Twin Cities Rail Trail
Featured Ride
Experience the hidden natural beauty of Fitchburg and Leominster on this ride along the paved Twin Cities Rail Trail. Beginning at the Nasua River near Fitchburg Station, you’ll wind through historic industrial hubs and quiet suburban neighborhoods, ending at the historic Victorian train depot in downtown Leominster. You can do this ride as 8.2-mile out-and-back, or ride between Leominster and Fitchburg’s respective Commuter Rail stations for a 6.4-mile journey. Check out this map for station-to-station directions.
Note: You need to have the Ride with GPS app downloaded in order to send this map to your mobile device. You do not need to have an account on Ride with GPS to use the app. To explore the map below via Google Maps or Satellite, click the RWGPS Cycle dropdown menu.
Trail Description
This rail trail provides a safe, off-street connection between the most famous Twin Cities this side of the Mississippi. Bridging the downtown hearts of Leominster and Fitchburg, the trail is both a vibrant recreational escape as well as functional transportation corridor. Following the historic route of the Fitchburg & Worcester Railroad (F&W), the trail helps breathe new life into the industrial heartlands of North Central Massachusetts.
Transportation
There are several parking lots along the trail, shown on the map above. It is easiest to park in the free lots at the Leominster end of the trail, but there is also parking at the Fitchburg Intermodal Bus and Train Station for a small fee. If you choose to take public transportation, the trail is accessible by MBTA Commuter Rail and local bus.
MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line
Just beyond the north end of the trail is Fitchburg Station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line. The trailhead is a 10-minute on-street ride from the station. Trains run hourly on weekdays and every two hours on weekends. It is a 90-minute trip from Boston North Station.
The southern end of the trail can be accessed from North Leominster Station, also on the Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line. The trailhead is a 10-minute on-street ride from the station, and it is an 80-minute trip from Boston North Station.
Tickets can be purchased in the mTicket app or on board. All Commuter Rail trains will be fare-free on Fridays in June, July and August. Check the MBTA website for the Fitchburg Line Schedule and information about bringing your bike on the Commuter Rail.
Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) Local Bus
Several MART bus routes serve both the Fitchburg and Leominster ends of the trail. MART Bus 2 runs every half hour, connecting downtown Fitchburg and downtown Leominster, and is a useful option to return to your starting point if you don’t feel like riding back. Check the MART website for route and schedule information. All MART fixed routes are currently fare-free.
Just beyond the north end of the trail is Fitchburg Station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line. The trailhead is a 10-minute on-street ride from the station. Trains run hourly on weekdays and every two hours on weekends. It is a 90-minute trip from Boston North Station.
The southern end of the trail can be accessed from North Leominster Station, also on the Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line. The trailhead is a 10-minute on-street ride from the station, and it is an 80-minute trip from Boston North Station.
Tickets can be purchased in the mTicket app or on board. All Commuter Rail trains will be fare-free on Fridays in June, July and August. Check the MBTA website for the Fitchburg Line Schedule and information about bringing your bike on the Commuter Rail.
Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) Local Bus
Several MART bus routes serve both the Fitchburg and Leominster ends of the trail. MART Bus 2 runs every half hour, connecting downtown Fitchburg and downtown Leominster, and is a useful option to return to your starting point if you don’t feel like riding back. Check the MART website for route and schedule information. All MART fixed routes are currently fare-free.
Trail Photos
Trail Attractions
Rollstone Boulder (off-trail)
The 45-foot wide, 110-ton Rollstone Boulder is one of the most famous, and most resilient landmarks in Fitchburg. During the Ice Age, a glacier deposited the granite boulder on Rollstone Hill, a mile away from its current location, where it was a favorite destination for hikers and picknickers. When local granite quarrying took off in the 19th century, the hill underneath it was slowly chipped away until the boulder was left precariously suspended on pillars of granite blocks. As the encroachment continued, advocacy began to save the rock, however it proved too large to move in one piece. It was thought that by removing an iron band added in 1899 to reinforce cracks, the boulder would fall apart into manageable pieces. When this plan failed, the town resorted to blowing up the stone with black powder and dynamite and reassembling it in its current location. Before detonation, a pattern was painted on the rock to make it easier to match up the pieces. Despite these efforts, complete reassembly proved impossible, so the exterior portion of the stone was reconstructed, tied together with metal rods and filled with concrete.
