Industrial - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

H.D. Smith and Company Office (1882)

H.D. Smith & Company, manufacturer of drop forged tools in Southington, began in the 1850’s as a supplier to New Haven area carriage makers. Originally based in Meriden, H.D. Smith soon constructed a factory on West Street in the Southington village of Plantsville. It was one of several factories there that were powered by the Eight Mile River. The company was famous for its “Perfect Handle” tools. Production later shifted to bicycle parts and then to tool kits for automobiles. The original wooden factory buildings were destroyed by fire in 1910 and replaced in 1911 with a new structure of steel and brick, designed by Charles H. Palmer of Meriden. Adjacent to the factory, at 24 West Street, is the company’s former office building, constructed in 1882.

Florence Mill, Rockville (1864)

The Florence Mill stands on the site of an earlier mill at 121 West Main Street in Vernon’s industrial village of Rockville. The original mill was built in 1831 by Colonel Francis McLean, in partnership with Alonzo Bailey. Framing from the old Vernon meeting house was used in its construction. Called the Frank Mill, it produced cassimere (cashmere). It was replaced by a new mill building in 1847, but this burned down in 1853 and the company collapsed. Nathaniel O. Kellogg purchased the factory’s remains and started a new company. He built the Florence Mill in 1864, Rockville‘s first example of slow-burn construction: brick masonry exterior walls with wood timber frames. The mill closed in 1869 and continued as a woolen mill under other owners until White, Corbin & Company converted it for the manufacture of envelopes in 1881. In that year, it was described as the largest brick building in Rockville. The company later consolidated with others to form the U.S. Envelope Company in 1898. The factory closed in the 1970s and was converted to become senior housing.

Hartford Office Supply Company (1890)

One of several old factory buildings that survive on Capitol Avenue in Hartford is located at 376-400 Capitol Avenue, at the corner of Flower Street. The building was originally constructed around 1890 as part of the Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool Company, which already had factories across the Park River. The new building was part of the company’s Small Tool Division, which had its address at 285 Flower Street. The structure went through many alterations of the years and additions were made in 1899, 1902 (by Wilson & Bros. of Philadelphia) and 1916 (by Harris & Richards of Philadelphia). The building was later home to the Hartford Office Supply Company and is still known by that name. Plans in recent years to redevelop the vacant property for condominiums have not worked out and the building has been in foreclosure.

Pratt Village Smithy (1848)

Several generations of the Pratt family continuously operated a smithy in Essex for almost three centuries. It was established by John Pratt, Sr., who began his shop in Saybrook and then moved it to Essex. His son, John Pratt, Jr., was a part-time blacksmith who built the Pratt Homestead in Essex. Next to operate the smithy was Lt. John Pratt, who passed it to his son Asa Pratt, followed by Asa’s son John Pratt, John’s son Elias Pratt, Elias’s son Edwin Pratt, James Lord Pratt (who was featured in the September, 1938 issue of National Geographic Magazine) and finally James’s nephew Edwin Pratt, who closed the smithy due to difficulties obtaining raw materials during World War II. At that time it had been the oldest continuously run family business in America. The old smithy building that survives today was built in 1848 by Elias Pratt. After the smithy closed, the building was used for various different businesses.

C. H. Dexter & Sons (1876)

Located along the canal on South Main Street in Windsor Locks, is the former factory complex of C. H. Dexter & Sons, paper manufacturers. A brief history of the company appeared in The American Stationer of July 25, 1914 (Vol. LXXVI, No. 4) as follows:

The Dexter paper mill is one of the oldest landmarks of Windsor Locks, the business dating back nearly eighty years. From a grist mill, built by ancestors of the present owners over one hundred years ago, there developed the manufacture of paper that has grown to large proportions. The old mill was operated by Seth Dexter, 1st, and later by his son of the same name. When the latter died, his son, Charles H. Dexter, took possession of the mill, and in 1835 Mr. Dexter began making paper out of manila rope in the basement of the old grist mill. In 1840 a mill for the exclusive purpose of manufacturing paper was erected on the opposite side of the canal. The nucleus of the present plant was built in 1876, after the original mill had been destroyed by fire.

Charles H. Dexter died in 1869 and was succeeded by Edwin D. Dexter and Herbert R. Coffin. In 1886 Mr. Dexter died and the business passed into the hands of Mr. Coffin, who continued it under the old name. He increased the size of the plant and began the making of high-grade specialties and tissues. On the death of Mr. Coffin in 1901, his sons, Arthur D. and Herbert R., continued the business, maintaining the plant under the old name, C. H. Dexter & Sons.

The Dexter Corporation (as the company was known after 1966) was dismantled in 2000. The company’s nonwovens production facilities in Windsor Locks were sold to the Finish company, Ahlstrom Paper Group. (more…)

Fuller Brush Factory (1922)

Founded in 1906 by Alfred C. Fuller (whose 1917 house still stands on Prospect Avenue in Hartford), the Fuller Brush Company, famous for its door-to-door salesmen, was located in Hartford until the 1960s. The company built a factory at 3580 Main Street in Hartford in 1922-1923. On March 31, 1923, as it was nearing completion, a 56,000-gallon water tank dropped through 4 concrete floors of the factory’s tower, a disaster in which ten people were killed. The tower was eventually rebuilt. Today, the former factory contains employment and social service agencies. This building is mentioned on p. 180 of my book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut.

Robert N. Bassett Company Factory (1892)

After crossing the Housatonic River from Derby to Shelton, there are factories on either side of Bridge Street. The factory on the north side displays the date 1892. On the 1919 “Aero View of Shelton, Connecticut” published by Hughes & Bailey, the factory (located at 9 Bridge Street) is labeled the Robert N. Bassett Co., Inc., “Brass, Steel and Wire Specialties.” The company had begun across the river in Birmingham (now Derby) producing wire corsets. The upper two stories of the mill were added in 1912. The structure was later called the Birmingham Building.