Samuel Pierce started this organ pipe factory in the rear of his nearby house in 1847. As his business expanded, he built this wood-frame Italianate factory in 1852. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Reading became a major manufacturing center for organs and organ parts, supplying a growing market for church and parlor organs. William Dennison, the shop foreman, took over the business after Pierce's death in 1895, renaming it the Dennison Organ Pipe Company. In the early twentieth century, the Reading organ business prospered, producing theater organs until the advent of talking movies made them obsolete. Now used for storage, the Pierce Factory could be adapted for commercial or residential use.