Old Waltham Watch Face Building To Be Demolished This Week

WALTHAM, MA — The old Watch Factory on Rumford Avenue is finally coming down. In August, crews worked to remove leftover radium, asbestos and lead. Crews are expected to start demolition work Monday through Wednesday, but Thursday the road will be closed as crews go in for the grand finale, according to the city.

"DOT and DEP have signed off and we are ready to go with this important public safety project you asked to have addressed," said Councilor Cathyann Harris- who is behind the push to demolish it after neighbors have asked for years to do something about it. "The day is finally here."

At one point a company planned to clean up and preserve the vacant 19th-century former watch face factory building at 74 Rumford Avenue and turn it into a condominium building. That fell through. But the building has fallen into such disrepair and the city became concerned it could fall down and potentially hurt someone. So now, it's coming down on purpose.

For anyone driving near the area, roads will be open for two-way traffic with the help of a police detail until crews demolish the tower and the front. Although the initial demo started at 8 a.m. Monday, watch for the tower to be demolished Thursday this week. And with that, expect Rumford Avenue to be closed and drivers to be rerouted to Riverview.

The spot was once home to the O'Hara Waltham Dial Co., which decorated glow-in-the dark watch faces for everything from dials to scuba gear and industrial use and sent them worldwide more than a century ago. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, when luggage and canvas company Pantos Canvas Corp. occupied it. It has also sat empty for decades.

When the plan to build the condos fell through in 2007, it sat empty for more than a decade again, growing weeds and deteriorating. Residents asked their city councilors to do something about the property, which, by this winter included multiple broken windows and a partially collapsed roof.

Councilors in the ward had tried asking the property owner to fix it up, but it wasn't until March, when Cathyann Harris got a call from the property owner of building across the street from 74 Rumford who told her he thought the roof at 74 Rumford had collapsed.

She went to check it out, and sure enough, the roof had opened up in some places and the tower appeared to be leaning precariously. She snapped some photos, met with the Waltham Building Department, came up with a plan and met with the mayor.

On April 4, the city sent a notice of "Unsafe Structures" to the property owner. This required the owner to have a demo plan in 90 days from the date of issue.

City councilor Harris held meetings with neighbors in April and May to keep them informed and let them know what the process would look like, she said.

In July, remediation for the hazardous materials left over from construction and from the factory began. Crews collected two trash bags of radium dust and paint chips on day one, according to Harris.

Abatement continued through the end of July overseen by the Department of Environmental Protection. The owner has had to bring in Asbestos specialists. The building itself was scheduled to come down in August, but it took longer than anticipated to do the work needed to prep the building.

Once the building is demolished in a controlled way, she said, then crews will take more time picking through the bricks and debris to make sure that all traces of toxic materials are discarded properly, in accordance with EPA standards.

"Neighbors have been working for 10 years to do something about this site," Harris told Patch earlier.

The three-story brick structure was built in 1897 by Daniel O'Hara and housed his company, a spinoff from the Waltham Watch Company, which specialized in the manufacture of a variety of clock faces. The building has distinctive corner towers with paneled brick surfaces, although these are an early 1900s addition. The clock face factor closed up in the 1950s. In 1989, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).