chateaudeau

beautiful image - inspiring.

My father worked in the shoe industry in Brockton with his father and brothers. They had a factory on Spark St. He recognized this photo as the WL Douglas Shoe Factory, also on Spark St in Brockton. He's pretty sure all the buildings are part of the same factory. Douglas was a mayor of Brockton and governor of Massachusetts in the late 1800's - early 1900's.

Yahoo maps is best for this one: Go to "201 Spark St Brockton MA 02302" and view the satellite image. You'll see the two houses on the left of the photo. Looks like the brown buildings have been torn down, but the grey buildings in the back are now painted white and still stand. View them at MSN Live Maps and click on the "birdseye" option.

Looks like this was taken from the corner of Howard and North Montello Streets in Brockton. There were -- and still are -- railroad tracks out there by those piles and mounds. I used to walk here every day in the summer -- sometimes along the street, sometimes along the tracks -- on my way to and from the Montello Pool, just north of here.

my dad worked there back in his day

Those aren't water towers in the background, those are silos.

This is true, but I can't find anywhere that they are referred to as water towers...

could it be the one on the right with the ladder is a water tower and the left is a silo?

mainja, the water tower reference is in the tags

My guess is that they both are silage towers. No water at all.

The one at left may have been a corn crib or some other sort of granary.

Those aren't water towers in the background, those are silos.