Brickstone Square: A History of Innovation

As those of you who've been here for training know, our global headquarters is located in Andover, MA. But what you might not know is that we're not the first innovators to hang our hats on this spot. Our building has a long history of innovation, beginning as two woolen mills and a warehouse for the American Woolen Company.

William Wood, president of the American Woolen Company, had a vision of an entirely self-sustaining mill community for his company. His dream became a reality, and from 1918-1924 the area was developed to include everything from the mills themselves to more than 200 houses and community buildings including a laundry facility, tennis courts and the boy's club used by the local boy scouts and a polling facility.

The area known as Shawsheen Village became one of the first corporate communities in the country. Wood played a large role in designing Shawsheen Village, with brick houses reserved for management and white wood houses with green shutters designated for non-management employees. The entire area had a cohesive look.

In 1953 the American Woolen Company closed its mills and almost all Shawsheen Village was in private hands. However, that wasn't the end of innovation for the mill structures. From 1957 through 1979 Raytheon used the entire space for offices and manufacturing, and several Internet companies got their start here in the early 2000s.

Today, what were the mill buildings are referred to as Brickstone Square and are home to a wide variety of companies, from finance to technology and everything in between. So take a look outside your window and learn the history of your office; you may be inspired by what you learn.