Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

7n/a

Companies Associated w/Complex

• American Machine Typesetting Co. 1907-1908
• British-American Manufacturing Co. c.1914-1929
• Butchart-Nicholls Co. 1929-1933
• Hatch & Bailey lumber yard 1940-present
• Interstate Rubber Co. 1912-c.1914
• Robert Kerr Press Company 1909-1911
• Schavoir Rubber Co. 1933-1940

Use (Historic)

• Apparel & Accessories
• Consumer Products, Small Appliances
• Textiles

Largest Documented Workforce

75

Historic Narrative

The cast stone, Italian Renaissance Revival style former American Machine Typesetting Co. building is one of Stamford’s most unusual industrial buildings in its origin, architecture, and diversity of use over time. It is closely associated with the development of Springdale. The district was platted for development as a seasonal resort by speculative developers soon after the arrival of the railroad in 1866 but remained largely undeveloped until the turn of the twentieth century. Springdale’s rapid transformation into an alternative residential suburb for local industrial workers employed in the smoke-filled South End in large part resulted from the vision of Scottish-born Robert Kerr (1836-1921) (Burns, 1982). Kerr acquired a large portion of the undeveloped land for housing while successfully promoting important village improvements (public school, electricity, water, volunteer fire company). Kerr also saw a need to provide employment to entice new residents, and in 1906, donated a piece of land on the railroad tracks for the American Machine Typesetting Company of New York 'to build a technical school for typesetting and the general business of typesetting machines and a factory there at a cost of $20,000.' (Burns, 1982) A contemporary local newspaper account projected that it would be the largest of its kind next to the government printing office in Washington. This building was built to house the business and school but the unusual venture failed within a year. Kerr assumed control, reorganized it as a linotype school and printing shop, and operated it as the Kerr Press from 1909 to 1911. Bankruptcy forced him to close the business, sell its presses and eventually relocate to California. The building was re-occupied by the Interstate Rubber Co. in 1912, one of several industries in Stamford engaged in manufacturing rubberized cloth. The British-American Manufacturing Co., organized in 1914 with $300,000 in capital stock, took over operations, continuing waterproof textile production for auto tops and raincoats, with most production supplying the World War I effort. British-American expanded the plant with another building to the north (no longer standing) on the eve of armistice, and suffered financial distress when post-war demand dropped. The plant remained in their ownership but unused until 1928, when it was acquired by a speculative syndicate that sold the newer building to Maplehurst Dairy. Butchart-Nicholls Co., a manufacturer of golf clubs that started on Maple Street in Glenbrook a few years earlier, purchased the former Kerr Press building in 1929. The company manufactured and sold clubs with laminated bamboo and hickory golf club shaft, patented in 1927 by golf-pro Gilbert Nicholls (1878-1950). The market for wooden golf club shafts vanished with the introduction of metal shafts in the 1930s. The next owner was the Schavoir Rubber Company, another established Stamford industry that acquired it in 1933 as the concern’s last home. Schavoir manufactured auto tires and tubes, rubber toys, dolls, balls and mechanical goods, and repaired and retread tires. The company was founded in 1914 by German emigrant Arnold Lambert Schavoir (1871-1936) who left a position at the Blickensderfer Mfg. Co. to manufacture auto tire tubes at a shop on Lee Street. The company expanded its product line, relocating to Shippan Avenue in 1923 before moving to Fahey Street. Schavoir went out of business in 1940, liquidating its assets at auction. The property was purchased that year by Hatch and Bailey, a lumberyard founded in South Norwalk in the 1860s and has been used by them as building supply sales branch since then.

Number of Existing Buildings

One (1) block with a non-contributing addition.

Dates of Construction

1907

Architect

Henry Marvin

Builder

Charles Swenson (masonry), E.E. Scofield (carpentry), NY Ironworks (elevator)

Building Type

• Loft

Architectural Description

The former American Machine and Typesetting Co. building is a single block Italian Renaissance Revival style cast stone building constructed in 1907 and located at the rear of the 34 Fahey Street property. This small factory loft is rectangular in plan, measuring 45 feet east-west by 120 feet north south and enclosing about 16,200 square feet. The building is 2-stories above a full basement and built into a slope. The basement is fully exposed above grade on the north, east and south elevations and fully buried on the west elevation. The grade change is retained by a wall aligned with the building’s west wall. The hip roof is pierced by two tall symmetrically placed chimneys. The roof eaves are dressed with tightly spaced concrete brackets. The walls are built with monochromatic grey cast stone units simulating quarry-faced ashlar trimmed with carved-work. A belt course continuous with the first floor window sills expresses a watertable dividing the basement and first floor. Window lintels in the upper stories have raised keystones. Fenestration is symmetrical and rectilinear. Visible original sash is 6/6 wood double-hung. Window openings at the ends of the long elevations held ganged tri-partite sash divided by mullions. Elsewhere, openings held single sash units. There is a ghost of a covered porch on the center of the west elevation at the first floor level, and a lintel of one of the tripartite west windows has been removed. Although originally conceived as a monumental village building element, it is no longer visually prominent from Fahey or Hope Streets.

Exterior Material(s)

• Cast Stone

Structural System(s)

• Load Bearing Masonry

Roof Form

• Hip Minor

Roof Material

• Asphalt

Power Source

• Electricity

Condition

Fair

Condition Notes

The envelope is kept watertight for cold storage of building materials but exterior maintenance is neglected. Most window and door openings are boarded up. The building has good integrity of massing and material. Original sash is visible in north windows. A wood frame wing was added to the south elevation after 1940 with no visible exterior demolition.

Specific Location

One legal parcel (34 Fahey Street) totaling 1.3 acres located on the north side of the dead end of Fahey Street along the west side of the New Canaan branch rail line.

Adjacent To

• Railroad

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 000/ 9837 / Link →

Acreage

1.3

Use (Present)

• Commercial

Form Completed By

Wes Haynes

Date

September 2016

Bibliography

1. Sanborn Map Co., 1929-30, 1951.
2. 'Business Records: British-American Manufacturing,' New York Times, December 12, 1920.
3. 'Old Darling Farm in Ossining Sold…Other Suburban Sales,' New York Times, June 17, 1929.
4. Price & Lee’s Stamford (Fairfield County, Conn.) City Directory, New Haven, 1930-35.
5. 'Auction Sales: Plants and Equipment,' New York Times, October 9, 1940.
6. 'Hatch & Bailey,' Stamford Advocate Tercentenary Edition, June 7, 1941, 122.
7. Rosemary H. Burns, Springdale Remembered 1640-1949. Stamford, CT: The Stamford Historical Society, 1982.
8. Gregg D. Mecca, Made in Stamford: A History of Stamford as a Manufacturing Center. Stamford, CT: Stamford Historical Society, 1984.