Fitchburg Art Museum (off-trail)
Tucked away off Main Street in downtown Fitchburg, The Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM) is one of the most significant cultural institutions in North Central Massachusetts, home to an impressive collection with a strong focus on regional New England Artists. It also features a world class collection of Ancient Egyptian art, complete with a mummy. The museum is currently celebrating its centennial with Kaleidoscope: 100 Years of Collecting for Our Community, showcasing curated highlights of the permanent collection. Learn more on the FAM website.
Coggshall Park (1 mile from start, off-trail)
A 10-minute on-street ride from the trail, this sprawling 350-acre park features wooded trails, picnic areas, a playground and a historic gazebo beside an 8-acre manmade lake. Mr. Henry Coggshall, an executive of the Fitchburg Gas Company, gifted the park to the town in 1894. It was designed to be a Victorian oasis of outdoor recreation for Fitchburg’s industrial workforce.
Doyle Community Park and Center (2.8 miles from start, off-trail)
Just after crossing the bridge over Rt. 2, you can take a short on-street ride down Lindell Ave. to Leominster’s Doyle Community Park and Center. The 170-acre park contains 3.5 miles of walking trails, 1.5 miles of which are fully accessible. You can enjoy a short hike or relax in the grassy Pierce Meadow, where the estate of Harry W. Pierce, president of the Fitchburg Railway Company, once stood. Also in the park, the Doyle Conservation Center is home to environmental education workshops, community meetings and a visitor center with information about the park, its wildlife and its history. The park was once a private family retreat for Bernard Wendell Doyle, a comb-manufacturing tycoon in the early 20th century, whose daughter, Louise Doyle, donated the estate to The Trustees of Reservations, who still own and maintain the park.
Leominster’s Flamingo Crosswalks (off-trail)
Throughout downtown Leominster, you might notice crosswalks painted with a pink flamingo, specifically a plastic lawn flamingo. Once known as the “Plastic Capital of the World” and the birthplace of the American plastic industry, Leominster is proudly the birthplace of the lawn flamingo, invented by Don Feathersone in 1957 while working at Union Products plastic company. Every year, the city celebrates Featherstone Flamingo Day instead of Groundhog Day on February 2nd, in addition to Pink Flamingo Day on June 23rd. Learn more about the illustrious history of Leominster’s plastics industry in the Dig Deeper section below.
Leominster Historical Society (4.1 miles from start, off-trail)
Housed in a historic 1870 school building, the Leominster Historical Society is a great place to learn about the city’s past and explore the industrial history that shaped the rail corridor you’re riding on. The society houses extensive exhibits on Leominster’s global impact as the birthplace of the American plastics industry. On display are a range of locally invented artifacts, including the combs that earned Leominster its “Comb City” nickname, as well as Foster Grants, the world’s first mass produced sunglasses, and Tupperware, invented by Earl Tupper in the 1940s. You can also learn about the life of Johnny Appleseed, born in Leominster in 1774. Check out the Dig Deeper section below to learn more about Leominster’s industrial history.
Historic Leominster Train Station (4 miles from start)
The newest section of the trail runs alongside the former Leominster Train Depot, a beautiful Victorian structure erected in 1878 to serve the Old Colony Railroad. At its peak, the station saw 10-15 daily passenger trains, transporting hundreds of industrial workers between the region’s factory centers. Today the building has been repurposed as office and commercial space, but remains a reminder of the city’s rich railroad history, which you can read more about in the Dig Deeper section below.
