Module 4: Baseball in Natick
Module 4 shares the experiences of Natick people who worked at the Harwood Baseball Factory in Walnut Hill before it closed down in the 1970s. Natick High School student Caroline Niedermeyer interviews several workers and children of workers who have memories of the baseball factory in action.
Remembering Harwood
The Harwood Baseball Factory was the first baseball factory in the United States and the producer of Major League Baseball’s game balls for over 70 years. Growing out of the shoe manufacturing industry in Natick of the 19th century, Natick workers hand stitched leather baseballs at the factory from 1858 to 1976. Hear people of Natick and surrounding towns reminisce about their time in the Harwood Baseball Factory and its impact on the town. Natick High School students Caroline Niedermeyer and Lily Klingdon wrote and produced this video centered around these interviews.
A sign advertising jobs available at Harwood Baseball Factory for women able to sew
The baseball factory building on Walnut Street in the mid/late 1800s
A Harwood Softball and the original box for a Harwood Baseball
On This Land Online is made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities, which provided funding through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC). The Natick Historical Society would also like to thank Middlesex Savings Bank for its sponsorship and the generous private donors whose contributions brought this program to life.