We love working on historic homes. One of our latest projects, The Sunflower, was built in 1882 and while renovated a number of times, retains many original details and elements. Our project, the third or fourth significant remodel this home has undergone, was to add a small bay window to the back of the house, remodel the kitchen, renovate the primary bath and most of the first floor. We reused what we could and saved everything else of value. In this case we had a number of original passage doors that we could not repurpose. These doors featured tarnished brass hinges and lock-sets stamped “E. Robinson Co.” on the faceplate.

Enoch Robinson was born in 1801 and spent his working life in the glass and metalworking industries. He is the holder (with others) of many patents for the manufacture and operation of door knobs and lock-sets, many of which are still in use today. These include patents for pressing glass door knobs, attaching glass knobs to ferrules, attaching knobs to spindles, the spring loaded mortice lockset (ubiquitous today), and the spring-loaded window sash lock. After a number of partnerships in door knob and lockset manufacturing he opened E. Robinson and Co. at 32 Dock Square, Boston, in 1839 (then adjacent to Faneuil Hall and now Boston City Hall Plaza).

E. Robinson Co. was regarded by many architects and builders of the 19th Century to be the best hardware maker in the U.S. They worked with architects McKim, Mead & White, Asher Benjamin and Charles Bullfinch, and provided decorative hardware to many fine buildings including The Longfellow House in Cambridge, the Old State House, Tremont Temple, The Old South Meeting House, Old City Hall, The (Omni) Parker House Hotel and the State House in Boston, The US Treasury Building and White House in Washington DC, the Isaac Bell House in Newport RI, and our project: The Sunflower in Jamaica Plain. The company was eventually acquired by one and then another local hardware manufacturer, and finally in the early 1900s by E.R. Butler & Co. who continues to produce some of their original patents to this day.

The Sunflower’s decorative hardware inventory includes interior lock-sets featuring round brass knobs and escutcheons with rectangular drop keyhole escutcheons, pocket door spring-loaded edge pulls and round recessed face pulls, spring loaded window sash locks, and a curious front door entry lockset that Jamaica Plain locksmith David Aborn described as a “Rooming House” lockset. This set has a large square drop escutcheon that covers two keyholes: one for a small “tenants” key that would allow holders to come and go from dawn to dusk and one for a large “managers” key that locked the doors for curfew. This is consistent with the stories that the Sunflower operated as a boarding house for a time before it was restored to a single family residence in the early 2000s.

Images by Corey Nuffer

It took very little to bring this hardware back to perfect working order: minor adjustments, light oiling and cleaning. We restored three sets of matching sash locks sourced from a local architectural salvage shop for the windows in the addition. They are a perfect match: handmade, cut brass, stamped “E.Robinson & Co.” The finish will be perfect after a few years of oily fingers, exposure and grime. 150 years of constant use has polished and worn these solid brass knobs, latches and levers to a beautifully warm, honest patina that cannot be reproduced.

KCB History Lesson: Enoch Robinson Rare Locks at The Sunflower

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