The 45-foot wide, 110-ton Rollstone Boulder is one of the most famous, and most resilient landmarks in Fitchburg. During the Ice Age, a glacier deposited the granite boulder on Rollstone Hill, a mile away from its current location, where it was a favorite destination for hikers and picknickers. When local granite quarrying took off in the 19th century, the hill underneath it was slowly chipped away until the boulder was left precariously suspended on pillars of granite blocks. As the encroachment continued, advocacy began to save the rock, however it proved too large to move in one piece. It was thought that by removing an iron band added in 1899 to reinforce cracks, the boulder would fall apart into manageable pieces. When this plan failed, the town resorted to blowing up the stone with black powder and dynamite and reassembling it in its current location. Before detonation, a pattern was painted on the rock to make it easier to match up the pieces. Despite these efforts, complete reassembly proved impossible, so the exterior portion of the stone was reconstructed, tied together with metal rods and filled with concrete.
Fitchburg Art Museum (off-trail)
Tucked away off Main Street in downtown Fitchburg, The Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM) is one of the most significant cultural institutions in North Central Massachusetts, home to an impressive collection with a strong focus on regional New England Artists. It also features a world class collection of Ancient Egyptian art, complete with a mummy. The museum is currently celebrating its centennial with Kaleidoscope: 100 Years of Collecting for Our Community, showcasing curated highlights of the permanent collection. Learn more on the FAM website.
Coggshall Park (1 mile from start, off-trail)
A 10-minute on-street ride from the trail, this sprawling 350-acre park features wooded trails, picnic areas, a playground and a historic gazebo beside an 8-acre manmade lake. Mr. Henry Coggshall, an executive of the Fitchburg Gas Company, gifted the park to the town in 1894. It was designed to be a Victorian oasis of outdoor recreation for Fitchburg’s industrial workforce.
Doyle Community Park and Center (2.8 miles from start, off-trail)
Just after crossing the bridge over Rt. 2, you can take a short on-street ride down Lindell Ave. to Leominster’s Doyle Community Park and Center. The 170-acre park contains 3.5 miles of walking trails, 1.5 miles of which are fully accessible. You can enjoy a short hike or relax in the grassy Pierce Meadow, where the estate of Harry W. Pierce, president of the Fitchburg Railway Company, once stood. Also in the park, the Doyle Conservation Center is home to environmental education workshops, community meetings and a visitor center with information about the park, its wildlife and its history. The park was once a private family retreat for Bernard Wendell Doyle, a comb-manufacturing tycoon in the early 20th century, whose daughter, Louise Doyle, donated the estate to The Trustees of Reservations, who still own and maintain the park.
Leominster’s Flamingo Crosswalks (off-trail)
Throughout downtown Leominster, you might notice crosswalks painted with a pink flamingo, specifically a plastic lawn flamingo. Once known as the “Plastic Capital of the World” and the birthplace of the American plastic industry, Leominster is proudly the birthplace of the lawn flamingo, invented by Don Feathersone in 1957 while working at Union Products plastic company. Every year, the city celebrates Featherstone Flamingo Day instead of Groundhog Day on February 2nd, in addition to Pink Flamingo Day on June 23rd. Learn more about the illustrious history of Leominster’s plastics industry in the Dig Deeper section below.
Leominster Historical Society (4.1 miles from start, off-trail)
Housed in a historic 1870 school building, the Leominster Historical Society is a great place to learn about the city’s past and explore the industrial history that shaped the rail corridor you’re riding on. The society houses extensive exhibits on Leominster’s global impact as the birthplace of the American plastics industry. On display are a range of locally invented artifacts, including the combs that earned Leominster its “Comb City” nickname, as well as Foster Grants, the world’s first mass produced sunglasses, and Tupperware, invented by Earl Tupper in the 1940s. You can also learn about the life of Johnny Appleseed, born in Leominster in 1774. Check out the Dig Deeper section below to learn more about Leominster’s industrial history.
Historic Leominster Train Station (4 miles from start)
The newest section of the trail runs alongside the former Leominster Train Depot, a beautiful Victorian structure erected in 1878 to serve the Old Colony Railroad. At its peak, the station saw 10-15 daily passenger trains, transporting hundreds of industrial workers between the region’s factory centers. Today the building has been repurposed as office and commercial space, but remains a reminder of the city’s rich railroad history, which you can read more about in the Dig Deeper section below.
