Mill Record Norwalk

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Disclaimer: Content for these properties was compiled in 2014-2017 from a variety of sources and is subject to change. Updates are occasionally made under Property Information, however the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation (dba Preservation Connecticut) makes no representation or warranty that the information is complete or up-to-date.

Complex Name (Common)
Automatic Signal Corp.
Complex Name (Historic)
  • Automatic Signal Corp.
Address or Location
6 Regent Street, East Norwalk, Norwalk
County
Fairfield
Historic Designation
Associated Mill Community
n/a
Historic Information

Companies Associated w/Complex

  • American LaDentelle Co. 1914-1929
  • Automatic Signal Corp. 1937-1946
  • Automatic Signal Corp., Div of Eastern Industries, Inc. 1946-1961
  • Automatic Signal Corp., Div of LFE Corp. 1961-1982
  • Donney and Bourke Inc. ca. 1982-Present (2016)
  • Standard Safety Razor Co. 1929-ca. 1938

Use (Historic)

Largest Documented Workforce

900 (1937).

Historic Narrative

The oldest portions of the former Automatic Signal Corporation’s Norwalk, Connecticut plant were erected for the American LaDentelle Company, a lace manufacturer, in 1914. American LaDentelle was led by O.J. Ahlstrom, president; R.O. Johnson, treasurer; and Howard A. Crampton, plant manager. The factory’s equipment consisted of 192 lace machines and 9,000 spindles, which produced both torchon and cluny lace. Twenty-five percent of the company’s ownership was originally held by German financial interests, and this was possessed by the ‘Alien Property Custodian,’ a government office that seized and controlled properties belonging to the enemies of the United States, during World War I, and then sold in 1922. The company remained in business throughout and following the war yet eventually closed its doors in 1929. The plant formerly occupied by the American LaDentelle Company subsequently passed to the Standard Safety Razor Corporation, a Wilmington, Delaware-based firm, which established its presence in Norwalk in 1929. Standard Safety Razor manufactured blades for use in razors produced by other brands, most notably the Gillette Safety Razor Company of Boston, Massachusetts. The Standard Safety Razor Corporation was charged with numerous counts of patent infringement by some of these larger firms during the early 1930s, some of the court decisions having ruled in the company’s favor, and some not. The Standard Safety Razor Corporation remained in operation in Norwalk until 1938, yet in 1937 shared a portion of its factory with the New York, New York-based Automatic Signal Corporation, a manufacturer of automatic traffic signals. The Automatic Signal Corporation was established in New Haven, Connecticut following the successful design and testing of the first electromatic traffic signal by four Yale-trained engineers, Harry A. Haugh Jr., Eugene D. Sterling, Walter G. Garland, and Charles D. Geer, in 1928. Haugh was the principal force behind the device, which he conceptualized during the early 1920s. The original device consisted of a strip of rubber which stored up electronic impulses generated by passing cars in order to determine and modulate traffic flow through a chosen intersection. The Automatic Signal Corporation maintained operations in New Haven throughout the early 1930s, however, its offices were moved to New York by the mid-1930s, and manufacturing was relocated to Norwalk in 1937. In 1946, the Automatic Signal Corporation merged with the Eastern Engineering Company, a Hartford, Connecticut-based manufacturer of industrial pumps and mixing equipment established in 1932, to form Eastern Industries, Inc. The essential work of both firms was continued and the following year the Automatic Signal Corporation unveiled a groundbreaking new product, the radar speed gun. This was largely the work of John L. Barker, an electrical engineer and vice-president and general manager of Automatic Signal. Dubbed the ‘Electro-Matic Radar Speed Meter,’ the radar gun was quickly adopted by the Connecticut State Police after extensive testing on the Merritt Parkway clearly illustrated its value. Only warnings were handed out between 1947 and 1948, however, the first speeding tickets based on the use of the device were issued by the State Police starting in 1949. Eastern Industries, Inc. was acquired by the Laboratory of Electronics (LFE) Corporation in 1961. The Automatic Signal Corporation continued to operate as the Automatic Signal Division of the LFE Corporation into the 1980s. The LFE Corporation eventually closed the Automatic Signal Division’s Norwalk plant in 1982, whereupon it was acquired by Dooney and Bourke, Inc., a manufacturer of high-end handbags organized in Norwalk in 1975. Dooney and Bourke continues to occupy the Regent Street factory.

