Hobart Bigelow founded the Bigelow Boiler Company in 1873 on River Street in Fair Haven, and a few years later established the National Pipe Bending Co. to provide cast iron parts and piping for his boilers. Production peaked during WW2, followed by a long decline with the doors eventually closing in the 1980’s.

Behind those smaller 3rd floor windows was an attic loft jammed with foundry patterns, many of them well over 100 years old. The building was on the verge of collapse, so I saved what I could. The structure is gone now, and these days foundry patterns are typically CNC milled from digital files, so while these wonderful wooden vestiges are some of the last of their kind, I like to think that they have been given a new lease on life as sculpture and may even be around for another century or two.

Gar Waterman

Foundry Pattern Sculpture > Pattern Language > NPB No.144