Hidden History: The long and winding tale of the foundry
- Robet Herron
- May 30
- 5 min read
by Robert Herron
Town Historian Emeritus
Submitted Photos
If you’ve ever driven down Glastonbury Avenue you may have noticed the barren landscape on the banks of the Connecticut River. This is where the Connecticut Foundry was once located.
It is now a desolate eyesore, a vast overgrown slab of concrete punctuated by weeds. A first reaction might be “why doesn’t the town do something about this?” The answer is not simple.
There are several factors that complicate restoring and improving this property. The best we can do at this time is to describe its history and discuss plans for the future.
Rocky Hill became a riverport in the 1640s when it became apparent that the banks of the river were unstable north of town and the Wethersfield riverport needed to be moved south. A shipyard, riverport and ferry landing were established in the southern part of Wethersfield which was, at the time, known as Rocky Hill.
There are few artifacts left to provide physical reminders of our maritime history. We can only imagine a time when rough sailors stayed in boarding houses, drank in riverfront taverns and engaged in all the practices sailors on shore leave do.
The Rocky Hill Historical Society has some documentation that describes that time. For example, we know that the Pomeroy House, across Meadow Road from the factory site, was one of several hotels built at the Rocky Hill riverfront which served as housing and taverns for sailors. It was built in 1754 by Oliver Pomeroy, a Rocky Hill Revolutionary War era sea captain who became a tavern owner and storekeeper.
Polly Dickinson owned it after him. She was renowned for parties, including sleigh ride parties ranging around the river towns apparently involving lots of drinking and good times. The building was disassembled and moved to Sherborn, Mass., in 1938.
As Rocky Hill’s time as a riverport began to wane the land along the river began to morph into a business hub. The foundry site was located on the riverside to capitalize on shipping advantages. The river provided an efficient means of carrying coal and raw materials to the foundry as well as shipping finished products.
Two wharves, the Coal Dock on the north end of the foundry and the Lower Dock on the south end, allowed for loading and unloading of raw materials and finished products. The coming of the railroad in 1872, and construction of the Silas Deane Highway and later Interstate 91, enabled truck carriers to bring raw materials and coal to the foundry and distribute its products all over the country.
There was a downside. Pollution of water and air were an ongoing problem.
In the early years, the northern two-thirds of the foundry property belonged to the Grimes and related families, as did most of the land on the northern river front. Several businesses occupied this space. William Neff and Edward Merriam ran a carriage shop here starting in 1835. This property began its history as a manufacturing center with the Rocky Hill Manufacturing Co. in 1849.
It made cast iron goods. This enterprise failed in 1853. For several years, the site served as a carpentry shop and a distillery that manufactured vinegar and champagne cider. The site later held a boarding house for workers on the new railroad. The boarding house burned down in 1876.
A sea captain named Jacob Brandagee owned the southern third of the site until he died at sea in 1765. William Webb, a sea captain and trader, owned this property in 1843. Not all of this history is proud. There is an account in a Boston newspaper of a slave of Brandagee committing suicide by exploding a dynamite keg on which he was sitting.
Webb owned a slave girl who he apparently took with him to North Carolina when it became clear that slavery was ending in Connecticut. Justus Candee owned the property when it burned down in 1876.
In 1881 a consortium formed a private subscription company that purchased the parcels of land and built a foundry. The foundry was sold to A.D. Heart & Co., which failed after 18 months. Ownership reverted to the original subscribers.
The plant remained idle until 1884 when the subscribers organized a new company as the Pierce Hardware Co., which became insolvent in 1888.
Not surprisingly, fire has always been a threat at this heat-based, coal-fired facility. There was a fire in 1890 at the Maltbie & Hanley Foundry that occupied the facility after Pierce failed. The fire doesn’t seem to have destroyed the building and Champion Manufacturing Co. procured the facility around 1890.
Champion occupied the foundry until 1916 although it leased the foundry to several other companies. Austin Manufacturing seems to have occupied the building in 1914 to make vending machines although it is unclear if Austin ever occupied the building.
In 1916, Foster-Merriam leased the site. In April of 1918, a spark from the foundry set the Yeager Store and residence at 205 Meadow Road on fire, but the fire was brought under control with only minor damage.
The Foster-Merriam Foundry occupied the site when it caught fire and burned to the ground on Christmas Eve of 1918. The building was owned by principals of Champion Manufacturing Co., Frank E. Holmes and Edward J. Stevens, who sold the property to the Connecticut Foundry Co. This company built a modern foundry that operated successfully for 65 years.
All was peaceful until 1977 when the Lady’s Garment Workers Union won an election and tried to unionize the foundry. A protracted strike ensued.
Non-union workers tried to break the strike and union picketers harassed employees including setting fire to cars and homes, in one case shooting and wounding a worker who was operating a carpool, as well as blocking traffic and vandalizing vehicles.
The strike dragged on for several years until the union was certified. Foundry management refused to recognize it. In 1983 the foundry permanently closed its doors, unable to remain viable in the face of labor unrest and the expense involved in addressing pollution issues.
The foundry property has sat idle since 1983 suffering the effects of time. The buildings and water tower gradually deteriorated and were razed. Ownership of the property has changed hands several times as plans for redevelopment have fallen through.
In 2011, a development agreement was reached between the Town Council and Riverfront Future Partners that promised to transform the abandoned foundry eyesore into a mixed-use showpiece. It would become a complex of 78 upscale condominiums, offices and shops, a restaurant, a public park dedicated to former state Rep. Richard D. Tulisano, and a scenic pedestrian walkway along the river bluff.
This plan has suffered setbacks. The most difficult of these seems to be that the developer must reach an agreement with the Providence-Worcester Railroad to allow for changes to the state-owned railway bed where it crosses Glastonbury Avenue.
The railroad has begun to use these tracks again on a limited basis. This will surely impact development plans. Another complicating factor is the Buckeye Pipeline that runs parallel to the railroad tracks and carries petroleum products north to Massachusetts. RHL