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Summary

Description

Louis Christian Mullgardt, 1903-1906. Engineering building complex comprised of 2-storey, 9-bay rectangular-plan office block, 2-gabled rectangular-plan harled former machine workshop to rear; slightly later single storey, 4-bay rectangular-plan former workshop to right of office block. Buildings set on prominent corner site within larger industrial works complex (See Notes).

Squared, coursed and tooled Pitsligo granite with Rora granite ashlar dressings. Base course; band course to left range. Segmental-arched, keystoned and mullioned tripartite windows at ground floor; shouldered gabled breaking-eaves dormers. Distinctive glazed and timber boarded sawtoothed roof to former machine shop.

OFFICE BLOCK (1903-6) AND FORMER WORKSHOP (early 20th century), W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 9 and 4 bays. Off-centre advanced 2-bay shouldered entrance gable with buttressed corners and central pier; paired entrances with segmental arched and keystoned fanlights and deep-set later entrance doors. Band course and linear glazed clerestory to later workshop. N Elevation: 3-bay gable with tripartite windows at ground floor and pair of flat-arched window at first floor with relieving arch above.

MACHINE SHOP (1903-6) (N ELEVATION): 2 gables to left of office block; timber eaves course; clerestory formed by sawtooth roof; later flat-arched entrance opening to left.

Predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Pitched roof, grey slates; some rooflights to right of 9-bay range; straight ashlar skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR (seen 2011): later 20th and early 21st century remodelling and subdivision of office section. Open-plan former machine shop with steel structure original steel columns and steel roof trusses to machine shop.

BOUNDARY WALLS, RAILINGS AND GATEPIERS: low granite boundary walls with chamfered copes and topped with cast iron railings. Square-plan gatepiers with rockfaced base and pyramidal capping. 2-leaf cast-iron gates to S opening.

Statement of Special Interest

A rare example of an American architect working in Scotland at the turn of the century on an industrial building for an important international company. The buildings are well-detailed particularly the distinctive sawtoothed roof to the former machine workshop, which provided excellent lighting conditions for precision machine work. The complex is an unusually complete example of an early 20th century engineering works. Prominently, located on a major thoroughfare and opposite housing constructed for employees of the former works, the works are an unusual example of an industrial building not associated with the fishing industry, the principal trade of this town. The works also represent the important introduction of pneumatic tool into shipbuilding in Scotland at a time when the country was leading the world in terms of economic ship production.

The Consolidated Pneumatic Tool Company was a successful engineering works in Scotland, exporting widely internationally. The Consolidated Pneumatic Tool Works is understood to have been designed by Louis Christian Mullgardt, for the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company of New York. Mullgardt toured Europe, then worked as a structural engineer in England between 1903-1904 before establishing an architectural practice in San Francisco in 1906. The Aberdeen Daily Journal of 14/03/1903 records that the plans were prepared by Baillie Brebner. Brebner was part of the subcontractors Brebner and Jenkins. The design of the office building exhibits typical Scottish architectural features such as the dormers breaking wallhead and the shouldered entrance gable.

The Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company established the works in Fraserburgh through the encouragement of the A W Maconochie MP for East Aberdeenshire. A decline in the fishing industry in the late 19th century led to an abundance of labour for the works. The original works occupied 25,000 sq ft and manufactured pneumatic riveting hammers and drills. The company exported internationally provided the hammers for the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and rock-drills widely used in South African minefields. The company rapidly expanded in the inter-war years by diversifying into work for munitions industry, and it played a significant role in WW2 in the manufacturing of military equipment including the fuel pumps and booster controls for the Rolls Royce Merlin engines used in Spitfires.

The building has been altered such as the loss of original glazing and blocking of the openings to the gables of the former machine workshop (2011).

The group of early 20th century buildings along with their associated boundary walls, gates and gatepiers described in this listing are set in a multi-period industrial site that include a former boiler house and warehouse buildings. The boiler house (1903-6) and warehouses (dating from the earlier to late 20th century) are not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest at the time of listing (2012).

References

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