Owner/Developer: ADD Inc./311LLC
Architect: ADD Inc.
Contractor: Shawmut Design & Construction

Designed by the Boston Wharf Company’s architect Morton D. Safford, 311-319 Summer Street is a splendid example of Classical Revival Style.  Built in 1904, it was one of the early commercial buildings in the Boston Wharf District and was home to the Dwinell-Wright Coffee Company, one of America’s largest coffee producers of its time.  In a publication printed for its September 1904 opening day, the building is referred to as the “Most Modern Coffee Factory in the World!”  Dwinell-Wright was so proud of it they created illustrations to use on their coffee cans and shipping crates.  These renderings indicate the importance of this period in the evolution of the American mercantile tradition and the significance that modernization, industrialization, and transportation played in the history of Boston and the Northeast.  Plainly in view are trains, trolley cars, donkey carts and the first horseless carriages, a watershed in transportation and modernization.  The company eventually falling into decline, the building became home to the Forte, Dupee, Sawyer Textile Company that flourished during the Wool Row heyday and was the last remaining wool company in Boston when they left the building in 2000.

ADD Inc. purchased the property in 2007 and sensitively preserved the historic character of the building, while repositioning it for use as its new offices.  Using the latest sustainable design techniques, while respecting the historic fabric of the building, ADD Inc. rehabilitated 311 Summer Street so that it can once again be home to the most contemporary technology within a building that is beautifully restored.  When certified by the US Green Building Council it will be one of very few LEED Gold Commercial Interiors in Boston.

Photo courtesy of Peter Vanderwarker