Industrial Exodus: Plimpton Press Leaving Norwood-This Day in Norwood History-June 28, 1966
Town’s Largest Single Employer Suffers Growing Pains, Announces $5-Million Piecemeal Relocation to Wrentham After Local Land Runs Dry
In a staggering economic blow to the industrial spine of the community, The Plimpton Press—Norwood’s largest single employer—officially announced today that it will permanently relocate its massive book manufacturing operation out of town. The publishing giant has finalized a deal to construct a brand-new, modern manufacturing facility in Wrentham, representing a corporate investment of approximately $5 million.
Harry Howard, the vice president of the historic publishing house, broke the news at noon today, explaining that an unexpected information “leak” forced management to post official notices throughout the local workshops earlier than originally intended. The company currently employs a massive workforce of 1,200 local men and women. To mitigate immediate structural chaos and prevent sudden widespread job losses, Howard emphasized that the monumental relocation will be executed “piecemeal” over a deliberate, five-year transition period.
According to Howard, the primary catalyst for the industrial exodus is a severe case of corporate growing pains compounded by a complete lack of available industrial real estate within Norwood’s town borders. The company’s rapid post-war expansion has heavily outpaced its physical footprint.
“In Norwood, manufacturing processes are currently carried out in six separate buildings adjacent to the main plant,” Howard explained, noting that the fragmented layout has made daily printing, binding, and shipping logistics highly inefficient. To remain competitive in the national publishing market, The Plimpton Press requires a singular, streamlined, single-level modern complex that can house all heavy machinery under one roof.
The official notice posted on the plant floor today outlines the immediate phases of the multi-year retreat:
“It will take some time to prepare plans for developing a plant in the site but it is our hope to have the new, four-color web offset press now on order and have a warehouse operating in the new plant earlier in 1967. No plans have yet been made for moving other manufacturing departments.”
The company’s selected destination is an expansive parcel of land in Wrentham situated directly adjacent to the Norfolk town boundary line. The rural site sits less than a mile from the Walpole State Prison (commonly known as MCI-Walpole). While the new location provides the sprawling acreage necessary for massive printing presses and modern assembly lines, it introduces an immediate logistical burden for the workforce. For the hundreds of Plimpton Press employees currently residing north of Norwood, the relocation to Wrentham will tack on an additional nine miles of commuting distance each way.
Recognizing the intense, months-long political scrambling that occurred behind the scenes to try and preserve the town’s primary tax base, the executive management of The Plimpton Press issued a formal statement of gratitude to local civic leaders. The company explicitly acknowledged and appreciated the helpfulness and all-out effort made by the Norwood Board of Selectmen, other municipal officials, and the Norwood Industrial Commission in their exhaustive, panicky search to secure a viable local alternative site.
Ultimately, however, local geography won out over political will. It proved structurally impossible to obtain an area of sufficient size within the official town limits that met the immense, specialized requirements needed for a major, high-volume book manufacturing operation. Howard concluded his briefing by confirming that while the 1967 warehouse deployment represents merely the first step toward the total relocation of the entire printing operation, it marks the definitive end of The Plimpton Press’s historic, century-long chapter as the anchor of Norwood’s industrial golden era.
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
More Norwood Industrial History
-
Norwood Free Press Celebrates First Anniversary-This Day in Norwood History-March 18, 1938
Our First Anniversary March 18, 1938 With this issue the Norwood Free Press celebrates its first, birthday, rounding out a full year of publication since March 19th, 1937. For fifty-two weeks the paper has been delivered to 9,500 homes in the towns of Norwood, Walpole, Canton, Sharon, Westwood, Islington, and Medfield. For fifty-two weeks the…
-
Norwood—The Public Spirited-This Day in Norwood History-August 4, 1934
04 Aug 1934, Sat The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) If you stand by the vast central common of Norwood, and look at the quasi-ecclesiastical building, near-Gothic, and forming the base of a great square tower, you will find it hard to believe that the thing is really the town hall of a tannery town. Yet…
-
Winslow Brothers & Smith Co, Pioneer Sheepskin Tannery, Was Organized in 1776-This Day In Norwood History-April 6, 1922
Firm Has Had Rapid Growth During Last 25 Years—Plants at Norwood, Mass. Few manufacturing firms actively engaged in business today can date the organization of the business back to the birth of the United States. There is one, however, a well-known tanning firm, Winslow Brothers & Smith Co., with large plants at Norwood, Mass., a…
-
Printing Inks Advance-This Day In Norwood History-March 26, 1915
First Increase Made Since the War Began on Account of Scarcity of German Dyes and Chemicals The George H. Morrill Company, manufacturer of printing and llthographic inks at Norwood, has been forced to make the first general advance in prices on the colored and black inks that are affected by the war conditions which It…
-
Norwood’s Big Press Club-This Day In Norwood History-April 7, 1912
Founded and Developed by James Berwick, One of the Town’s Generous Citizens—The Clubhouse. ONE of the most successful and progressive social and athletic clubs in the State is the Norwood Press Club of Norwood. Its beautiful clubhouse and spacious and well-arranged grounds at Berwick Park, in the southerly part of the town, have been an…
-
John E. Smith, Co-Founder of Lyman Smith’s Sons Tannery, Dead-This Day In Norwood History-January 9, 1910
Prominent Norwood Man Had Been Engaged in Tanning Business Practically All His Life. NORWOOD, Jan 9—John E. Smith, one of Norwood’s oldest and most prominent citizens, died at his home on Day St this morning of pneumonia, aged 79 years. A wife, who is an invalid; a sister, Mrs. Lewis Day, and a brother, Charles…
-
This Day In Norwood History-May 4, 1909-Norwood Growth Making Records
May 3, 1909—This town had been in a trance for about 235 years before it woke up to the fact that it was of age and had a right to its independence. That was in 1871 and the following year the inhabitants of that portion of South Dedham known as Norwood were given permission by…
-
Norwood Growth Making Records-This Day In Norwood History-May 3, 1909
May 3, 1909—This town had been in a trance for about 235 years before it woke up to the fact that it was of age and had a right to its independence. That was in 1871 and the following year the inhabitants of that portion of South Dedham known as Norwood were given permission by…
-
Purifying The Neponset River-This Day in Norwood History-August 18, 1906
This Day in Norwood History- August 18, 1906-Purifying The Neponset River
-
Purifying The Neponset River-This Day in Norwood History-August 18, 1906
One Large Tannery Has Withdrawn Its Sewage from the Water and Others Are Conducting Experiments Under the operation of legislation as amended last year to eliminate the nuisance along Neponset River, good work is now being done in the valley. There are probably half a hundred factories and other establishments along the river which have…
Discover more from Norwood Historical Society
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.