Mill Record Ansonia

RETURN TO ‘FIND MILLS’

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)
Farrel Corporation DEMO OF ROLLING MILL 2023
Complex Name (Historic)
  • Farrel Foundry and Machine Co .
Address or Location
25 Main Street, Ansonia
County
New Haven
Historic Designation
Associated Mill Community
n/a
Historic Information

Companies Associated w/Complex

  • Almon Farrel and Company 1848-1850
  • Farrel Corporation 1963-Present (2014)
  • Farrel Foundry 1850-1857
  • Farrel Foundry and Machine Co . 1857-1927
  • Farrel-Birmingham Co Inc. 1927-1963

Use (Historic)

Largest Documented Workforce

1000 (1922)

Historic Narrative

The manufacturing entity that would eventually become the Farrel Foundry and Machine Company was established by Almon Farrel in 1848. Farrel was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on October 12, 1800 and at the age of 18 followed his father into the millwright’s trade. In 1844, Farrel and his son Franklin, likewise a skilled millwright and engineer, were retained by the newly established Phelps, Dodge and Company to construct the first dam and mills to be employed by the company in what would become Ansonia. As a result of this contract the Farrels would be responsible for the design and construction of a 250-foot dam and associated two-mile canal that would power not only the Phelps, Dodge and Company factory, but also afforded water privileges to other firms, among them being Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, Osborn and Cheesman Company, the Union Brass Foundry, Wallace and Sons Brass Company, and the Slade Woolen Mill. Another firm to take advantage of this newly-harnessed power was the Farrel's own Almon Farrel and Company, a small foundry and machine shop organized on the site of the present complex in 1848 to produce mill shafting and other heavy machinery. Later in 1848, Almon and Franklin Farrel joined with Richard Johnson to organize the Farrel-Johnson Company, which in 1850 was incorporated as the Farrel Foundry with Almon Farrel as president. The following year the Farrels expanded their foundry operations into Waterbury through the creation of the Waterbury Foundry Company. The Farrel Foundry and Waterbury Foundry Company remained independent entities until Almon Farrel’s death in 1857. At that time the firms were reorganized and incorporated as the Farrel Foundry and Machine Company with $90,000 in capital. The business of dam and mill construction were phased out and efforts at both plants were dedicated towards machine tool and millwork machinery production. Initially this was directed towards the Naugatuck Valley’s rapidly expanding and increasingly significant brass, copper, and rubber manufacturers, and included production of rolling mills and rubber grinders and calendars. During the 1870s the firm diversified to produce rolling equipment used by the stone and ore crushing and paper and sugar milling industries, and in the 1880s the company first developed chilled iron rollers for use in grain milling. By the mid-1880s the Farrel Foundry and Machine Company’s Ansonia operations were housed within a sprawling frame and brick industrial complex located between the east bank of the Naugatuck River and West Main Street, north of what is now Maple Street. This evolved over the course of the next three decades as new brick buildings replaced those of obsolescent frame construction, and additional manufacturing, office, and storage structures were erected on both sides of West Main Street. In 1927 the Farrel Foundry and Machine Company merged with the Birmingham Iron Foundry of Derby, Connecticut, another prominent producer of machinery used in rubber manufacturing. The resultant company was known as the Farrel-Birmingham Company, Inc. and operated until 1963 whereupon, after various additional mergers, the company was consolidated as the Farrel Corporation. The company’s employment levels peaked around 3500 during World War Two, and its efforts during the conflict earned it numerous accolades. In 1968 the Farrel Corporation became a division of United States Shoe Machinery (USM), which in turn merged with the Emhart Corporation in 1976. The Farrel Corporation continues to maintain a limited presence in Ansonia to this day, yet sold its West Main and Main Street properties in 2012.

