Carriages and Clocks, Corsets and Locks: The Rise and Fall of an Industrial City - New Haven, Connecticut

In Carriages and Clocks, Corsets and Locks, the editors and contributors trace the rise and fall of New Haven, Connecticut, as an industrial city. While New Haven's story is typical of many thriving cities during the American Industrial Revolution--fascinating to preservationists, urban and landscape historians, architects, industrial archaeologists, and community historians--it is atypical as well. Most American industrial cities relied on the manufacture of a single product, but New Haven diversified, fabricating over one hundred assorted manufactured goods at the turn of the twentieth century. In a remarkable feat of historical continuity, Carriages and Clocks, Corsets and Locks explores the origins, preservation, reclamation, and reuse of the extant industrial sites and firmly iterates a unique sense of place for modern citizens of this post-industrial city. Five scholarly narrative essays interpret specific sites, and detailed historical profiles are included for sixteen selected industrial sites located on or near New Haven's harbor, including the Quinnipiac Brewery and the Candee Rubber Company. More than one hundred historically significant illustrations depict historical and modern views of sites, the products manufactured there, and New Haven's working people. Maps and tables illustrate the progress of the city's urban development from the seventeenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. Based on primary source material including land and fire department records, city directories, newspaper articles, maps, and personal accounts, this book is the culmination of the Industrial Heritage Project of the New Haven Preservation Trust's mission to evaluate and document the city's historic industrial sites and to produce educational and advocacy programs for preservation efforts.