Trail Artwork
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Wildlife of the Trail
This trail winds through residential and industrial areas, with some small patches of forest. Wildlife along this trail include generalist species such as the American robin, Northern mockingbird, eastern phoebe, blue jay, red-tailed hawk and grey squirrel. You may also see some grassland-associated species, depending on the time of year, near the Fitchburg Municipal Airport, such as horned larks, grasshopper sparrow, and killdeer.
eBird
Check out the eBird hotspots along the trail to see what bird species have been spotted recently in the area. You can also report any interesting birds you see on your ride. There are hotspots at Doyle Park, Fitchburg Riverfront Park and Coggshall Park. See this page for more information about eBird.
eBird
Check out the eBird hotspots along the trail to see what bird species have been spotted recently in the area. You can also report any interesting birds you see on your ride. There are hotspots at Doyle Park, Fitchburg Riverfront Park and Coggshall Park. See this page for more information about eBird.
Dig Deeper
Railroad History
The Twin Cities Rail Trail follows the former corridor of the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad, completed in 1850 to connect Fitchburg and Leominster to the regional rail hub of Worcester. Although the competitor Fitchburg Railroad (now the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line) would eventually extend West through the Berkshires, tunneling through the Berkshires proved infamously difficult, making the F&W a vital artery to transport Fitchburg and Leominster’s industrial goods for several decades. While the Fitchburg Railroad already served the heart of Fitchburg, the F&W was a massive catalyst for the growth of Leominster’s Center Village, turning the Monoosnock Brook corridor into a bustling commercial, industrial and residential hub.
In 1869, the F&W was absorbed into the Boston, Clinton & Fitchburg Railroad, which was absorbed again in 1876 into the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg & New Bedford (BCF & NB) Railroad. Three years later, the BCF & NB was absorbed into the Old Colony Railroad, which was acquired by New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (The New Haven) in 1893.
By 1869, the line ran six passenger trains a day, increasing to eight when the New Haven took over in 1893. As automobile ownership grew in the early 20th century, ridership declined and the line was reduced to four daily passenger trains by 1919. Passenger Service to Worcester ended in 1926, while limited service to Pratt’s Junction in Sterling, en route to Framingham, ended in 1931.
Freight service to Worcester ended in 1934, although a stub of the line remained into Sterling. This stub primarily served the Sterling Cider Company, as the bumpy roads and early trucks of the day were inadequate for its delicate glass bottles. Service to Sterling ended in 1962, while trains continued to Framingham via Pratt’s Junction. By this time, traffic to Fitchburg had declined dramatically, but the line saw a late boom with the growth of Leominster’s post-war plastics industry. Freight service to Fitchburg ended in the mid-70s, and the line from Leominster to Framingham was finally abandoned in the early-1980s
Leominster: From Comb City to Plastic City
Leominster was an enduring industrial powerhouse for over a century, sustaining a strong plastics industry through the mid-20th century while much of the rest of the region’s manufacturing was in decline. Leominster’s first major industrial success came in the comb-making industry. By the late-1800s, it was proudly known as Comb City and produced roughly half of all combs made in the United States. The city’s comb-making history began in the 1770s, when Obadiah Hills established an operation based out of his kitchen to manufacture combs out of cattle horns, which were abundant and usually thrown away after slaughter. This process involved boiling a horn until it became soft and pliable, slitting it and flattening it out before manually sawing each of the comb’s teeth.
By the mid 1800’s, comb manufacturing was heavily industrialized, tapping the powerful waterways of Monoosnoc Brook and the North Nashua River to accelerate production efficiency. The F&W railroad’s arrival in 1850 was perfect timing to capitalize on manufacturers’ sudden ability to produce an enormous surplus of combs. By 1850, nearly every family in the city had at least one member working in a comb shop, and the census listed “comb maker” as the most common occupation. While once available in excess, manufacturers eventually hit a horn-wall, where comb production was limited by the number of available cattle horns.
