USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > West Haven > History of West Haven, Connecticut > Part 5
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CONNECTICUT FAT RENDERING AND FERTILIZER COMPANY
Organized in 1903, as a co-operative concern, by a large group of retail marketmen throughout Connecticut, the Connecticut Fat Rendering and Ferti- lizer Corporation is now said to be one of only four such co-operative rendering concerns operating in this country. This corporation, with a plant covering approximately ten acres, collects waste material, such as trimmings and fats, from markets throughout the State, and converts them into salable materials, ensuring the largest return to the marketmen for their waste material. The chief products of the plant are tallow for the manufacture of soaps and meat scraps used in poultry food. Since its organization, the concern has been one of the town's largest taxpayers. The present officers are : Albert F. Ridinger, president, New Haven ; Charles P. Case, vice-president, Hartford ; Charles J. Scully, secre- tary, Hartford; and Howard J. Graff, treasurer, New Haven. The board of ten directors represents all sections of the State.
NEW HAVEN RENDERING COMPANY
The New Haven Rendering Company, established in 1903, purchased the property of the Merwin Provision Company on the meadow lands north of Spring Street. The plant, originally of wood frame construction, used as a commercial slaughter house for cattle, sheep, and pigs, has been enlarged and improved, until it now occupies two red-brick buildings equipped to handle all the waste materials used in the manufacture of tallow, greases, and commercial fertilizers. The by-products from the production of tallow and greases are combined with chemicals to make a mixed fertilizer, which is sold to farmers throughout the East. A completely equipped abattoir, connected with the plant, is operated under the supervision of Dr. W. J. Watt. This firm also buys and sells hides, cat skins, pelts, and wool.
AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL COMPANY
Organized in 1898 by Lucian Sanderson as the Sanderson Fertilizer Com- pany, with offices on Water Street and warehouses on Belle Dock in New Haven,
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HISTORY OF WEST HAVEN
the firm moved to its present location at 2 Wood Street, West Haven, in 1903. In 1911, the company became a subsidiary of the American Agricultural Chem- ical Company of New York, which took over complete control and dropped the Sanderson name in 1926.
The company produces chemical fertilizers and insecticides, derived from three main sources : phosphate from the company's mines at Phosphate Rock, Florida, potash from Germany and France, and nitrate of soda from South America.
Insecticides produced here from a mixture of arsenate of lead, sulphur nicotine products, and various other chemicals are used as a spray to eliminate insects from growing plants, and as a preventative of fungus disease.
John Curran, the manager, has been with the concern since 1907.
THE SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE COMPANY (Branch)
The Southern New England Telephone Company opened its first West Haven office in 1903, on Wood Street. Increasing demands for service made additional space necessary, and, in 1907, the office was moved to the upper floor of the car-barn office building on Campbell Avenue at Court Street. In 1914, the office and exchange were moved to Campbell Avenue at Main Street, di- agonally opposite the town hall, where they remained until the present two- story red brick building at 463 Campbell Avenue was constructed in 1923-24. This department now serves approximately 5,000 telephones in this section of the New Haven Exchange.
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPHI COMPANY
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company maintains a branch office for the transmission of long-distance and overseas cable calls in the large, red-brick building at the corner of Orange Avenue and Prudden Street, on the crest of Allingtown Hill.
CLARK DAIRY INCORPORATED
Beginning with a small herd of half a dozen cows, the milk from which was processed in a small 10 x 10-foot, one-story building and delivered on foot, Charles A. Clark, in 1905, founded the present large Clark Dairy Inc., which occupies an L-shaped dairy building, surrounded by green lawns, at 470 Elm Street, and owns a fleet of trucks.
In addition to 3,000 quarts of milk distributed daily in West Haven and vicinity, the company produces many milk by-products, including ice cream and ice cream novelties. The milk is secured on contract from registered herds and processed by the latest improved machinery.
A chain of retail stores (Milk-Bars), recently opened by the concern, are proving successful in providing additional outlets for their products. Two of these stores are now operating in New Haven, with a third under construction.
Present officers of the corporation are : Charles A. Clark, president ; Hannah T. Clark, vice-president ; and Leroy A. Buckingham, secretary.
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WEST HAVEN INDUSTRY
THE WEST HAVEN CREAMERY
In 1905, George M. Smith, determined to increase his income by selling milk from his farm on Saw Mill Road. The first customers were supplied from a wire carrier that Mr. Smith strapped to his back before he mounted his bicycle each morning, on his way to work at the old Mathushek Piano Shop on Brown Street.
