At its Peak, Over 3 Million Timepieces a Year were Made by this CT Company

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The New Haven Clock Company Factory is associated with one of Connecticut's most important industries, the manufacture of stylish yet inexpensive clocks that appealed to a broad market of middle-class consumers. Along with E. Ingraham, Seth Thomas, Waterbury Clock, and at most a handful of other firms that achieved an industrial scale of clockmaking, the New Haven Clock Company enjoyed a major share of the national and even international markets for clocks.

In 1866 the complex was rebuilt following a fire that destroyed an earlier clock factory on the site. In 1956 production ceased at the plant.

The New Haven Clock Company meets Criterion A at the state level for its role in the growth of clock-making as a primary industry in Connecticut during the mid-nineteenth through early twentieth centuries. Clockmaking in Connecticut had functioned as a small-shop industry until the early nineteenth century, when in the vicinity of Bristol, Thomaston and Waterbury, clockmaking enterprises began to become more mechanized and to address a larger market of consumers. The industry grew as a result of a series of innovations by Connecticut clockmakers, including Eli Terry, Seth Thomas, and Chauncey Jerome. These men devised improvements that revolutionized production methods nationally and thereby made clocks accessible to a wider segment of the population. Eli Terry introduced the use of interchangeable wooden parts, which allowed thousands of clocks to be assembled as a single order, and Chauncey Jerome perfected stamped-brass movements, which were cheaper, more serviceable, and more practical to transport long distances, especially to overseas markets (wooden movements would swell on lengthy sea voyages). As a result, Connecticut clocks seized not only the American market for inexpensive clocks, but also a substantial share of the market in England, the rest of Europe, and the developing world. Clock factories spurred the development of manufacturing centers in a large swath of Connecticut that extended from Winsted and Torrington on the north, through Waterbury, Ansonia, Thomaston, Bristol, and Plainville in the center, to New Haven on the south.

Development of the New Haven Clock Company

The present New Haven Clock Company complex represents a rebuilding, under the direction of Hiram Camp (1811-1893), of an earlier clock factory on the site that had been operated by his uncle, Chauncey Jerome (1793-1868), the inventor who perfected stamped-brass movements. Jerome had started in Bristol, Connecticut, but in 1844, he moved his case works to New Haven, followed by clock movement production in 1845. At that time, Jerome's was the largest clock factory in Connecticut. In 1851, Hiram Camp followed his uncle's footsteps, re-locating from Bristol to New Haven, where he erected a factory on Hamilton Street to make movements for his uncle's company. Camp raised $20,000 in capital to form the New Haven Clock Company; on February 7^th, 1853, the company was incorporated "to manufacture, sell and deal in clocks and timekeepers of every description. Hiram Camp agreed to serve as president of the company in return for an annual salary of $1,000 and 200 shares of stock. James Edward English (1812-1890) and his partner Harmanus M. Welch (1813-1889), already successful lumber merchants, became significant investors in the company. Both men were exceptionally well connected politically - Welch served as Mayor of New Haven from 1860 to 1863 and founded the National Bank of New Haven, while English at various times served as a member of the New Haven Common Council, the Connecticut House of Representatives, the Connecticut State Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate; he was also twice elected Governor of Connecticut.

The New Haven Clock Company initially prospered, but when their chief customer, Jerome Manufacturing, began to falter, the firm felt the impact. Jerome was a gifted inventor but a poor businessman and he found himself in significant debt. This situation only deteriorated when company officers entered into an agreement with Phineas Taylor (P.T.) Barnum to merge Jerome Manufacturing with a faltering clock company in Bridgeport. Jerome filed for bankruptcy on February 14^th, 1856, with several thousand dollars of unpaid orders owed to the New Haven Clock Company. Hiram Camp stepped in to save the company by gathering investors and putting forward over $15,000 of his own capital. Having already made such a significant investment, Camp and his investors made the move to purchase his uncle's failed firm.

In April of 1856, the New Haven Clock Company purchased all the Jerome Manufacturing Company's assets, including machinery and buildings. Several influential men served on the company's board. Elisha N. Welch, a clock manufacturer from Bristol, served as the first director and James E. English served as the secretary of the company.