Architectural Information

Number of Existing Buildings

Roughly twelve (12) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

ca. 1890-1924, 1935-1965

Architect

Leo F. Caproni (pre-1938 addition; 1941 addition; 1961 addition)

Builder

Dwight Building Co., Hamden (1961 addition)

Building Type

Architectural Description

The Farrel Foundry and Machine Company’s Ansonia plant consists of a large factory complex comprised of over a dozen manufacturing, office, and storage buildings primarily built between 1890 and 1961. The majority of these are of red brick construction and stand north of Maple and Main Streets along the east bank of the Naugatuck River. A rail line formerly operated by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad runs north-south through the middle of the complex and once provided direct freight access to the factory. Many of the structures associated with the complex were erected in phased expansion projects alongside or adjacent to earlier buildings. This obscures the architectural character and original footprints of many blocks, however, it can be seen that most stand either two or three stories tall and have monitor or sawtooth roofs. Two of the most prominent are visible from the bridge spanning the river. They consist of a three-story machine shop with segmental-arched window openings, stepped parapet, and monitor roof built parallel to Main Street ca. 1900, and a two-story erecting shop with broad window bays and a sawtooth monitor roof erected along the river between 1911 and 1924. Additional structures located in this section of the complex include a boiler house, power house, and coal storage shed situated between the river and the railroad, and a large connected mass of monitor-roof buildings that formerly housed rolling mills, a foundry, ovens, offices, and storage sheds standing between the railroad line and North Main Street. Elevated and covered pedestrian bridges span the railroad line connecting buildings on either side. Additional buildings historically associated with the Farrel Foundry and Machine Company or its subsequent manifestations are located on the east side of Main Street opposite the main plant, as well as along East Main Street. They include the three-story red brick office building with round-arched entry surround, splayed brick lintels with concrete keystones, a stepped parapet, and flat roof built at 65 Main Street ca. 1921, and the 200-foot by 60-foot three-story reinforced concrete and concrete block pattern shop built at 540 East Main Street ca. 1911. Additions to the complex designed by Leo F. Caproni were made in 1941 and 1961; the former has not been identified, the latter is the tall rectilinear white composite material building on North Main Street.

Exterior Material(s)

Structural System(s)

Roof Form

Roof Material

Power Source

Condition

Good, Fair, Deteriorated

Condition Notes

Most of the buildings associated with the complex are in fair condition. The office building (65 Main Street), however, is in good condition, while a number of support buildings at the core of the complex are in various states of deterioration. As of January 2016, according to Emery Roth II, photographer and author of Brass Valley: The Fall of an American Industry (2015), the power house remains intact with all internal machinery. In February 2017, the eastern foundry building collapsed.

Property Information

Specific Location

Three legal parcels (1 West Main St., 35 N Main St., and 35 West Main St.) totaling 9.76 acres bound by the Naugatuck River to the west, American Brass facility to the north, Main Street to the east and West Main Street to the south.

One legal parcel (65 Main St.) totaling 2.65 acres immediately south of the intersection of Main and East Main Streets.

One legal parcel (540 East Main St.) totaling 1.7 acres on the east side of East Main Street 350 feet south of its intersection with Main Street.

Adjacent To

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

No

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

  • 04300010001 (for record, use link and type in address or parcel number) / Link →
  • 04300010000 (for record, use link and type in address or parcel number) / Link →
  • 04400080000 (for record, use link and type in address or parcel number) / Link →
  • 03201-20000 (for record, use link and type in address or parcel number) / Link →
  • 04400380000 (for record, use link and type in address or parcel number) / Link →

Acreage

14.1

Use (Present)

  • Industrial
  • Other: One West Main St and 35 Main St leased by RugPadUSA in 2017. As of 2020, former Farrel headquarters at 65 Main Street being rehabbed as new police headquarters and senior center. DECD awarded $1m brownfields grant 6/2021 for assessment, demolition and remediation of a portion of the main site at 35 North Main Street. Eastern rolling mill at 35 North Main St demolished Jan 2023.
  • Vacant
Sources

Form Completed By

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Date

10/27/2014

Bibliography

  1. Ansonia City Directories, 1881-1965.
  2. Federal Census Records, 1880, 1890, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940.
  3. List of Connecticut Manufacturers, 1924, 1936, 1939.
  4. Industrial Directory of Connecticut, 1945, 1947.
  5. Sanborn Map Company, 1884-1950.
  6. The Hartford Courant, 1916-1962.
  7. The New England Business Directory and Gazeteer for 1922, Nbr. 30 (Boston: Sampson and Murdock Co., 1922).
  8. Roth, Matthew, et al, Connecticut: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites (Washington DC: SIA, 1981).
  9. Information, historic photographs and sources for Leo Caproni courtesy Gregg Bateman (2018).
Representative View(s)Click on image to view full file




Photographer

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Photography Date

10/27/2014