Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• Waterbury Button Co. 1847-c.1945
• Waterbury Companies Inc. 1945-c.1960

Use (Historic)

• Fabricated Metal Products
• Firearms, Weapons, Explosives

Largest Documented Workforce

n/a

Historic Narrative

Between the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Waterbury saw the development of several brass stamp and rolling mills. The first of these sites were built to supply brass gears for the Waterbury, Thomaston, and Terryville clock making industries, and uniform buttons were made during the Revolutionary War. With the supply of brass and pewter buttons for the US Infantry and Navy during the War of 1812, Waterbury secured its reputation as a button-making center, a distinction that the city would maintain until the 1970s. (A display of over 10,000 buttons at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury attests to this specialty.) Out of the demand for buttons arose several prominent Waterbury companies, including the A. Benedict Company, also referred to as the Benedict and Coe Company, which later became one of the largest brass producers in the region under the name Benedict and Burnham Company. Aaron Benedict founded the A. Benedict Company in 1812 as a button manufacturer, but by the 1820s the company began to expand production with a variety of consumer products including furniture hardware, pins, lamps, etc. In 1847, the button division of Benedict and Burnham Company merged with Festus Hayden and Sons, becoming a separate entity known as the Waterbury Button Company, which incorporated two years later. By the 1940s, the Waterbury Button Company made more than buttons in materials beyond brass. In the mid-19th century, insulated electric wire, hardware, toys and streetcar tokens were added to the product line. The Waterbury Button Company began making high-end ivory buttons in the later-19th century, acquiring raw materials from Africa, South American, and several islands in the South Pacific. As celluloid, plastics and Bakelite were developed starting c.1870, the company used these materials in buttons, electrical goods, and plastic lenses for gas masks. Capital investments during the Second World War greatly increased the factory's production capabilities, and bomb fuses were manufactured. During this time, the name was changed to Waterbury Companies Inc. After the war, the company began to diversify into vinyl records, and fiberglass-reinforced plastic tubs, breadboxes and lamp shades. Historically, Waterbury Button Company has been the subject of some interesting labor topics. Brass mills of the nineteenth century did not employ many, if any, women, but button makers, and the Waterbury Button Company in particular, employed many women, perhaps because it was a light manufacturing process involving polishing and assembling (especially after the development of the two-piece button). During the First World War, at a time when the company was the largest supplier of military buttons in the United States, citizens and reporters expressed outrage that the War Department awarded a contract to produce hat and lapel uniform ornamentation to an English firm over the Waterbury Button Company. In September 1938, members of the Waterbury Brass Workers Union went on strike for pay increases; the disruption was settled by the Commissioner of the Connecticut Labor Commission, Morgan R. Mooney, with an agreement for overtime bonuses and one-week vacation, but no increased hourly rate. In 1994, Waterbury Companies Inc. acquired the non-real estate assets of the Cheshire Ball and Socket Manufacturing Co., in business since 1845. In 2000, Waterbury Companies itself was acquired by OGS Technologies Inc., and by 2002, it had moved out of its Waterbury location and to a facility on Peck Lane in Cheshire where it operates today.

Number of Existing Buildings

Nine (9) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

c.1880-c.1950

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Loft
• Mill
• Powerhouse
• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

The former Waterbury Button Company factory complex is composed of nine distinct blocks built between c.1880 and c.1950. The southernmost steel-frame red brick block was constructed c. 1940-50 and measures approximately 165’ by 60’; it is a single-story production shed with a monitor skylight along the entirety of the building. Immediately north is a three-story brick, flat-roof, L-shaped block approximately 185’ by 30 to 70’ built c. 1880 and c. 1890. To the north of this block is another L-shape brick block approximately 206’ by 40 to 81’; it consists of a western, five-story, flat-roof c.1920 section, a two-story, flat-roof c.1895 central section, and eastern gable roof power shed, also built in c. 1895. To the north of the power shed is another four-story c.1920 brick building, approximately 120’ by 35’, flanked on its west side by a single-story brick production shed with a single triangular monitor skylight measuring approximately 95’ by 40’, date unclear. At the northernmost end of the complex is a single-story steel-frame brick building, with two monitor skylights, built c.1940-50 and approximately 165’ by 70’.

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick

Structural System(s)

• Post and Beam
• Structural Steel or Iron
• Wood Frame

Roof Form

• Flat
• Gable
• Monitor

Roof Material

• Asphalt

Power Source

• Steam
• Water (Turbine)

Condition

Deteriorated

Condition Notes

Very poor condition.

Specific Location

One 2.5 acre parcel east of the Mad River, north of Washington Street, and west of River Street.

Adjacent To

• Water (for Power)

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 0369-0294-0021 / Link →

Acreage

2.5

Use (Present)

• Abandoned
• Other: Fire May 2023 appears to have destroyed the northernmost group of blocks; the southern grouping of blocks may not have been affected.

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. Bronson, Henry. The History of Waterbury, Connecticut; the Original Township Embracing Present Watertown and Plymouth, and Parts of Oxford, Wolcott, Middlebury, Prospect and Naugatuck. Waterbury: Bronson Bros., 1858.
4. Pape, William J. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut,. Chicago; New York: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918.
5. Kelley, Etna M. The Business Founding Date Directory. Scarsdale, N.Y.: Morgan & Morgan, 1954.
6. Waterbury Button Co corporate website.
7. Roth, Matthew, et al, Connecticut: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites (Washington DC: SIA, 1981).