Perking Building Restoration in Newburyport

According to the Newburyport Current, the Jacob Perkins Printing and Engraving Building in Newburyport is being restored.  The brick building, built in 1808, is tucked back off of Fruit Street, behind the Cushing House Museum, and is the oldest surviving printing/engraving plant in the United States.

The Perkins plant, from 1808 to 1830, produced money for many of the banks in New England.  Jacob Perkins, a local inventor and Newburyport native who held more than two dozen permits in his lifetime, pioneered a new money-printing method, one that is still in use today.  More recently the building was a car repair shop for a few decades, then sat unused.

Now, the Historical Society of Old Newbury owns the building, aided by the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, which donated $200,000 to purchase the building. The city of Newburyport, through Community Preservation Act (“CPA”) funds, donated $185,000 to do the initial restoration.  The historical society has launched an extensive renovation, seeking to restore the building to its original look and design. Structural repairs had to be made, bricks restored, historically accurate windows put in, and more.  The ultimate goal is to transform the building into a sort of living museum.

Read the entire Newburyport Current article.