The demand for milk increased so rapidly that Mr. Smith soon had to devote his entire time to the business. In 1906, he purchased a milk route from Theodore French and, in 1926, added the P. J. Allspaugh routes, then serviced by Fred Ziegler. In 1918, Mr. Smith's son, Christian, became a partner in the business, and the name Spring Lake Dairy was adopted. In 1932, Frank C. Ennever was admitted as a third member of the firm, which was then in- corporated as the West Haven Creamery.
Today a fleet of seven trucks make deliveries from the large dairy, which is equipped with modern pasteurization and bottling machinery. The milk is now secured from 18 contracted farms and a home herd of 12 cows.
The present officers are George Smith, president; Frank Ennever, vice- president ; Christian M. Smith, treasurer.
ADELHURST IRON WORKS
The Adelhurst Iron Company, 52 Richards Street, was founded in 1901 in New Haven by John Adelhurst and G. Leroy Clark. In 1911, when the Yale Safe and Iron Company, of West Haven dissolved, the Adelhurst firm moved into that company's quarters at the present location, and continued under a part- nership until 1926, when incorporation papers were filed. The plant occupies two red-brick buildings on private railroad sidings. Both heavy and light ornamental iron work, articles of stainless steel, aluminum, and other metals are the prin- cipal products. Much of the grill and other ornamental work used in the build- ings at Yale University in New Haven, are the products of this concern.
The two men who founded the company, Mr. Adelhurst as president, and Mr. Clark as treasurer, are still the guiding heads of the corporation.
HALL ORGAN COMPANY
Founded in New Haven, in 1896, as the H. Hall & Company, the now nationally know Hall Organ Company was incorporated and moved to West Haven in 1912. The site of its present. plant, at 692 Campbell Avenue was purchased from the Sutton Estate in March, 1912, and construction rushed so that the factory was operating in October of the same year. The plant now comprises a three-story brick building, providing 31,000 square feet of operating room, with separate lumber and storage buildings adding another 7,400 square feet. Twice since 1912 it has been necessary to enlarge the plant, which today is reputed to be one of the most completely equipped organ factories in the United States.
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HISTORY OF WEST HAVEN
Since the concern moved to West Haven, pipe organs-many of national prominence-have been manufactured here and installed in every State in the Union. Installations have also been made in Central America and the Bahama Islands. Each instrument is custom built and requires from 20 to 25 varieties of lumber, each for a particular purpose, as well as a large assortment of metals and many special compositions that are cast at the plant. Many other raw materials, such as cork, rubber, ivory, shellac, paper wares, and wax are also employed in the construction; installation of each completed instrument is per- sonally supervised by a member of the firm. There are over 50 Hall organs in use in New Haven and more than 200 in Connecticut. At least 25 are in use in California. In 1915, Hall Organ Company was awarded the Gold Medal for excellence at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in California.
Due to economic conditions, the concern has reduced its normal force from 90 to 25 highly skilled mechanics. Some of the founders remain as executives of the company.
George A. Hall, president and treasurer, and Frederick Campkin, vice- president, have both held office since the incorporation; Clifford R. North is secretary.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY
The New Haven Distributing House of the Western Electric Company, established at West Haven in 1913, is one of 29 such plants in United States cities, which form a countrywide distribution system for furnishing equipment to the telephone companies of the Bell system. These distributing houses are the contact points through which materials, produced at the three main factories in Chicago, Illinois, Baltimore, Maryland, and Kearney, New Jersey, are dis- tributed directly to the telephone companies.
The New Haven Distributing House serves chiefly the territory of the Southern New England Telephone Company. Like all of the other plants in the system, it handles large stocks of telephone instruments, cable, switchboards, and hundreds of other items manufactured by the Western Electric Company, and supplies many hundreds of other items purchased by the company from outside factories. As a result of expanding business, the New Haven House transferred its quarters in May, 1929, from Wood Street to the present modern establishment at 135 Wood Street.
The present building, which provides more than double the floor space of the three old structures, contains about 40,000 square feet of warehouse space, about 13,000 square feet of shop space, and 5,000 square feet office space.
