The Standard Horse Nail factory, founded in 1872 by Charles M. Merrick across the Beaver River, moved to New Brighton in 1882. Noted for its innovations in the forging of horseshoe nails, the company remains in the Merrick family. Today, they sell cotter pins, machine keys, and special fasteners for automotive, farm equipment, and appliance manufacturers. The administration building's bold round-arched entrance surround shows the influence of H. H. Richardson's Allegheny County Courthouse (
AL1). The company's name, incised in a stone band above the door, highlights the projecting gable on the facade of the hipped-roof, one-and-one-half-story structure. A series of one-story, gable-roofed brick manufacturing buildings with segmental-arched windows fills the block to the south. Despite some brick infill to the windows, the buildings retain their charm and striking attention to detail.