Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• A Platt and Sons 1847-c.1850
• A. Platt and Company c.1825-1847
• Platt Brothers Co. c.1850-present

Use (Historic)

• Mining, Primary Metals

Largest Documented Workforce

100

Historic Narrative

Alfred Platt was born in Newtown in 1789, but his family moved to Waterbury that year, settling about three miles south of the town center along the Naugatuck River. The family operated a flour mill; at the age of nineteen, Alfred built a saw mill. The area is still known as the Platt’s Mill neighborhood, or Plattsville. Alfred spent a few years peddling Waterbury clocks in the American south before returning to Waterbury and becoming a founding member of the A Benedict Company (later Benedict and Burnham). It is unclear when or where Platt learned about brass production, but some accounts suggest that he was the first person in Waterbury to start manufacturing brass and copper wire while at the A. Benedict Company, which at the time was used to produce eyes for buttons. Around 1825, Alfred Platt sold his interest in the A. Burnham Company and acquired his family’s mills and water rights along the Naugatuck River at Plattsville. There he established his own small button making operation called A. Platt and Company. In 1847, Alfred Platt and his sons became partners and the company was renamed the A. Platt and Sons. Around 1850, the company was reorganized as the Platt Brothers Company with a capital stock of $30,000. During this period the company established one of the first zinc rolling mills in the United States. The Platt Brothers operated two factories in Waterbury: the button factory moved to Benedict Street in the North End of Waterbury, while the rolling mill was in Plattsville. Both factories were in operation during the Civil War, producing buttons and zinc rifle slugs for the Union Army, and by 1875 products included stampings and eyelets, ferrules and shells. In 1911, the Patent Button Company purchased the button manufacturing operations, and Platt Brothers Company focused on zinc components. In 1955, a major flood on the Naugatuck River heavily damaged the Plattsville factory, leading to the construction of a new factory nearby (2670 South Main Street). Platt Brothers Company continues to operate in the new location, producing drawn metal components, lighting accessories, communications, aerospace, sensing devices, control valves, primary and after-market automotive components, electronics, and zinc alloy rod which was used in the underground sections of the Alaskan Pipeline to protect it against corrosion. Platt Bros. may have recruited Irish immigrants off the boats in New York.

Number of Existing Buildings

Two (2) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

c.1900, c.1955

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

The date of the oldest surviving building along the Naugatuck River is uncertain, but presumed to be c.1900; a single-story brick building with a saw tooth roof, it measures approx. 130’ by 70’. To the south, a single-story, flat roof building approx. 80’ by 50’ was constructed after 1950. Before the flood of 1955, there were additional buildings attached to the north and south of the saw tooth building, as well as a machine shop, office, and storage building across Platts Mill Road. Water power for the mill came from a canal diversion to the north which entered the mill from the east.

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick

Structural System(s)

• Post and Beam
• Structural Steel or Iron

Roof Form

• Flat
• Sawtooth

Roof Material

• Asphalt
• Metal

Power Source

• Electricity
• Water (Turbine)

Condition

Good

Condition Notes

n/a

Specific Location

One 1 acre parcel on the west side of Platts Mill Road, on the east bank of the Naugatuck River, south of Bristol Street.

Adjacent To

• Water (for Power)

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 0558-1177-0002 / Link →

Acreage

1.0

Use (Present)

• Commercial

Form Completed By

Michael Forino

Date

August 2015

Bibliography

1. Hartford Courant.
2. Anderson, Joseph, Sarah J Prichard, and Anna Lydia Ward. The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut from the Aboriginal Period to the Year Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Five. New Haven: Price and Lee Co., 1896.
3. Pape, William J. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut,. Chicago; New York: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918.
4. Kelley, Etna M. The Business Founding Date Directory. Scarsdale, N.Y.: Morgan & Morgan, 1954.