FRANK D. CASHIN PAPER COMPANY
Established in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1892, by William Cashin, father of the present owner, under the name of the Cashin Card and Glazed Paper Company, and moved to New Haven in 1904, this firm was incorporated in 1905 and dissolved in 1916, but was reopened by Frank D. Cashin on its
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present site, Wood Street, West Haven, in 1917. Mr. Cashin died in the latter part of 1938 and was succeeded by his sister, Miss Rubie M. Cashin, who had been closely associated with her brother and father in conducting the firm's affairs.
Housed in a large, one-story, red-brick building, the company is the only one of its kind in Connecticut engaged in a process known as glazing paper, to be used as box covering labels, and other items required by drug, pin, soap, hosiery, underwear, seed, and other manufacturers. The founder, William Cashin, was a pioneer in this field. More than 14,000 square feet of floor space are required, although the work is done by only six employees, all of whom are highly skilled in their respective lines. An interesting feature of the process is that the paper is colored on one side only, an intricate task.
After the water colors, mixed with talcum and wax, have been prepared in a large barrel, the liquid is run onto rolls of a huge machine through which the paper is drawn. Large metal arms grasp the paper as it comes off the rolls and carry it, in sections, on a conveyor, 300 feet in length, down a long alley, where it is dried by steam pipes above and below. The drying takes no longer than the time required to carry the paper the length of the alley and return. The paper is then run through a glazing machine, consisting of a large compressed- cotton roller, combined with a smaller steel roller. The mixture of talcum and wax in the coloring produces the glaze through simple frictions; the upper roller (steel) moves rapidly, while the lower (cotton) moves slowly.
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GOODWORK, INCORPORATED
Since its incorporation in 1919, under the direction of Harry Astrachan, president, the cleaning and dyeing establishment of Goodwork, Inc., has grown rapidly. Originally requiring but two persons to carry on the work, the firm now employs well over a hundred in its long, low, red brick plant, at 37 Camp- bell Avenue. The firm also engages in shoe repairing, hat cleaning, rug clean- ing, and shirt laundering. Garments collected by company trucks from the firm's chain of stores throughout Connecticut and New York are cleansed and pressed at the rate of more than 10,000 daily.
ARMSTRONG RUBBER COMPANY
The Armstrong Rubber Company, producers of automobile tires and tubes,, founded and incorporated in 1912 at Garfield, New Jersey, by George Armstrong, was moved in 1922 to West Haven, where the concern purchased a plant then recently erected by a tire company that failed to go into operation. At. the time the Armstrong Rubber Company was organized, more than 600 concerns in the United States were manufacturing tires and tubes ; only 30 are now exclusively engaged in producing these two items. The present plant includes six large buildings, and another is under construction.
Credit for designing an innovation that revolutionized a phase of the tire industry in 1934 is given to James A. Walsh, president of the Armstrong Rubber Company ; his "Air-Coaster," a design now almost universally employed in the
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HISTORY OF WEST HAVEN
manufacture of tires, provides a flat and wider riding surface, practically elim- inating the uneven wear to which round tires were subject.
In the spring of 1939, the company erected a subsidiary plant at Natchez, Mississippi, which has so increased the firm's output that distribution of its tires has been extended to cover the United States.
In 1939, a four-story building was constructed on the West Haven premises and is now in use as a warehouse and shipping department. Foundation has been completed for a four-story addition to the main building, facing on Saw Mill Road. This building will provide adequate space for a tube-manufacturing department, to be equipped with the most modern machinery, set up for "straight line" production. This improvement will greatly increase the firm's output of tubes, which is negligible at present due to the high cost of production. A part of .this new building will also be used for the manufacture of additional tires. It is estimated that a substantial increase in tire production will result.
The plant's present daily production is 4500 automobile tires (for trucks and pleasure cars) ; about 600 persons are employed, most of whom are local residents; the 1939 payroll of the firm exceeded $600,000. In view of the expansion program now under way, it is estimated that, with the expected in- crease in personnel, the 1940 payroll figures will approximate three-quarters of a million dollars.
The affairs of this organization are directed by James A. Walsh, president, in charge of production, and Frederick Macklin, treasurer, in charge of sales.
THE VELVET TEXTILE CORPORATION
The Velvet Textile Corporation, producing transparent velvet and other pile fabrics, opened in West Haven in 1922, when its present plant on Gilbert Street was erected. When the plant is operating on full time, from 150 to 175 persons are regularly employed. (Visitors without a pass are not permitted.)
WEST HAVEN FOUNDRY COMPANY
The West Haven Foundry Company, at 27 Kimberly Avenue, manufac- tures brass, aluminum, bronze, and nichol-silver castings; bearing bronze ; copper hammers; table lamps, candle sticks, bronze tablets, and related products that are nationally distributed.