This problem was solved with the introduction of celluloid, a naturally derived proto-plastic introduced to Leominster by the Viscoloid Company, founded in 1901 as the Sterling Comb Company. Celluloid could be dyed to look like expensive tortoise shells or amber, allowing the middle class to buy luxury-looking items for a fraction of the cost. Viscoloid expanded beyond combs to become one of the leading producers of celluloid products in the world and the town’s largest employer. The outbreak of World War I interrupted the production of celluloid toys in Germany, then the sector’s leading exporter, allowing Viscoloid to grow into America’s largest manufacturer of plastic toys.
The next great leap in plastics was delivered by the Foster Grant Company, which also began as originally as a celluloid comb manufacturer founded by Sam Foster in Leominster in 1919. The company realized the same celluloid manufacturing techniques could be used to make lightweight, inexpensive sunglasses and released the world’s first mass-produced, commercially available sunglasses in 1929. One downside of Celluloid is its extreme flammability, which became an issue for use in sunglasses during an era of widespread smoking. In 1934, Foster took a trip to Germany and brought back America’s first injection molding machine, and after three years of tinkering, began producing mass produced sunglasses at an unprecedented rate. To solve celluloid’s flammability problem, a semi-synthetic “safety plastic,” cellulose acetate, was used, enabling successful injection molding. This game-changing modern manufacturing technique quickly spread to other industries, and solidified Leominster as one of the plastic capitals of the world.
Plastic City Continued: War, Tupperwares and Flamingos
World War II saw a further acceleration in plastics technology as Leominster’s manufacturers pivoted to produce military supplies including buttons, flashlights and cockpit components. With shortages of natural resources like rubber and silk, and many of celluloid’s ingredients in high demand for explosives, the United States poured billions into developing synthetic plastics. DuPont, which acquired Viscoloid, was a leader in this research, developing acrylic for use in bomber nose cones and periscopes, among other breakthroughs.
One notable Dupont employee was Earl Tupper, who left the company to found the Tupper Plastics Company in 1938. Working in his home laboratory, Tupper figured out how to purify polyethylene slag, then thought to be a useless byproduct of oil-refining, into a translucent, odorless and flexible material he named Poly-T (polyethylene). Crucially, he developed a way to remove the chemical smell that made earlier plastics unfit for food storage. After a period of making gas masks and navy lamps during the war, Tupper invented his signature burping lid and released the wonderbowl in 1946. This technology eventually took off as the company expanded into other food storage containers, coining their products Tupperware.
Perhaps Leominster’s proudest industrial achievement was Don Featherstone’s invention of the plastic lawn flamingo in 1957. Featherstone was a recent graduate of Worcester Art Museum’s school, working for Union Products, a Leominster-based plastics firm that was an industry leader in plastic blow molding. Similar to glass blowing, blow molding involves shooting compressed air into a tube of molten plastics inside a mold, which expands into a hollow structure in the shape of the mold. Crucial to the development of the lawn flamingo was a local Leominster firm’s development of plastic stabilizers, that prevented plastics from becoming discolored and brittle in the sun. Today, the plastic lawn flamingo lives on as a testament to Leominster’s world-leading industrial past.
The Industrial History of Fitchburg
While Leominster was a global leader in light consumer goods, Fitchburg was historically the larger manufacturing city overall, specializing in the production of paper, granite and industrial machines. In the 20th century, the city also developed a significant plastics industry of its own alongside Leominster. The many significant drops of the Nashua River provided the power necessary to turn the water wheels of early industry, with the city’s first paper mill opened by Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1823. Alvah Crocker of Crocker, Burbank & Co was also the founder of the Fitchburg Railroad in 1842, the city’s first railroad 8-years before the F&W. The railroad was key to Fitchburg’s industrial growth, as the city’s unofficial status as the second-hilliest city in America (behind San Francisco) made it difficult to transport goods by wagon.