Architectural Information

Number of Existing Buildings

Roughly seven (7) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

ca. 1914, ca. 1955, ca. 1960.

Architect

Irving Rutherford for c.1955 and c.1960 additions

Builder

n/a

Building Type

Architectural Description

The former Automatic Signal Corporation plant is comprised of roughly seven primary adjoining and freestanding blocks located at the eastern terminus of Regent Street, roughly 250’ east of Regent Street’s intersection with Strawberry Hill Avenue. The two oldest blocks are located at the core of the factory and were erected in 1914. They consist of a two-story, 42’ x 88’ red brick office building with a one-story, 198’ x 42’ red brick manufacturing block adjoining its east elevation. The office has a concrete foundation, large rectangular window openings with concrete sills and lintels, a red brick parapet with concrete coping, and a flat roof. The manufacturing block has rectangular window openings with concrete sills and lintels, exposed rafter tails, a low-pitched gable roof, and a 5’-tall clerestory monitor with exposed rafter tails and a low-pitch gable roof. The plant was substantially enlarged around 1955. This included the construction of a one-story office block adjoining the western side of the original office, a one-story storage building adjoining the eastern side of the manufacturing block, and a one-story freestanding workshop located roughly 30’ north of the factory buildings. All of the ca. 1955 blocks are of concrete block construction and have concrete foundations, red brick apron walls, rectangular window openings with concrete sills, and flat roofs. The new office building is particularly notable for the irregularly shaped, cantilevered concrete awning that shelters the primary entrance to the plant. The surviving original windows in the ca. 1955 buildings consist of large multi-pane metal sash with pivot-style openings. The two final blocks associated with the former Automatic Signal Corporation plant were built adjoining the eastern end of the factory ca. 1960. They consist of a pair of one-story concrete block buildings with red brick apron walls, large rectangular ribbon windows with concrete sills, multi-pane metal sash with hopper-style openings, and flat roofs. The larger of the two blocks measures roughly 134’ x 126’ and adjoins the east elevation of the ca. 1955 storage building. The second ca. 1960 block adjoins the northwest corner of the first ca. 1960 building and measures approximately 86’ x 54’. The architect for the c.1955 and c.1960 additions, Irving Rutherford of Hartford, is identified in the the July 21st 1955 issue of Engineering New Record (p.152) and the November 16th 1962 issue of Bridgeport Post (p.20); info thanks to Gregg Bateman.

Exterior Material(s)

Structural System(s)

Roof Form

Roof Material

Power Source

Condition

Fair

Condition Notes

The complex is in fair condition. Although some of the windows in the oldest sections of the plant have been replaced, the factory appears to be well maintained and structurally sound.

Property Information

Specific Location

One legal parcel (6 Regent Street) totaling 4.13 acres located at the eastern terminus of Regent Street, roughly 250’ east of Regent Street’s intersection with Strawberry Hill Avenue.

Adjacent To

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

Acreage

4.13

Use (Present)

Sources

Form Completed By

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Date

11/06/2015

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 New Haven County; Clark, Richard, 1859.
  6. Atlas of New Haven County, Beers, Ellis & Soule, 1868.
  7. Aerial Survey of Connecticut, 1934, 1951, 1965, 1970, 1985.
  8. Sanborn Map Company, 1891, 1896, 1901, 1906, 1922, 1950, 1958.
  9. Norwalk Directory; Various editions.
  10. Evening Sentinal, 1956.
  11. Hartford Courant, 1930, 1946, 1947, 1954.
  12. Norwalk Hour, 1937.
  13. Norwalk after Two-hundred & Fifty Years; Norwalk Historical and Memorial Library Assoc., 1901.
  14. Norwalk; Grant, Lisa Wilson, 2014.
Representative View(s)Click on image to view full file


Photographer

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Photography Date

11/06/2015