Leonard, Shaw & Dean Shoe Factory

The former Leonard, Shaw & Dean Shoe Factory is located in a mixed industrial-residential area in Middleborough, at the northeast corner of Peirce and Rice Streets. It is a U-shaped complex of industrial buildings, three stories in height. They are mostly of wood frame construction, and are covered either by low-pitched gabled roofs or shed roofs. In the center of the U is a brick boiler house, and there is a brick elevator tower at the western end of the southern leg of the U.^[2]

The oldest portion of the complex was built in 1896 by Cornelius Leonard and Samuel Shaw, who had joined forces to begin a shoe manufactory in 1892 which was first located in leased space on Jenks Street. This oldest section paralleled Peirce Street, and the major elements of the U shape were added in 1905 and 1911. The boiler house was added in 1907, and the elevator house sometime after 1925. Leonard and Shaw took on W. Henry Dean as a partner in 1897, and operated here until 1933, when manufacturing was moved to Centre Street after a series of corporate mergers. In the 1950s the building was occupied by Bay State Specialties, and manufacturer of advertising materials.^[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Plymouth County, Massachusetts