Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• FAG Bearings Corp. c.1971-1979
• Norma-FAG Bearings Corp. 1969-c.1971
• Norma-Hoffman Bearing Corp. 1924-1969

Use (Historic)

• Fabricated Metal Products
• Transportation

Largest Documented Workforce

1,600

Historic Narrative

The Norma-Hoffman Bearings Corporation was one of several established New York concerns that relocated to Stamford between the World Wars, and of these, one of two which manufactured parts related to the automobile industry to locate in Glenbrook. The building is architecturally significant as a successful example of a manufacturing concern’s civic-minded intent to blend a new large factory into a pre-existing developed residential neighborhood. The company was first organized in May 1911 by W. M. Nomes as the Norma Company of America to import automotive ball bearings from the Norma Company of Germany, with 95% of its products used in the war effort. The company relocated to larger quarters in the Degnon Terminal section of Long Island City, Queens, in 1919 to begin manufacturing a 'sheet metal incased' precision roller bearing assembly similar to one patented by the Hoffman Manufacturing Company Ltd. of Chelmsford, England. The Norma Company bought the Hoffman patent for American production. In 1924, re-incorporated as Norma-Hoffman, the company relocated to Stamford where it acquired a large 9.5 acre lot capable of supporting the large plant it planned to build. The demand for the company’s bearings from the automotive and defense industries grew through the depression. By 1941 a workforce of 1,200 was developing and turning out high carbon chrome alloy steel bearings '…for aeroplane engines, instruments, battleships, cruisers, submarine chasers, anti-aircraft guns, for the Pratt and Whitney aircraft engine, Allison aircraft engine, Jacobs engine, and others' in the main building expanded to its current size. 'Wherever wheels turn – on land, on sea, and in the air – a Stamford-made product, the precision bearing of Norma-Hoffman Bearings Corp., is used,' boasted the Advocate in 1941. Norma-Hoffman played a role in women’s rights in August 1942 when women, who made up much of Norma-Hoffman’s wartime workforce, obtained a ruling in their favor from the War Labor Board. 'The War Labor Board enunciated today a new principle of war labor policy applying equal pay for equal work to women employees of the Norma Hoffman Bearings Corporation, Stamford, Conn.,' reported the New York Times. The ruling upheld a similar recommendation made a week earlier in a case brought by women at General Motors that 'when women take the places of men and fully perform all of the tasks previously performed by men they shall be paid the same wages as the men thus replaced.' Norma-Hoffman became a subsidiary of Universal-American Corporation in 1953 when the English Hoffman company was purchased. In the 1960s, Norma Hoffman was a subsidiary of Gulf and Western when Universal-American was acquired. Norma-Hoffman was bought by the German company FAG (Fischer Aktien Gesellschaft or Fisher Joint Stock Company) in 1969. During FAG’s tenure, Norma-Hoffman’s manufacturing shifted to Joplin Missouri, resulting in closing the Stamford plant in 1979 while the parent company developed a new corporate headquarter nearby at 118 Hamilton Avenue. FAG renovated the former plant into an industrial park leased out to smaller shops. AmeriCares, a non-profit disaster relief and emergency health organization, acquired the building in 2008 for use as its offices and warehouse.

Number of Existing Buildings

Two (2) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

1924-1937, after 1951

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Loft
• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

The former Norma-Hoffman plant is comprised of two adjoining blocks enclosing about 175,000 square feet. The building resulting from the first phase of construction (south block) was built sequentially between 1924 to 1937, ultimately attaining a head-house and shed plan. A large warehouse addition (north block) was added at the rear of the original shed after 1951. The south block originated with the one story production shed at its north end in 1924, growing southward to include a two-story loft section at its south end completed by 1937. The south block has large masonry openings for windows on the first story and smaller masonry window openings grouped in pairs on the second story. The one story shed section retains its sawtooth monitor roof profile with glazing facing north, now surfaced with roofing. A smaller one story block with a butterfly monitor roof oriented with a north-south ridge projects from the east elevation of the rear shed. The walls are faced with polychromatic red brick trimmed with off-white precast units in window sills, copings, and buttress weatherings. The south elevation facing Hamilton Avenue suggests a gothic sensibility with a pedimented parapet with inset precast diapers and isolated crenels flanking projecting buttresses. The windowless north block is faced with metal roofing panels.

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick
• Concrete

Structural System(s)

• Concrete Slab
• Structural Steel or Iron

Roof Form

• Flat
• Monitor
• Sawtooth

Roof Material

• EPDM

Power Source

• Electricity

Condition

Good

Condition Notes

Building is well maintained. The south block retains original massings and exterior masonry. Windows have been replaced. A small rectangular plan building dating from c.1937 east of the existing building at the south end of the property has been removed.

Specific Location

One legal parcel (88 Hamilton Avenue) totaling 9.47 acres located on the north side of Hamilton Avenue and abutting the main New Haven rail line to its west.

Adjacent To

• Railroad

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 004/ 3498 / Link →

Acreage

9.47

Use (Present)

• Mixed-Use

Form Completed By

Wes Haynes

Date

September 2016

Bibliography

1. Sanborn Map Co., 1929-30, 1951.
2. 'Norma-Hoffman Bearings in Demand,' Stamford Advocate Tercentenary Edition, June 7, 1941, 54, 60.
3. 'Equal-Pay Policy Adopted by WLB,' New York Times, August 25, 1942.
4. Marie Updegraff, 'Partners in Progress: FAG Bearings Corporation,' in Estelle K. Feinstein and Joyce C. Pendery, Stamford: An Illustrated History, Woodland Hills, CA: Windsor Publications, 1984, 170-71.