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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)
Hartford Apron & Towel Supply Co.
Complex Name (Historic)
  • Hartford Apron & Towel Supply Co.
Address or Location
19 Lafayette Street, Frog Hollow, Hartford
County
Hartford
Historic Designation
Associated Mill Community
n/a
Historic Information

Companies Associated w/Complex

  • Hartford Apron & Towel Supply Co. 1916-c.1965
  • Bell Pump Supply Co. c.1965-2010

Use (Historic)

Largest Documented Workforce

150 (1916).

Historic Narrative

SHPO turned down NR nomination 2016 The Hartford Apron and Towel Supply Company was established in Hartford, Connecticut by Joseph H. Gowen, a native of Fort Covington, New York, in 1893. Gowen experimented with several lines of employment in his early life, including the dairy industry and a grocery business in Gilbertville, Massachusetts. He also worked for a period as a salesman employed by the Kibbe Brothers Company (chocolates and candy) of Springfield, Massachusetts, before being employed by the wholesale confectioners W.F. Schraft and Company of Boston, Massachusetts, from 1890 to 1893. In 1893 Gowen moved to Hartford, where he came up with the idea for and established a laundry business that delivered clean linens to local businesses such as butchers, grocers, marketmen, barbers, and bartenders. Named the Hartford Apron and Towel Supply Company, this firm has been widely credited as being the first business of its kind in the state. Upon the initiation of business Gowen was a junior partner in the company, however, he was the sole employee, serving in the combined role of launderer, deliveryman, and manager. Within three months of the company’s establishment Gowen purchased his partners’ interest in the firm, the operations of which took place in a building located behind his house on New Britain Avenue. Starting in 1898, the commercial laundry service was operated alongside but financially separate from a business targeted at the domestic laundry market, which was known as the Gowens Family Laundry Company. The popularity of the commercial laundry service provided by Gowens led to a slow yet steady growth that necessitated a workforce of some 150 employees by 1916. This was the year that a new office and laundry facility was built for the company on Lafayette Street in Hartford where it would remain for the remainder of its history. The Hartford Apron and Towel Supply Company was incorporated with $150,000 in capital in 1922. By this point in time, Gowen had been joined in the business by his son, Clarence I. Gowen, who served as vice-president, and his brother-in-law, DeLos T. Kelsey. This management team would remain unchanged until Kelsey died in 1938, and the elder Gowen would continue to serve as president of the firm until his death at the age of 87 in 1949. Clarence I. Gowen took over as president of the Hartford Apron and Towel Supply Company following his father’s passing and led the firm through the 1950s and into the 1960s. The younger Gowen died in 1964, and the business closed its doors shortly thereafter. The company’s Lafayette Street facility subsequently passed to the Bell Pump Supply Company, a supplier of industrial and commercial heat and refrigeration control systems that had been established in Hartford ca. 1920. The Bell Pump Supply Company occupied the plant until ca. 2010.

Architectural Information

Number of Existing Buildings

Six (6) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

1916, ca. 1925, ca. 1950.

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

Architectural Description

The former Hartford Apron and Towel Supply Company facility is comprised of six primary adjoining and freestanding blocks located on the west side of Lafayette Street, at the southwest corner of Lafayette Street’s intersection with Grand Street. The plant’s original block is a two-story, 86’ x 70’ red brick building erected in 1916. This has large rectangular window openings with concrete sills and plain brick lintels, a plain brick parapet with tile coping, and a flat roof. This block was expanded ca. 1925 when three red brick additions were erected on the south side of the plant. These consist of a two-story, 45’ x 45’ block; a one-and-a-half-story, 15’ x 24’ heater room; a one-story, 22’ x 16’ storage building; and a freestanding, one-story, 36’ x 20’ four-bay garage. All share similar details with the original construction. A prominent two-story, 76’ x 62’ red brick addition was erected adjoining the east elevation of the original plant ca. 1950. This is characterized by its full-width, wrap-around ribbon windows with concrete sills and lintels, and multi-pane metal sash with convex glass glazing. The primary entry to the building is located on the south side of the east elevation and consists of a metal and glass entry door flanked to the north by three plate glass windows and with a large transom and cantilevered metal awning above. A similar awning extends along the block’s south elevation where a concrete loading dock and several additional pass-through entry doors are located. Metal lettering above the first-story windows on the façade reads, ‘BELL PUMP CO.’

Exterior Material(s)

Structural System(s)

Roof Form

Roof Material

Power Source

Condition

Fair

Condition Notes

The complex is in fair condition. Some of the exterior walls are in need of cleaning and many of the original windows have been replaced or boarded up, however, the plant appears well maintained overall.

Property Information

Specific Location

One legal parcel (19 Lafayette Street) totaling 0.594 acres located on the west side of Lafayette Street, at the southwest corner of Lafayette Street’s intersection with Grand Street.

Adjacent To

n/a

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

  • 226/440/126 (for record, use link and type in address or parcel number) / Link →

Acreage

0.594

Use (Present)

Sources

Form Completed By

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Date

8/31/2105

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 Hartford County, H & C.T. Smith, 1855.
  6. Atlas of Hartford County, Beers, Baker & Tilden, 1869.
  7. Sanborn Map Company, 1885, 1900, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1950.
  8. Aerial Survey of Connecticut, 1934, 1965.
  9. Hartford City Directories, Various editions.
  10. The Hartford Courant, 1899, 1916, 1922, 1934, 1949, 1968, 1964, 1965.
  11. Hartford, Conn., As a Manufacturing, Business and Commercial Center; Hartford Board of Trade, 1889.
Representative View(s)Click on image to view full file



Photographer

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Photography Date

8/31/2105