Worker housing begins soon after company launched — p. 2
Within a year of founding Plymouth Cordage Co. in 1824, Bourne Spooner realized he had to do something about worker housing. North Plymouth was basically a family farming neighborhood. Spooner hired a Kingston carpenter named Ebenezer Lobdell to build a six-family house, each unit to have two bedrooms and two fireplaces, a living room, kitchen with pantry, and a full basement; the yard had space for each family to have a kitchen garden. (Photo on previous page)

In April 2003, the Plymouth Cordage Historical Society organized a tour of a range of employee housing, from one of the oldest buildings now divided into condo units, to the single-family houses built in the early 20th century for middle management. Here are some photos taken by Doris Johnson during the house tour.

Above & right: Cordage Terrace quadraplexes
In the mid-1800s, the Cordage built several four- to 8-unit apartment houses on Spooner Street
Spooner Street duplexes of the 1890s on the shores of Store Pond
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