Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• American Brass Co. 1901 -1977
• Ansonia Copper and Brass c. 1980 -2014
• ARCO 1977
• Benedict and Burnham Co. 1912
• Holmes, Booth and Haydens Co. 1853

Use (Historic)

• Fabricated Metal Products
• Firearms, Weapons, Explosives
• Mining, Primary Metals

Largest Documented Workforce

1000 (1895)

Historic Narrative

The former Holmes, Booth, and Haydens factory building, located in the South End of Waterbury, is arguably the most significant extant brass mill in the city. While many of the buildings on the site were demolished or rebuilt after the catastrophic flood of 1955, the buildings that do remain represent some of the best examples of both 19th and early-20th century brass mills in the region. Furthermore, the site itself is one of the longest active brass mill sites in the city. Holmes, Booth, and Haydens was organized in 1853. Despite the site’s proximity to the Naugatuck River, the factory was not built as a water-powered mill, using steam power from the start. The river did provide water for the manufacturing processes. And the mill had access to the recently completed railroad tracks of the Naugatuck Railroad along the river. The company was founded by some of the most significant figures in the Naugatuck Valley’s development as a brass-manufacturing region. Israel Holmes was a long-time and pivotal employee of the Scovill Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, and also the founder of the Holmes and Hotchkiss Company, another brass producing firm. John Booth was the financial and general business man. Hiram Hayden was the founder of the Wolcottville Brass Company (a company that latter became the American Brass Company, Torrington Division), a firm famous for its production of brass kettles, which were reported to be the first viable competition in the United States against the import of British kettles. The company also served as a breeding ground for other brass producers, most notably H.S. Chase, who would go on to established the Chase Brass Company in Waterbury. The company was founded for the express purpose of producing brass wire and sheets, which would then be sent to other factories to be turned into finished goods. However, the company quickly expanded its production capabilities, and by the 1890s was making consumer goods such as daguerreotype plates (a company specialty for many years), German silver, oil lamps, and copper wire for electrical lighting. By 1895, the firm employed over 1,000 employees, becoming the second largest company in Waterbury, behind only the Scovill Manufacturing Company. In the late-1890s, several brass firms along the Naugatuck Valley, together with others in the mid-west, consolidated under an umbrella corporation known as American Brass Company. Holmes, Booth, and Hayden did not join the conglomerate at first, but was absorbed into it in 1901. Under the American Brass Company, companies remained separated entities with separate owners, allowing Holmes, Booth, and Haydens to be purchased by the Benedict and Burnham Company in 1912. The purchase resulted in the consolidation of the two factory complexes, on opposite sides of the Naugatuck River, into the American Brass Company’s Benedict and Burnham Plant. With the demand for military ordnance during the First World War, the company added several buildings to the complex between 1914 and 1917, including the largest saw tooth building. In 1922, American Brass merged with the Anaconda Copper Company to become one of the largest, if not the largest, brass companies in the world. While the company was granted military contracts for the Second World War, little was done to expand the Benedict and Burnham facility.

Number of Existing Buildings

Eight (8) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

c.1870, c.1880s, c.1895, c.1910, c.1914

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Mill
• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

The former Holmes, Booth, and Haydens factory consists of three separate buildings. A single-story brick structure (approx. 60' by 120') with wood frame and monitor skylight at the northeast corner of the property dates to the 1890s; it housed the company’s seamless tube casting operations. To the south is a single-story metal clad building (approx. 45' by 130') with four small monitor skylights and a single-story modern addition; it was historically used for sand casting, and was likely constructed c.1910-1920. The largest structure on the property is an amalgamation of at least four primary blocks. The oldest section (approx. 40' by 260'), at the southwest corner, served as the factory machine shop and was built in the 1880s. It is a three-story brick building with a wooden structural system, and attic, dormer windows, and a brick stair tower to the west. At the northern end of the facility there is a second brick stair tower, along with a remaining section of a c.1895 brick building. To the north of the c.1895 block is another brick c.1900 addition. Between these two older sections is a large saw tooth and flat roof structure (approx. 280' and 570') that was constructed c.1917. At the southern end of the complex stands a modern power station. When it was constructed several buildings built between 1880 and 1915 were demolished. (Roth) The Holmes, Booth and Haydens plant has been altered, but overall it reveals more accurately than the other extant complexes the scale of a 19th-century integrated brass firm in Waterbury. Portions of the c.1870 rolling mill remain. Originally 140 ft. wide and about 225 ft. long, one end was demolished c.1910 when a sawtooth-roofed extension was built; the original mill and the extension both have brick walls. The lamp-burner shop, built c.1875, is attached to the rolling mill. The 3 1/2-story brick factory, about 180' x 40', has a dormered gable roof and a central stair tower topped by a pyramidal roof. The wire mill, foundry and spoon shop have been demolished. (Roth)

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick

Structural System(s)

• Post and Beam
• Structural Steel or Iron
• Wood Frame

Roof Form

• Gable
• Monitor
• Sawtooth

Roof Material

• Asphalt
• Metal
• Slate

Power Source

• Electricity
• Steam

Condition

Fair

Condition Notes

Factory closed in 2014. The oldest section of the building, built in the 1870s, shows significant deterioration. The saw tooth building is in fair condition, although it will likely start to deteriorate now that the building is empty. Fire gutted 1870 brick building 7/2018, to be demo'd.

Specific Location

Three parcels totaling 6.99 acres on the north side of Washington Avenue, east of the railroad line and west of the Naugatuck River

Adjacent To

• Main Roads
• Railroad

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 0368-0282-0312 / Link →
• 0368-0282-0313 / Link →
• 0368-0282-0003 / Link →

Acreage

4.0; 2.25; 0.74

Use (Present)

• Vacant

Form Completed By

Michael Forino

Date

August 2015

Bibliography

1. Hartford Courant.
2. Anderson, Joseph, Sarah J Prichard, and Anna Lydia Ward. The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut from the Aboriginal Period to the Year Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Five. New Haven: Price and Lee Co., 1896.
3. Bronson, Henry. The History of Waterbury, Connecticut; the Original Township Embracing Present Watertown and Plymouth, and Parts of Oxford, Wolcott, Middlebury, Prospect and Naugatuck. Waterbury: Bronson Bros., 1858.
4. Raber Report, c. 2000.
5. Pape, William J. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut,. Chicago; New York: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918.
6. Kelley, Etna M. The Business Founding Date Directory. Scarsdale, N.Y.: Morgan & Morgan, 1954.
7. Roth, Matthew, et al, Connecticut: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites (Washington DC: SIA, 1981).