Dorchester Illustration 2586 Coffin Valve Company
The Coffin Valve Company was located at the end of Tolman Street next to the railroad lines. The company became a supplier of large valves to the Metropolitan Water Works in Boston and to municipalities across the country. The map is from the 1910 Bromley Atlas. The illustration of the factory at Neponset is from the Coffin Valve Company letterhead.
Zebulon Erastus Coffin’s name appeared in the 1853 Boston Directory, giving his occupation as pattern maker in Boston. Directories from later years indicate that he was a machinist and pattern maker and that he lived in Newton Centre. The year 1853 was the first time he was identified as a pattern maker. In 1852, his entry in the Directory had indicated that he was a housewright.
Coffin was either making machinery or reselling it, including lathes, planers, slotters and drilling machines. He later became general agent of the Boston Machine Manufacturing Co., before starting his own manufacturing business for large valves and fire hydrants. During his time with the Boston Machine Manufacturing Co., he was issued his first patent for a fire hydrant. By 1881, Coffin established the Coffin Valve Co., makers of fire hydrants and other valves for municipal water systems. In 1885, he received a patent for the Coffin fire hydrant.
In 1891, Coffin and his family came to Dorchester to live at 19 Frost Avenue. In 1892, the factory at Neponset was mentioned for the first time in the Boston Directory. The company achieved a national reputation as mentioned in an article in the periodical Fire Engineering, June 12, 1907, “This company has attained a national reputation as makers and designers of the largest sluice and gate-valves built and used in America.”
The 1918 Bromley Atlas indicates that the factory was still located in Neponset that year, but the works was destroyed by fire in January 1928 in a $400,000 four-alarm fire.