Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• Lebon Press, Inc. 1960-2013
• Loose-Wiles Biscuit Co. 1915-ca. 1945
• Maxim Silencer Co. 1946-1960

Use (Historic)

• Firearms, Weapons, Explosives
• Food, Beverage, Tobacco
• Other: Printing

Largest Documented Workforce

30 (1962).

Historic Narrative

The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company was organized in Kansas City, Missouri by John L. and Jacob Loose and John H. Wiles in 1902. The firm manufactured crackers and cookies and the popularity of its Sunshine Biscuit brand products resulted in rapid growth and the need for additional bakeries, offices, and distribution warehouses throughout the country. The company’s first plant in the northeast was erected in Boston, Massachusetts in 1908, however, an office and warehouse was first established in Hartford, Connecticut in 1906. The Hartford plant on Atlantic Street proved adequate to the firm’s needs until 1915 when a new and larger facility was built on Homestead Avenue. This work took place just three years after the construction of a new bakery facility on Long Island, New York, which at the time of its completion employed 2,500 workers, making it the largest bakery in the world, a title it held until 1955. The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company was reorganized as Sunshine Biscuit, Inc. in 1946, around the same time the firm’s Hartford location was closed. The Homestead Avenue facility then passed to the Maxim Silencer Company, the Hartford-based manufacturer of firearm sound suppressor systems developed by Hiram Percy Maxim while working for the Pope Manufacturing Company during the early 1900s. In 1960, the Maxim plant was purchased by Lebon Printers, a printing firm initially organized in Hartford in 1925 as Lebon and Gordon, a partnership between Samuel Lebon and Harry Gordon. The firm was reorganized as Lebon Press by the 1930s and during the 1950s the company occupied a shop on Trumbull Street. This building was slated for demolition as part of construction of the interstate highway system during the late 1950s and Lebon Press was forced to seek out a new plant. Lebon Press purchased the former Loose-Wiles facility in 1960 and immediately erected a 5,000 square-foot addition in order to accommodate its 30 employees and machinery. The printing firm occupied the plant in January 1962 and it remained in operation until 2013. The firm’s closure was announced by third-generation owner Andrew Lerner in May 2013, at which time the company continued to employ around 20 workers. The plant is presently vacant.

Number of Existing Buildings

Roughly three (3) primary adjoining blocks.

Dates of Construction

1915, 1960.

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Administration
• Mill
• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

The former Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company facility is comprised of three primary adjoining blocks located on the south side of Homestead Avenue, roughly opposite Homestead Avenue’s intersection with Burton Street. The plant'’s two two-story blocks were erected in 1915, while the one-story addition that wraps around the northeast corner of the facility was built in 1960. The early buildings have a combined footprint of 198’ x 64’ and are of brick pier construction. The walls are comprised of red brick faced with buff brick, however, all of the exterior walls have been painted. The eastern block is the more highly detailed of the two original buildings. It has full-height window bays with segmental-arched openings, corbelled and denticulated headers, and metal sash with hopper-style openings; a corbelled and denticulated cornice; and a flat roof. The western block served as a warehouse and lacks window openings or any of the ornamentation seen on the eastern building. The block has a simple corbelled cornice and a flat roof. The northern portion of the L-shaped 1960 addition measures 80’ and 40’. A 16’-wide ell extends the full depth of the original plant’s east elevation. The addition is of concrete block construction and has rectangular window openings with concrete sills and metal sash with hopper style openings; a corbelled cornice; and a flat roof. The main entry to the plant is located at the western end of the additions north elevation and consists of a metal-frame glass door with a large glass sidelight to the east and a large transom above. Metal lettering is mounted to the north elevation just below the cornice line and reads, ‘LEBON PRESS/Printers’.

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick
• Concrete Block

Structural System(s)

• Load Bearing Masonry

Roof Form

• Flat

Roof Material

• Tar and Gravel

Power Source

• Electricity

Condition

Fair

Condition Notes

The complex is in fair condition. The original windows appear to have been replaced during the 1960s, however, the plant appears well maintained overall.

Specific Location

Two legal parcels (73 & 77H Homestead Avenue) totaling 0.866 acres located on the south side of Homestead Avenue, roughly opposite Homestead Avenue’s intersection with Burton Street.

Adjacent To

• Main Roads
• Railroad

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 199/265/108 (for record, use link and type in address or parcel number) / Link →

Acreage

0.866

Use (Present)

• Vacant

Form Completed By

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Date

08/31/2015

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 Hartford County, H & C.T. Smith, 1855.
6. Atlas of Hartford County, Beers, Baker & Tilden, 1869.
7. Sanborn Map Company, 1885, 1900, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1950.
8. Aerial Survey of Connecticut, 1934, 1965.
9. Hartford City Directories, Various editions.
10. The Hartford Courant, 1915, 1960, 1962, 2013.