The Silver Lake Cordage Company remains one of the finest examples of a mansard-roofed factory in the region. Chartered in 1866, the company began manufacturing braids and cords at the steam-powered Newton factory using a process that a local newspaper reported to be entirely unique. Nevertheless, the firm failed after only three years. Reorganized in 1870 as the Silver Lake Company, it added a northern extension in 1880 and doubled production. Another wing, similar in appearance but built with a concrete structural frame, was added to the southern side of the factory in 1918. In the 1920s, the company moved to Georgia, and the National Packaging Machinery Company bought the building. It was rehabilitated in 1985–1986 for offices, but retains its original mansard-roofed boiler house and chimney in the rear of the center section.