In 1859 New Haven Clock merged their sales operations with a New York-based cartel known as the American Clock Company. The cartel included, besides the New Haven Clock Company, several of Connecticut's largest clock companies at the time: the E. N. Welch Company and the Welch, Spring & Co. of Bristol; and the Seth Thomas Clock Company and the Seth Thomas Sons & Company of Thomaston. The companies' production was consolidated and the clocks were marketed under the American Clock Company label. American Clock had showrooms in New York and printed catalogs featuring the various companies' wares.

In 1860, the New Haven Clock Company was producing 168,000 clocks annually with a workforce of 300 men and 15 women. Business slowed as a result of the Civil War, and in 1866 a devastating fire destroyed seven buildings at the plant, including the oldest portion of the factory, as well as several neighboring residences. The factory was rebuilt quickly the same year, but it was estimated that 200 jobs and over $200,000 in equipment were lost as a result of the fire. Following the war, the company began to recover and by 1870, it was using two 200-horsepower steam engines to run the plant. At that time New Haven Clock employed 174 men, 21 women and 31 children. The workers produced 46,023 clock movements and 178,086 completed clocks annually.

After the American Clock Company went out of business in 1879, New Haven began printing their own catalog featuring a rapidly expanding line of timepieces (the first publication in 1880 was 206 pages in length and more than half of the stock were newly introduced models from the previous year). It was a time of rapid expansion for the company, which opened new showrooms in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. The same year, The New Haven Clock Company added pocket watches that utilized small (1" wide by 3" in diameter) back-winding movements to the line.

Continuing the noncompetitive approach that characterized the period, the 1880 catalog also included clocks produced by the E. Ingraham Company of Bristol, Connecticut, the E. Howard Watch & Clock Company of Boston and the F. Krober Clock Company of New York City. The New Haven Clock Company used the "Jerome & Co." trademark from roughly 1880 to 1904, but the market for these pieces was limited to England. Chauncey Jerome had set up Jerome & Company in Great Britain in order to sell his clocks abroad. When his business failed in New Haven, the British company continued to sell American products. In January of 1886, The New Haven Clock Company moved to acquire portions of the British plant, and The New Haven Clock Company continued to use the Jerome & Co. label (by then Jerome & Co. Ltd.) until 1904, when the firm purchased the remainder of the British company's assets.

During the 1870s and 1880s, large additions were made to the factory on Hamilton Street to meet the demand for increased production as an ever-growing market. Centrally powered production machinery turned out a large number of standardized parts. The compact factory plan minimized the length of transmission from the steam engines, with overhead shafting bringing power from a central steam engine to the work areas. Heavy machines for cutting and grinding were placed on the lower floors and lighter machinery for buffing and polishing were put on the upper floors. In April 1883, a second serious fire gutted a large portion of the case works, but this time the plant was repaired and operational within thirty days. Contemporary accounts attributed the limited impact to the fact that the spread of the fire was curtailed by the brick construction, especially the firewalls (the previous factory on the site was built of wood and was totally destroyed).

The 1890 New Haven Clock Company catalog listed their offices at 29 Murray Street and 33 Warren Street in New York City. Sales rooms were located in Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Yokohama, Japan; and London and Liverpool, England.

The collection included a vast array of models: hanging levers, office clocks, jeweler's regulators, typical 19-inch table or mantel clocks, banjo, visible pendulum, table and wall clocks were offered with seemingly endless variations. Many pieces incorporated ink stands, cigar lighters or other functions. There was even an Illuminated Night Clock that connected to a gas light fixture in order to show the time at night. Models featured names evocative of their designs; examples included the "Norseman", the "Saracen" and the "Florence"; the last of which was covered in a delicate filigree design. Figurative models ranged from graceful nymphs and historical figures to rustic characters.

By the last decade of the nineteenth century, it was clear that the company had overreached on several levels. The product line had expanded too quickly and dividends had been paid out at an over-generous rate to investors. In an attempt to resuscitate the faltering business, capital was raised from $200,000 to $500,000 in May of 1890, but no result was seen from this investment and on September 1^st, 1891 Hiram Camp resigned from the firm. Edward Ingraham, who served as former head of the clockmaker E. Ingraham Company of Bristol, noted, "I recall my father … discussing New Haven and remarking that no company can make money in the clock business with such an extensive line as New Haven showed in their catalog".

On January 1^st, 1892, Camp was succeeded by Samuel Arthur Galpin (1846-1902). In 1894 and again in 1896 the land, buildings and machinery were mortgaged to cover operating costs. The following year the New Haven Clock Company's directors agreed to shutter the operation if it couldn't recover by the end of the year. Under Galpin's conservative leadership the company began a series of steady improvements and by January 24^th, 1901 he was able to report that the year's sales were projected to surpass those of the last twenty.