Founded in 1923, by W. G. Shutter, the company occupies a long, low, red brick building, covering 6,000 square feet of floor space, set back from the side- walk in a fashion reminiscent of an old village blacksmith shop.
Memorial tablets of bronze and other metals, used in many public and other buildings throughout the country, are manufactured in this West Haven plant.
METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, INC.
Among articles manufactured by the Metal Products Company, Inc., 510 First Avenue, are : house letterboxes ; carpenters' planes; security boxes ; hand drills; lunch kits; garden tools; and general hardware jobbing supplies. The
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Building Tires at the Armstrong Rubber Company Plant ; West Haven Unit Has Daily Production of 4,500 Tires
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Grove Hotel, Savin Rock; As It Appeared at the Turn of the Century
WEST HAVEN INDUSTRY
concern regularly employs about 60 persons, most of whom are West Haven residents, and has an annual payroll of about $70,000.
The company was incorporated in 1923 by Arthur Stieler as president, George Jacobs as treasurer, both of whom still retain these offices. Beginning in one small structure, the firm has expanded until it now occupies four one- story, brick buildings.
CARROLL, CUT-RATE PERFUMERS CORPORATION
The Carroll Cut-Rate Perfumers Corporations manufacturing plant and warehouse, at 202 Orange Avenue, in the Allingtown section, occupies a four- story, grey stone building erected in 1931. Its products are perfumes, cosmetics and drugs. With the repeal of Prohibition, a liquor department was added, but is conducted as a separate industry.
The business was established in 1922 by Samuel Benjamin, who was then operating a cosmetic store on Congress Avenue, in New Haven, and wished to produce perfumes and cosmetics of quality at lower prices than were then preva- lent. The firm prospered ; Mr. Benjamin acquired two partners and commenced the extension of business which now includes a chain of retail stores from coast to coast.
Providing employment at the West Haven plant for over 100 persons, most of whom are women, the concern is still guided by the three original incorpor- ators; Samuel Benjamin, president ; Samuel Krause, vice-president ; and Morris Walheimer, secretary and treasurer.
TOWN CRIER
The West Haven Town Crier, 674 Washington Avenue was established in 1930 as the successor to the "News-Record".
Published weekly, on Friday, this politically independent eight page tabloid style newspaper, has an estimated circulation of about 6,000.
The present publisher and editor, Frank M. Sheehan, has managed the "Crier" since 1937.
WEST HAVEN SHIPYARD, INC.
The West Haven Shipyard, Inc., on Water Street, at the foot of Main Street, on the site of the old Gessner and Mar Shipyard, was established in 1931 and, since that time, has enjoyed brisk business in the general repair of yachts and commercial vessels of smaller sizes. The yards were acquired from the Yale Flying-boat Service, Inc., established in 1929, to repair and build seaplanes, and a small amount of this work is still carried on here.
The plant, equipped to build and repair, under cover, vessels not exceeding 120 feet in length, also has an outdoor marine railway leading to the channel of West River, making possible the hauling out and repair of heavier vessels such as tug boats. The principal business of the 20 regular employees is the con- struction and repair of pleasure craft, both power and sail.
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The officers and operating managers of the firm includes : T. G. Bennet, 2nd., president ; Winchester Bennett, vice-president ; and W. E. Hublitzelle, secretary and treasurer.
R. H. BROWN & COMPANY
Established in New Haven about 1880, by Rubin H. Brown, the R. H. Brown and Co., moved to 170 Wood Street, West Haven in 1932. Housed in a grey, wooden, two-story structure, formerly used as a schoolhouse, this con- cern, now directed by William K. Simpson, is engaged in the manufacture of tools, book-stitching and book-binding machines.
THE WEHLE BREWERY
The Wehle Brewery Company, organized in 1933, with R. J. Wehle as presi- dent, and H. J. Wehle, secretary-treasurer, purchased the former Weidemann Brewing Company, plant on Campbell Avenue, at the junction of First Avenue. That plant, before Prohibition one of the largest breweries in the State, has since been repeatedly enlarged, until it now includes a group of brick buildings, one five stories in height, with an aggregate floor space of 44,000 square feet.
