Here is a building type many of you may not know of… the Ten-Footer! This 10 x 10-foot square building is a well preserved example of a kind of shop historically used by many shoemakers in the late-18th to mid-19th centuries. In Stoneham during the 19th century there were many such shops scattered throughout the town as the area became a sort of hub for shoemaking. In the age before and just after the Industrial Revolution, many Massachusetts residents had home shops in the yards where family and neighbors could earn extra part-time money by doing piece work on shoes. These cottage industry shoe workers were paid for each pair of shoes delivered to the local distributor. Usually, the owner-shoemaker worked alone or with family members in the cramped space with materials like leathers, rubber, and straps stored in the attic space in a loft in the gable. This ten-footer was built in the mid 19th century and later owned by Peter Doucette, who ran a shoe shop here. The small building was eventually acquired by the Stoneham Historical Society and was moved behind their building, restored and it can better tell the story of the town’s rich shoemaking history.
Buildings of New England 
Thank you for today’s work. I have no other means of proving my gratitude but by sharing something I hope you find inspirational to your work. Your come accross in your writing as so pleased with your finds; one hears your affection for your passion: “Oh, those Greeks! They knew how to live. What is required for that is to stop courageously at the surface, the fold, the skin, to adore appearances. Those Greeks were superficial -out of profundity.” – From, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, by nineteenth century prose-poet and philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche
I do hope you will visit Framingham Town Center when the weather appears to capture the gothic churches and some of what I saw yesterday on my errand to neighboring Marlborough, established 1727. Framingham, my town, was founding by 1701, named after Lord Framlingham, England, which still exists of course, and of note since you are some form of artist, the home of the latest english balladist, Ed Sheran. I am patriotic about England and Ireland, if Europe. As your work confirms, if mythopoetic to put it this way, our country’s has many mothers; architecture is a new found depth for me.
We are past the summer solstice now. I envy a job where I imagine you just drive around in this sun listening to music, eating here or there, and just exploring the locals. What a bon vivant I hope your life is making you.
Respectfully,
David Loring, Framingham, MA
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Hi Nancy, I doubt the New Jersey Doucettes are related to the Peter Doucettes of Stoneham, Massachusetts. This structure would barely accommodate a snow blower, let alone an electrician’s array of tools. Love, ED
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I’m not sure who Nancy is, but yes, these are really small structures!
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