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.
100 (1820s)
The career of Lambert Hitchcock represents a major transition in antebellum, non··textile manufacture in Connecticut. Trained as an apprentice (before 1814) and journeyman (1814-1818) in small furniture shops, Hitchcock brought entrepreneurship and large scale production to furniture manufacture. In 1818 he rented a shed and water power at a sawmill and began making unfinished, ready-to assemble batches of chair parts. He first sold to local stores and peddlers heading west and south. Within several years Hitchcock had hired a dozen workers, expanded to another building at the sawmill, and was shipping substantial lots of chair parts to Charleston, SC and other southern towns. Hitchcock employed nearly 100 woodworkers, finishers and rush-seat weavers in the 1820s, at the time one of the largest workforces in commercial manufacture in the state, and the largest in furniture production. In the 1830s and 1840s Hitchcock and his partners expanded into cabinet furniture production and operated retail stores near the factory and in Hartford. In 1864 Delos Stephens bought the factory; Stephens and Co., which made joiner's tools and ivory rules, lasted 40 years. The mill was then idle until 1946, when John T. Kenney bought and renovated it to house shops making reproduction Hitchcock chairs. The buildings, with extensive interior alterations, now house showrooms. (Roth) The mill is used for self storage as of 2016.
Roughly five (5) primary blocks.
1825, 1946-1948
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In 1825 [Hitchcock] built, upstream from the sawmill [where he began operations], a 3-story, gable-roofed brick factory, 60' x 32' with bracketed eaves and a square cupola; hand-wrought, S-shaped wall anchors tie the floor beams into the walls. A 2-story, 36' x 30' extension to the east repeats the features of the main factory (except the cupola), as does the 2-story, 45' x 18' ell at the southwest corner. Kenney [in 1946] scrapped the turbine that Stephens had installed and demolished the wheelhouse. The only remnant of mechanical power is a shaft with pulley, which protrudes from the attic level of the mill. (Roth)
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Good, Fair, Deteriorated
All portions of the building are in generally good condition.
Between the Farmington River to the east, School Street to the west, and Rte 20 to the south.
Located in Riverton National Register Historic District (2007). See Sources below.
Yes
1.6
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