History

The factory at 12 Porter Street has had a long and chameleon-like evolution as the oldest, family-owned company in the United States. Marcus Morton Rhodes founded his company in 1861 in the old Taunton Umbrella Factory. Following in his father’s footsteps, he produced metal tacks like many other manufacturers in Taunton.

The company became M.M. Rhodes & Sons in 1870 and shortly thereafter, repurposed their machines in what appears to be the first of many reinventions of itself. The Franco-Prussian war all but severed the supply line of shoe buttons to the states. M.M. Rhodes seized on the opportunity and began to produce “jappaned” or lacquered metal shoe buttons. Within two years, Rhodes patented several processes in the manufacturing of papier-mâché shoe buttons and became a major supplier in the shoe button industry in the United States for the next 50 years. Production improvements in the shoe manufacturing (45% of which were produced in Massachusetts) lead to the decline of the shoe button industry. M.M. Rhodes and Sons pivoted yet again and embarked on wiring and staple manufacturing until production ceased in 2014.

Over the factories 153 years in operation, the Rhodes family maintained ownership of the nearly 1.2-acre site in the center of Taunton. The small factory complex is a rare survivor and has been little altered over the years. M.M. Rhodes and Sons is the last surviving manufacturing establishment in what was once a notable industrial area.