Taunton Then and Now: Mills, homes and even Knotty Walk relatively unchanged by time
TAUNTON — The more some things change around Taunton, the more others stay the same.
Or at least, relatively the same.
Same-ish.
Today, you can still see homes that looked much like they did at the end of the 19th century.
Although some places might look pretty close to the way they did more than 100 years ago, their purpose has changed. For example, what was once one of Taunton's busiest mill enterprises, today houses several different businesses.
The relentless changes of time have also altered the surroundings of these places: where once horses and carriages trod, now cars zoom by, like around Taunton Green.
So let's take a look at what's changed, and what's stayed the same, as we take another tour of Taunton, Then and Now:
Corr Manufacturing Company
Although it’s home to several different businesses today, the factory site at 160 Middleboro Ave. in East Taunton was once the Corr Manufacturing Company.
It was founded by “Colonel” Peter H. Corr, who was known as the “Colonel” not because of military rank, but because of his time working on the personal staff of a governor of Massachusetts.
Born in County Cavan, Ireland, Corr came to Taunton as a boy, according to “A History of Taunton Massachusetts,” by William F. Hanna.
According to Find A Grave, Corr was born in 1859.
Corr began his business career by buying and selling industrial waste. He went on to establish the Corr Manufacturing Company in 1895 — “one of Taunton’s largest cotton textile factories,” according to Hanna — and he also founded the New Process Twist Drill Company on Court Street.
The factory originally had 1,000 looms and 40,000 spindles, “making it one of East Taunton’s largest employers,” Hanna writes.
Corr built 32 houses on Middleboro Avenue in 1898, known as the Corr Block, and they were rented to mill employees for 75 cents a week. You can still see some of them standing today, near the four-way intersection where Tomato & Basil is.
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Hanna describes Corr as “a flamboyant, good-natured man” who was “at the forefront” of extending the streetcar line out to East Taunton, and he was one of the original investors in the Taunton Electric Light Company.
“In addition to thirty-seven years’ service on the Board of Water Commissioners, he served as a trustee of both Morton Hospital and the Boys Club,” Hanna writes.
According to Hanna, the Corr Manufacturing Company closed between 1923 and 1930.
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Corr’s 1930 obituary in The Boston Globe says he died at his home in Taunton on Nov. 14, 1930, at age 71 “after a lingering illness.”
According to his obituary, Corr was also a member of the Wamsutta Club of New Bedford, the Quequechan Club of Fall River, the Bristol Club, the Taunton Lodge of Elks and the Segregansett Country Club, among many other organizations.
He never married and lived at 123 Broadway in Taunton, where his obituary says his funeral visitation was held. Services were at St. Mary’s Church on Broadway.
Corr is buried in Saint Francis Old Cemetery on Glebe Street in Taunton.
Bartlett C. Peirce home
The Bartlett C. Peirce home was once located at 216 Somerset Ave. in Taunton. Today, there’s nothing there except the space between two other houses.
Since this story's initial online publication, reader Brian Bonenfant contacted the Taunton Daily Gazette to say that the Peirce home stands at what is now 632 Somerset Ave. The current 216 might not have anything there, but the Bartlett C. Peirce home is standing still, and looks more or less unchanged, save for some Halloween decorations outside.
There is a Bartlett C. Peirce listed for Taunton on Find A Grave, who lived from 1844 to 1921.
It’s unclear if this is the same Bartlett C. Peirce who lived on Somerset Avenue, but the Peirce who is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery is interred with his first wife Tyla (1851-92), and second wife Annie (1860-1936). Tyla died in her 40s, and her daughter with this Peirce, Leoline, died in 1892 as well, at just 6 years old.
Fannie W. Phillips home
Fannie W. Phillips lived at 10 White St., and today the home looks, on the outside at least, much like it did in an 1899 image from the Taunton Public Library A.L. Ward Photographs collection.
According to WikiTree, a Fannie Woodbury Phillips, formerly Shaw, was born in Middleboro in 1823 and later lived in Taunton with her husband William Henry Phillips. They were married in 1848. They had three children: Henry, Isadore and John.
According to the Phillips DNA Project, William was born in 1826 in Valley Falls, Rhode Island. One of the first colonial purchasers of Taunton was an ancestor of his.
The Phillips DNA Project cites the source of its information as “papers read before” the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton in 1878.
William’s father moved to Taunton when William was young, and thereafter the city was his home. William was a sailor, and became master of a schooner at age 18.
By 1850, they were living in Taunton, according to WikiTree.
Their son Henry “died early,” according to the Phillips DNA Project.
William was involved with his nautical enterprise until 1859.
He then “entered into a mercantile partnership for the sale of coal and building materials, from which a competency was realized,” according to the Phillips DNA Project. He retired from the firm in 1888.
According to the Phillips DNA Project, William was also among those who “assisted in securing the city charter of Taunton.” He was also a temperance advocate, and an advocate of women’s rights.
William Phillips died in 1893 at age 67, and by 1900 Fannie was living with her sisters.
Fannie Phillips died in Taunton in 1909 at age 86.
John F. Montgomery home
The John F. Montgomery home, at 19 White St., not only shares the same street as the Fannie W. Phillips home, it also looks similar to the way it did in an 1899 image in the Taunton Public Library A.L. Ward Photographs collection.
And there is another connection: Fannie and William Phillips’ daughter, Isadore, was married to John F. Montgomery of Taunton, according to the Phillips DNA Project.
Knotty Walk
Downtown Taunton’s Knotty Walk, which drew its name from the knotty pine sidewalks of the time, hasn’t changed that drastically from an 1879 picture in the Taunton Public Library Louis H. Benton photographs collection.
The Noonan Brothers and the Washington Market A. White & Co can be seen in the image, as well as horses and a buggy and carriage.
Today, you’re much more likely to see cars zipping by and going around the Green, but it wouldn’t be entirely out of the realm of possibility for a carriage to clatter by Knotty Walk at some point.
Herald News/Taunton Daily Gazette copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Taunton Then and Now: Corr Manufacturing, Knotty Walk, historic homes