Early on, almost all paper was “rag paper,” made from recycled cotton and linen rags. Today, this durable stationery is reserved for high-end use, and most paper is made from wood pulp. The mid mid-19th century transition to wood pulp production enabled a previously unimaginable upscaling of production, made possible by railroad-supplied timber products. Fitchburg grew into a global leader in paper production across a wide range of paper types, specializing in high-grade products like glossy paper for magazine printing and laminated decals. Encyclopedia Britanica was printed in the city for decades, requiring specifically engineered mills at the Crocker Company to handle the thin-paper requirements for massive multi-volume sets.
Concentrated around Rollstone Hill (once home to Rollstone Boulder), Fitchburg’s granite was prized for its structural strength and was widely used in bridge abutments, canal walls and building foundations. Commercial quarrying began around 1830 and helped facilitate the city’s industrialization by providing material for complex river-power systems. The city’s granite was used to construct the impressive castle-like Fitchburg Railroad Depot on Causeway Street, near today’s North Station in Boston. Although demolished after a fire in 1927, one of its towers was saved and relocated to Truro, where it stands as Jenny Lind tower, named after a famous opera singer who supposedly once climbed it. Fitchburg granite was transported across the region by the railroads and was used in five New York bridges across the Hudson River, including the George Washington Bridge.
Behind paper, Fitchburg’s most important industry was producing the machines that fueled industry, centered around Putnam Machine Company, Fitchburg Steam Engine Company, and Simonds Saw and Steel. Fitchburg Steam Engine Co., founded in 1876, Became a world leader in high-efficiency stationary steam engines, which were essential for mills that needed more power than rivers could supply in the dry season. The Putnam Machine Company, founded in 1838, was the city’s most prestigious machine factory, manufacturing heavy duty tools for use in factories across the country. In 1941, General Electric took over the plant, using it to produce steam turbines for nuclear submarines. Perhaps the most important company to the overall industrial growth of the Twin Cities was Burleigh Rock Drill Company. In 1866, Charles Burleigh, a machinist from Fitchburg, developed an innovative design for the America’s first truly reliable pneumatic mining drill used in America. Burleigh’s drills were instrumental in the completion of the Hoosac Tunnel, a 4.75-mile railroad tunnel through the Hoosac Range of the Berkshires that connects the Fitchburg Railroad to New York and the Midwest. Known as the “Great Bore,” the project took 24 years to complete and saw 195 lives lost during construction. The introduction of the Burleigh Rock Drill replaced hand drilling and dramatically sped up the project, completed in 1875 as the second longest railroad tunnel in the world at the time of its opening.
The Twin Cities Rail Trail follows the former corridor of the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad, completed in 1850 to connect Fitchburg and Leominster to the regional rail hub of Worcester. Although the competitor Fitchburg Railroad (now the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line) would eventually extend West through the Berkshires, tunneling through the Berkshires proved infamously difficult, making the F&W a vital artery to transport Fitchburg and Leominster’s industrial goods for several decades. While the Fitchburg Railroad already served the heart of Fitchburg, the F&W was a massive catalyst for the growth of Leominster’s Center Village, turning the Monoosnock Brook corridor into a bustling commercial, industrial and residential hub.
In 1869, the F&W was absorbed into the Boston, Clinton & Fitchburg Railroad, which was absorbed again in 1876 into the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg & New Bedford (BCF & NB) Railroad. Three years later, the BCF & NB was absorbed into the Old Colony Railroad, which was acquired by New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (The New Haven) in 1893.
By 1869, the line ran six passenger trains a day, increasing to eight when the New Haven took over in 1893. As automobile ownership grew in the early 20th century, ridership declined and the line was reduced to four daily passenger trains by 1919. Passenger Service to Worcester ended in 1926, while limited service to Pratt’s Junction in Sterling, en route to Framingham, ended in 1931.
