Utility Over Elegance

Utility Over Elegance. . The view down Centre Street has changed little over the years, and no street in New Bedford served the whaling industry longer. Little finery can be seen in the facades of these buildings, for this was a working waterfront and utility overrode the need for elegance. , Where Center meets Front Street, town founder Joseph Russel built the first candleworks around 1768 to further his investment in the growing whaling industry. The brick warehouses at the bottom of the street at left, built about 1790, housed a ship chandlery and iron business. At times other buildings here served as backstop, an ice plant and cold storage warehouse, and a ship and house painter's shop. , I could look down Centre Street and...see and also hear coppers driving the hoops, tightening the large casks of oil....When a ship was hove down I could see the caulkers driving the oakum into the seams and could see the ship carpenters replace the worn heating with new and giving the vessel a new suit of yellow metal. Altogether, it was a scene of life and animation. William W. Crapo, September 28. 1906