Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• Bryant Electric Co. ca. 1915-1926
• Bryant Electric Co., div. Westinghouse Electric Corp. 1928-1988
• HEMCO Electric Mfg. Co. 1926-1928

Use (Historic)

• Electrical Equipment
• Rubber & Chemicals
• Other: Plastics

Largest Documented Workforce

300-499 (1939).

Historic Narrative

The Bryant Electric Company was organized in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1888. The firm was established by Waldo Calvin Bryant, a native of Winchendon, Massachusetts who received his education at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After graduating in 1884, Bryant took a job at the Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts. Bryant left Thomson-Houston in 1885 and took a job with the Waterbury Electric Light Company, where he remained until 1888. In 1888, Bryant moved to Bridgeport, where he founded the Bryant Electric Company. The firm began as an electrical service shop that dedicated most of its efforts to the servicing and installation of electrical time systems, arc lights, and automatic door bells. The shop was initially located in a bank building on John Street, yet soon moved to a small manufacturing plant at the corner of State and Organ Streets. After the move, the company began producing electrical supplies of Bryant’s own design, specifically electrical light bases, wiring devices, and switches. Bryant was an outspoken advocate of the standardization of electrical products as there were eight different light sockets in use at the time of his company’s establishment. He would eventually go on to lead the industry in the completion of these efforts, much of this through the success of his own work. The Bryant Electric Company expanded rapidly during the late 1890s, this a result of both Bryant’s work and several business acquisitions. In 1889, Brant was granted a patent for an “Improved Safety Switch or Cut-out,” an innovative and successful product that reduced the risk for accidental electrocution when operating electrical lighting. The company’s capacity and patent controls were increased the following year when it acquired the Standard Electric Time Company of Springfield, Massachusetts and Empire China Works of Brooklyn, New York, and was expanded further in 1899 when the firm bought out the Perkins Electric Switch Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Additional growth during the early years of the twentieth century required increased capital, and this was accomplished through the sale of majority control in the firm to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1901. The Bryant Electric Company operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company and Bryant remained associated with the firm until his death in 1930. In 1928, the Bryant Electric Company acquired the HEMCO Electric Manufacturing Company, a dual New York, New York- and Toronto, Canada-based firm that operated an electrical supplies and plastic products plant on Railroad Avenue in Bridgeport that was formerly occupied by the Remington Typewriter Company. HEMCO was retained as a division of the Bryant Electric Company and the latter firm utilized the Railroad Avenue facility as a plastic molding plant. By the 1930s, the Bryant Electric Company employed over 700 workers at its massive State Street factory, and another roughly 400 hands on Railroad Avenue. The latter turned out not only electrical supplies such as sockets and plugs, but a line of plastic dish and storageware marketed under the HEMCO brand. Much of this was produced with melamine resin, which was exceptionally popular during the 1950s and 1960s, however, dinnerware manufacturing was discontinued by HEMCO in 1961. The Bryant Electric Company remained in operation in Bridgeport until 1988 when Westinghouse consolidated and closed the plant.

Number of Existing Buildings

Six (6) adjoining and freestanding primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

ca. 1915, ca. 1935, ca. 1946, ca. 1960.

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Mill
• Powerhouse

Architectural Description

The former Bryant Electric Company’s Railroad Avenue factory consists of six adjoining and freestanding primary blocks located on the south side of Railroad Avenue, roughly halfway between Railroad Avenue’s intersections with Howard and Wordin Avenues. The oldest surviving building is a one-story boiler house and engine room erected ca. 1915 for one of the site’s earliest occupants, the Remington Typewriter Company. The red brick building measures 50’ x 90’ and has round-arched window openings with concrete sills and multipane metal sash, a corbelled and denticulated brick cornice, red brick parapet with concrete coping, and a gabled roof. A one-story, 24’ x 45’ red brick block of similar styling but with rectangular window openings and a flat roof was erected adjoining the southeast corner of the boiler house ca. 1935, this around the same time that a one-story, 226’ x 114’ red brick manufacturing block was erected on the west side of the ca. 1915 building. The ca. 1935 manufacturing block has a concrete foundation, rectangular window openings with concrete sills and multipane metal sash, and a flat roof with three nearly full-length sawtooth monitors. A one-story, 22’ x 226’ flat-roofed concrete block addition was erected on the south side of this block around 1960. The largest block associated with the former Bryant Electric Company’s Railroad Avenue plant adjoins the north elevation of the ca. 1935 manufacturing building. The former stands on the site of earlier factories occupied by the Yost and Remington Typewriter Companies. The Bryant Electric Company’s addition was erected ca. 1946 and is a three-story, 242’ x 102’ red brick block with large rectangular window openings, concrete window sills, multipane metal sash, and a flat roof A four-story brick stairtower is located near the eastern end of the block’s north elevation, while a three-story, 84’ x 36’ red brick ell adjoins the western end of the north elevation. The latter has a Modernist concrete block façade with recessed, full-height window bays with fixed plate glass windows and metal spandrel panels.

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick
• Concrete Block

Structural System(s)

• Load Bearing Masonry

Roof Form

• Flat
• Gable
• Sawtooth

Roof Material

• Asphalt
• Tar and Gravel

Power Source

• Electricity
• Steam

Condition

Fair

Condition Notes

The plant is in fair condition. The exterior walls are in need of minor repairs, however, the majority of the blocks retain their original windows. The plant appears well maintained and structurally sound.

Specific Location

One 2.88-acre parcel (1155 Railroad Avenue) located on the south side of Railroad Avenue, roughly half-way between Railroad Avenue’s intersections with Howard and Wordin Avenues.

Located in Railroad Avenue Industrial District (National Register, 1985).
http://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp/GetAsset?assetID=a06ce45c-db25-47a8-834f-ce46e267dfb4

Adjacent To

• Main Roads
• Railroad

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 20/303/14/A / Link →

Acreage

2.88

Use (Present)

• Commercial
• Other: John Hiden purchased the factory c.2012, cleaned and rehabbed over 6 years, opening Mongers Market in 2018 with architectural salvage items and salvage/antique vendors.

Form Completed By

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Date

01/22/2016

Bibliography

1. List of Connecticut Manufacturers, 1922, 1924, 1930, 1932.
2. Directory of Connecticut State Manufacturers, 1936, 1939.
3. Industrial Directory of Connecticut, 1947.
4. Register of War Production Facilities in Connecticut, 1951.
5. Map of Fairfield County; Baker, William A., 1854.
6. Atlas of the City of Bridgeport; J.B. Beers & Co., 1876.
7. Atlas of the City and Town of Bridgeport; G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1888, 1917.
8. Atlas of Bridgeport; Kershaw, William H., 1910.
9. Sanborn Map Company, 1884, 1888, 1898, 1904, 1913, 1939, 1950.
10. Aerial Survey of Connecticut, 1934, 1951, 1965, 1970, 1985.
11. Bridgeport City Directory, Various editions.
12. Hartford Courant, 1930. 1986.
13. Brigeport Telegram, 1926.
14. A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport; Orcutt, Samuel, 1886.
15. History of Bridgeport and Vicinity; S.J. Clarke Publishing, 1917.
16. HAER Report, Bryant Electric Company, 1995.
17. Clouette, Bruce and Matthew Roth, Patricia Devoe. 1985. Railroad Avenue Industrial Historic District National.
18. Register Nomination No. 85002697. National Park Service.