Freight service to Worcester ended in 1934, although a stub of the line remained into Sterling. This stub primarily served the Sterling Cider Company, as the bumpy roads and early trucks of the day were inadequate for its delicate glass bottles. Service to Sterling ended in 1962, while trains continued to Framingham via Pratt’s Junction. By this time, traffic to Fitchburg had declined dramatically, but the line saw a late boom with the growth of Leominster’s post-war plastics industry. Freight service to Fitchburg ended in the mid-70s, and the line from Leominster to Framingham was finally abandoned in the early-1980s
Leominster: From Comb City to Plastic City
Leominster was an enduring industrial powerhouse for over a century, sustaining a strong plastics industry through the mid-20th century while much of the rest of the region’s manufacturing was in decline. Leominster’s first major industrial success came in the comb-making industry. By the late-1800s, it was proudly known as Comb City and produced roughly half of all combs made in the United States. The city’s comb-making history began in the 1770s, when Obadiah Hills established an operation based out of his kitchen to manufacture combs out of cattle horns, which were abundant and usually thrown away after slaughter. This process involved boiling a horn until it became soft and pliable, slitting it and flattening it out before manually sawing each of the comb’s teeth.
By the mid 1800’s, comb manufacturing was heavily industrialized, tapping the powerful waterways of Monoosnoc Brook and the North Nashua River to accelerate production efficiency. The F&W railroad’s arrival in 1850 was perfect timing to capitalize on manufacturers’ sudden ability to produce an enormous surplus of combs. By 1850, nearly every family in the city had at least one member working in a comb shop, and the census listed “comb maker” as the most common occupation. While once available in excess, manufacturers eventually hit a horn-wall, where comb production was limited by the number of available cattle horns.
This problem was solved with the introduction of celluloid, a naturally derived proto-plastic introduced to Leominster by the Viscoloid Company, founded in 1901 as the Sterling Comb Company. Celluloid could be dyed to look like expensive tortoise shells or amber, allowing the middle class to buy luxury-looking items for a fraction of the cost. Viscoloid expanded beyond combs to become one of the leading producers of celluloid products in the world and the town’s largest employer. The outbreak of World War I interrupted the production of celluloid toys in Germany, then the sector’s leading exporter, allowing Viscoloid to grow into America’s largest manufacturer of plastic toys.
The next great leap in plastics was delivered by the Foster Grant Company, which also began as originally as a celluloid comb manufacturer founded by Sam Foster in Leominster in 1919. The company realized the same celluloid manufacturing techniques could be used to make lightweight, inexpensive sunglasses and released the world’s first mass-produced, commercially available sunglasses in 1929. One downside of Celluloid is its extreme flammability, which became an issue for use in sunglasses during an era of widespread smoking. In 1934, Foster took a trip to Germany and brought back America’s first injection molding machine, and after three years of tinkering, began producing mass produced sunglasses at an unprecedented rate. To solve celluloid’s flammability problem, a semi-synthetic “safety plastic,” cellulose acetate, was used, enabling successful injection molding. This game-changing modern manufacturing technique quickly spread to other industries, and solidified Leominster as one of the plastic capitals of the world.
Plastic City Continued: War, Tupperwares and Flamingos
World War II saw a further acceleration in plastics technology as Leominster’s manufacturers pivoted to produce military supplies including buttons, flashlights and cockpit components. With shortages of natural resources like rubber and silk, and many of celluloid’s ingredients in high demand for explosives, the United States poured billions into developing synthetic plastics. DuPont, which acquired Viscoloid, was a leader in this research, developing acrylic for use in bomber nose cones and periscopes, among other breakthroughs.
One notable Dupont employee was Earl Tupper, who left the company to found the Tupper Plastics Company in 1938. Working in his home laboratory, Tupper figured out how to purify polyethylene slag, then thought to be a useless byproduct of oil-refining, into a translucent, odorless and flexible material he named Poly-T (polyethylene). Crucially, he developed a way to remove the chemical smell that made earlier plastics unfit for food storage. After a period of making gas masks and navy lamps during the war, Tupper invented his signature burping lid and released the wonderbowl in 1946. This technology eventually took off as the company expanded into other food storage containers, coining their products Tupperware.
Perhaps Leominster’s proudest industrial achievement was Don Featherstone’s invention of the plastic lawn flamingo in 1957. Featherstone was a recent graduate of Worcester Art Museum’s school, working for Union Products, a Leominster-based plastics firm that was an industry leader in plastic blow molding. Similar to glass blowing, blow molding involves shooting compressed air into a tube of molten plastics inside a mold, which expands into a hollow structure in the shape of the mold. Crucial to the development of the lawn flamingo was a local Leominster firm’s development of plastic stabilizers, that prevented plastics from becoming discolored and brittle in the sun. Today, the plastic lawn flamingo lives on as a testament to Leominster’s world-leading industrial past.
