) and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Paterson, New Jersey is a Certified Local Government. The Rogers Locomotive Works is a National Historic Landmark.

Preservation Plan: Rogers Locomotive Works Erecting Shop

Collections