Soon after his return from the war of the Revolution, Joseph Lye bought
a parcel of land and buildings thereon near the Common in Lynn, paying
123 pounds, 6 shillings for the entire property.
Among the buildings was a small, sturdy structure, scarcely as large
as a kitchen. In it were four “berths,” or seats, on which shoemakers
sat, their tools by their side and their stock on the floor, making
shoes by hand. It was heated by a wood stove and lighted by candles,
but aside from these it was as primitive as an old barn and had none
of the hundred and one devices so essential to the modern factory. It
had no steam, no machinery, not even running water. But it sufficed
for the times. In it the Lyes made a comfortable living, first Joseph
Lye, shoemaker and soldier of the Revolution, and then his son, Joseph,
shoemaker and diarist.
This shop passed from the Lye family by purchase to Amos Preston
Tapley, a shoe merchant, related to the Lyes by marriage. From him it
passed to his son, Henry F. Tapley, who gave it to the Essex Institute
in Salem. Here it is preserved as an example of an early type of
American shoe factory.