These one-and-a-half-story frame Federal cottages were built to house workers in an early Cambridge industry. The Valentine Soap Company, just a few blocks down Pearl Street and long since destroyed, used the by-products of a slaughterhouse and meat-packing company. Profiting from the tallow made from the slaughter waste, Valentine soap was exported to the West Indies and South America. These early examples of factory housing with gable ends to Cottage Street are double cottages, divided longitudinally, with entrances in the centers of the five-bay flank facades.