The modern bottling, canning, and shipping departments have reached a maximum capacity of 19,000 cases of bottles or cans of beer daily, or a total of 470,000 individual packages. The products are also shipped in the conventional kegs, quarters, halves, and barrels. Absolute cleanliness is maintained through- out the brewery, a brew-master of many years' experience supervises the pro- duction.
Ale, lager beer, and porter are manufactured and distributed under regis- tered trade names, several of which (especially Mulehead Ale) have secured large public favor.
OLD ELM WINES & LIQUOR, INC.
The Old Elm Wines & Liquor, Inc., established in 1933, after the repeal of Prohibition, by Giovanni Musso, occupied the old saw-ship building at 28-30 Elm Street, facing Kimberly Avenue. In 1939, the company built a two-story brick structure at 107 Water Street, better suited to its purposes. The firm's activities are largely confined to the bottling of products received in bulk con- tainers and to the rectifying of spirits. The varieties handled range from the newer domestic wines and cordials to some of the rarer vintages of France and Italy.
Present officials of the concern include: Giovanni Musso, president; Fred- erick Bonnardi, vice-president ; and Charles Calosso, secretary.
NEWTON-NEW HAVEN COMPANY, INC.
The Newton- New Haven Company, Inc., die casters, came to West Haven, in 1934 and took over the former Wire Novelty Company plant at 630 Third
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WEST HAVEN INDUSTRY
Avenue. This plant was originally the vast stables connected with the Wadding- ham mansion, which was destroyed by fire in 1902.
The Newton-New Haven Company had been formed in New Haven several years before moving to West Haven, by a group of men long identified with the die-casting industry. W. G. Newton, its president, was formerly president of the Newton Die Casting Corporation of New Haven. The die-casting busi- ness, unfamiliar to most people, is the manufacture of metal parts by forcing molten metal, under high pressure, into steel molds or dies. In addition to man- ufacturing completed dies, the Newton-New Haven Company also sells die- casting machines to manufacturers who make their own castings.
Of particular interest is a recent installation of equipment for the manufac- ture of high pressure aluminum castings. Especial emphasis is placed on the quality of these products, as many of them are for use in aircraft manufacture. Equipment has also been installed for experiments in manufacturing castings of magnesium, the lightest of all metals used commercially and of extreme value in aircraft building.
AMERICAN OIL COMPANY
The American Oil Company, purchased the Bulk Plant of the Pan-Am, or Mexican Petroleum Corporation, in West Haven on April 16, 1934. On Kim- berly Avenue, south of the West River Bridge, the plant consists of five large storage tanks with a capacity of several thousands of gallons. A large admin- istrative office is also maintained at this plant.
Products are delivered here by the company's oil tankers, via the West River Channel, and redistributed by company trucks to the territory covered : south as far as Milford; north as far as Waterbury; and east along the shoreline as far as Saybrook.
MCELLIGOTT FUEL CORPORATION
The McElligott Fuel Corporation of Waterbury, Connecticut, opened its bulk plant at 79 Water Street, West Haven, on October 16, 1935.
Consisting of three large tanks, this plant is used as a distribution center for the company's products and serves all of Connecticut.
AMERICAN WOODWORKING COMPANY
Newton H. Borgerson, an architect formerly in the employ of the Richards Lumber Company, established the American Woodworking Company, at 34 Water Street on September 1, 1936.
Employing eight to ten competent mill workers, the company manufactures cabinets, store fixtures, book cases, screens, sashes, metal weather-stripping, and fireplace mantels for the retail trade. The 90 x 110-foot wood-frame structure housing the concern is completely equipped with modern machinery.
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CONNECTICUT REFINING COMPANY
The Connecticut Refining Company, at 105 Water Street, is the out-growth of a single gasoline station originally established and operated by Edward Shiner at 44 Elm Street, West Haven. In 1930, the West Haven Oil Corporation was incorporated with William L. Larash, president; Mrs. Gussie Shiner, vice-presi- dent ; and Edward Shiner, secretary and treasurer. The Bulk Plant, now operated by this concern, was built on Water Street in 1932; the name of the company was changed to its present title in 1934, with the same officials in control.
Products handled here include : gasoline; kerosene; fuel oils; Bunker "C" oil; and motor oils. Trademarks owned by the company include: "Rex" ( fuel oil and gasoline) ; "45 Water White" (kerosene) ; "Benzoline" (gasoline). The products are received by water at the tanks located on the West River Channel, which flows into New Haven Harbor, and are redistributed by truck to the company's chain of gasoline stations throughout Connecticut.
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