The Industrial History of Fitchburg
While Leominster was a global leader in light consumer goods, Fitchburg was historically the larger manufacturing city overall, specializing in the production of paper, granite and industrial machines. In the 20th century, the city also developed a significant plastics industry of its own alongside Leominster. The many significant drops of the Nashua River provided the power necessary to turn the water wheels of early industry, with the city’s first paper mill opened by Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1823. Alvah Crocker of Crocker, Burbank & Co was also the founder of the Fitchburg Railroad in 1842, the city’s first railroad 8-years before the F&W. The railroad was key to Fitchburg’s industrial growth, as the city’s unofficial status as the second-hilliest city in America (behind San Francisco) made it difficult to transport goods by wagon.
Early on, almost all paper was “rag paper,” made from recycled cotton and linen rags. Today, this durable stationery is reserved for high-end use, and most paper is made from wood pulp. The mid mid-19th century transition to wood pulp production enabled a previously unimaginable upscaling of production, made possible by railroad-supplied timber products. Fitchburg grew into a global leader in paper production across a wide range of paper types, specializing in high-grade products like glossy paper for magazine printing and laminated decals. Encyclopedia Britanica was printed in the city for decades, requiring specifically engineered mills at the Crocker Company to handle the thin-paper requirements for massive multi-volume sets.
Concentrated around Rollstone Hill (once home to Rollstone Boulder), Fitchburg’s granite was prized for its structural strength and was widely used in bridge abutments, canal walls and building foundations. Commercial quarrying began around 1830 and helped facilitate the city’s industrialization by providing material for complex river-power systems. The city’s granite was used to construct the impressive castle-like Fitchburg Railroad Depot on Causeway Street, near today’s North Station in Boston. Although demolished after a fire in 1927, one of its towers was saved and relocated to Truro, where it stands as Jenny Lind tower, named after a famous opera singer who supposedly once climbed it. Fitchburg granite was transported across the region by the railroads and was used in five New York bridges across the Hudson River, including the George Washington Bridge.
Behind paper, Fitchburg’s most important industry was producing the machines that fueled industry, centered around Putnam Machine Company, Fitchburg Steam Engine Company, and Simonds Saw and Steel. Fitchburg Steam Engine Co., founded in 1876, Became a world leader in high-efficiency stationary steam engines, which were essential for mills that needed more power than rivers could supply in the dry season. The Putnam Machine Company, founded in 1838, was the city’s most prestigious machine factory, manufacturing heavy duty tools for use in factories across the country. In 1941, General Electric took over the plant, using it to produce steam turbines for nuclear submarines. Perhaps the most important company to the overall industrial growth of the Twin Cities was Burleigh Rock Drill Company. In 1866, Charles Burleigh, a machinist from Fitchburg, developed an innovative design for the America’s first truly reliable pneumatic mining drill used in America. Burleigh’s drills were instrumental in the completion of the Hoosac Tunnel, a 4.75-mile railroad tunnel through the Hoosac Range of the Berkshires that connects the Fitchburg Railroad to New York and the Midwest. Known as the “Great Bore,” the project took 24 years to complete and saw 195 lives lost during construction. The introduction of the Burleigh Rock Drill replaced hand drilling and dramatically sped up the project, completed in 1875 as the second longest railroad tunnel in the world at the time of its opening.
Photo Credits
Approaching the Arthur J. DiTommaso Memorial Bridge, "Arthur J DiTommaso Memorial Bridge, Twin Cities Rail Trail, Fitchburg MA" by John Phelan is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Trail in Springtime, "W, Twin Cities Rail Trail, Fitchburg MA" by John Phelan is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Trail in Springtime, "W, Twin Cities Rail Trail, Fitchburg MA" by John Phelan is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.