Mill Record West Hartford

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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)
Holo-Krome Screw Corp. DEMO’D 2018
Complex Name (Historic)
  • Holo-Krome Screw Corp.
Address or Location
60 Brook Street, Elmwood, West Hartford
County
Hartford
Historic Designation
Associated Mill Community
n/a
Historic Information

Companies Associated w/Complex

  • Holo-Krome Screw Corp. 1936-2010

Use (Historic)

Largest Documented Workforce

300 (1952).

Historic Narrative

The Holo-Krome Screw Corporation was organized in Hartford in 1929. The company was founded and led by Hartford-born William A. Purtell, a salesman at the Allen Manufacturing Company, a hollow screw producer. Purtell lacked an engineering or manufacturing background, having been employed as an insurance file clerk, a railroad yard worker, and then an assistant traffic manager at the Colt Firearms Manufacturing Company, before taking a job at Allen Manufacturing. Despite this fact, Purtell and several friends gathered enough confidence and capital to establish the Holo-Krome Screw Corporation and began producing hollow set screws and pipe plugs in space rented from the Silex Company on Pliny Street in Hartford. The Great Depression hit just five months later, however, and the future of the company was immediately threatened as the majority of its existing orders were canceled. Holo-Krome weathered this challenging economic climate first by temporarily finding less expensive quarters in Bristol, Connecticut, and then by developing a revolutionary new product. Purtell developed a way to manufacture socket screws through a process of cold fabrication rather than machining. This reduced costs and opened up the way for the firm’s survival. The company returned to Pliny Street, where it remained until a dedicated plant was erected on Brook Street in West Hartford in 1936. In 1946, Holo-Krome was acquired by Veeder-Root, Inc., a Hartford-based manufacturer of counting devices used in a variety of applications. The former firm and its 300 employees, however, continued in business as a wholly-owned subsidiary operation. After being on the verge of closure resultant of the national recession that struck during the mid-2000s, Holo-Krome was acquired by the Fastenal Company, a Minnesota-based distributor of fasteners and other industrial and construction supplies, in 2009. Fastenal closed the West Hartford plant and moved the firm to Wallingford in 2010, whereupon a general resurgence in American manufacturing has placed the company on stable financial footings.

Architectural Information

Number of Existing Buildings

Roughly eleven (11) blocks.

Dates of Construction

c.1939 fwd

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

Architectural Description

The former Holo-Krome Screw Corporation plant is comprised of roughly eleven adjoining blocks located at the eastern terminus of Brook Street and along the west side of the rail line running between New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut. The original portions of the plant includes four one- and two-story red brick blocks erected in 1936. These consist of the two-story, 144’ x 34’ office building; a one-story, 245’ x 160’ manufacturing block; a one-story, 154’ x 110’ manufacturing block; and a one-story, 78’ x 64’ boiler plant and hardening room. These share similar details including brick pier construction, rectangular window openings with either multi-pane metal sash with hopper-style openings or double-hung units, concrete window sills, brick parapets, concrete coping, and flat roofs. The office has a projecting two-story entry pavilion centered on its west (front) elevation, however, this was located offset to the northern side of the block until a two-bay addition was erected at the north end of the building at some point between 1950 and 1965. The larger of the two original manufacturing blocks has four large sawtooth monitors, while the boiler plant can be identified by its clerestory monitor. The plant was significantly enlarged between 1950 and 1970. As noted, a two-bay two-story addition was built adjoining the north elevation of the office, while one-story, 84’ x 62’ and 110’ x 230’ steel-frame manufacturing and shipping blocks with red brick apron walls and large ribbon windows was erected adjoining the southern end of the building ca. 1955. One-story, 222’ x 48’ and 378’ x 89’ precast concrete or concrete block additions were built adjoining the east elevations of the original manufacturing buildings ca. 1955 and ca. 1966, respectively, while the two one-story concrete block and brick additions at the northern end of the plant were built in 1971 and 1974. Together they form an overall footprint of roughly 202’ x 373’, with a 118’ x 110’ ell joining them to the remainder of the factory.

Exterior Material(s)

Structural System(s)

Roof Form

Roof Material

Power Source

Condition

Fair

Condition Notes

The complex is in fair condition. A number of the exterior walls are in need of cleaning or minor repairs, however, the majority of the original windows appear to remain.

Property Information

Specific Location

One legal parcel (60 Brook Street) totaling 14.40 acres located at the eastern terminus of Brook Street and along the west side of the rail line running between New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut.

Adjacent To

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

Acreage

14.40

Use (Present)

Sources

Form Completed By

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Date

8/17/2015

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. Atlas of Hartford City and West Hartford Town, Connecticut; L.J. Richards & Co., 1896.
  6. Atlas of Hartford City and West Hartford Town, Connecticut; L.J. Richards & Co., 1909.
  7. Sanborn Map Company, 1917, 1923, 1950.
  8. Aerial Survey of Connecticut, 1934, 1965.
  9. Hartford City Directory, Various editions.
  10. Bridgeport Sunday Herald, 1952.
Representative View(s)Click on image to view full file



Photographer

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Photography Date

8/17/2015