Samuel Galpin died unexpectedly in London in 1902 and was succeeded by Walter Camp, (1859-1925). He is best known as "The Father of American Football," but under his leadership New Haven Clock entered a period of great prosperity. Camp (who appears to be no direct relation to Hiram Camp), entered the watch and clock trade after studying medicine at Yale, where he was a star athlete. In 1883 he joined the Manhattan Watch Company of New York and the following year became Assistant Treasurer of the New Haven Clock Company. By 1903, he was made President; a position he served in for over twenty years. Under Camp's oversight the factory flourished and reached its peak employment and production. He modernized the watch manufacturing division and brought about a series of improvements that greatly increased dividends for stockholders. By 1903, the company occupied eleven large buildings and seventeen smaller. The New Haven Clock Company, described as a "complete clock line with nickel alarm clocks, shelf and mantel clocks … gold plated novelties, regulators, veneers, hall clocks, chiming clocks and a line of low priced watches," made 1.25 million clocks annually in over 1,000 styles. The Waterbury Clock Company, the only larger clockmaker in Connecticut at the time, had 2,300 employees and produced 4,000,000 timepieces per year. By comparison, the William. L. Gilbert Clock Company of Winchester, another large firm, employed only 600-700 employees and produced 500,000 clocks annually. The Movement Shop Complex of Waterbury Clock remains extant. The Gilbert Clock Company also remains.

By the last decade of the nineteenth century the New Haven Clock Company was considered one of the "largest works in this country", but its status as an industry leader came under threat from foreign competition. In 1908, Walter Camp filed a supplemental brief before the Federal Commission on Ways & Means describing the impact of counterfeit foreign clock manufacture on the American market. He recounted how some foreign employees sought employment in American clock factories in order to steal trade secrets. They then returned to their home countries to produce copies, in some cases they even recreated labels. This created unfair competition in foreign markets and drove down the perceived quality of American products worldwide.

The New Haven Clock Company was responsible for several innovative case and movement designs, but two of its most popular products in the first decade of the twentieth century were the Tattoo Intermittent Alarm Clock and Willcock Chiming Clock. The New Haven Clock Company held the sole patents for both products. The 1910-1911 New Haven Clock Company product catalog featured a logo on its cover that prominently read "There is no Tattoo but the New Haven Tattoo".

Wristwatches, made popular by soldiers during World War I, were added to the line in 1915. According to the U. S. Census Report on Manufacturers, that same year Connecticut was producing just over sixty-nine percent of all clocks in the United States. The industry had reached its zenith and New Haven Clock was one of the companies at its center. By the 1920s, it employed nearly 2,000 workers and was shipping 3.5 million clocks and watches a year.

Edwin Park Root succeeded Camp upon his resignation in 1923 and was followed in 1929 by Richard Henry Whitehead. Under Whitehead's capable leadership, the New Haven Clock Company survived the Great Depression. His tenure was marked by progressive methods of production and strict financial control. The New Haven Clock Company was one of the innovators in the production of electric timepieces, which the company introduced in 1929. They were the first company Connecticut in to produce a complete line of self-starting clocks (meaning there was no need to wind or regulate the movements). These electric clocks were fitted with 300 rpm self-starting Whitehead motors which ran at a "silent synchronous speed". The reasonable cost and convenience of these products made them increasingly popular. Many of the electric models featured modern-sounding names such as the "Mars" and had cases influenced by a streamlined Art Deco aesthetic. The gold-plated watch cases were advertised as "curved to fit the wrist for comfort". Chromium-plated models compensated for temperature changes and featured popular characters including "The Popeye", "The Orphan Annie" and "The Dick Tracy." These were no doubt created in response to the success of the Waterbury Clock Company's agreement with Disney to market watches featuring their characters which resulted in over four million Mickey Mouse watches sold prior to World War II. In the 1930s, the New Haven Clock Company developed a line of electric automobile clocks for after-market installation and for use as original equipment by the large automobile companies. These products were featured prominently in the company's 1938 catalog.

By 1941, the company employed 1,500 workers producing 3,000,000 timepieces annually. Pocket watches, wristwatches, and automobile clocks accounted for approximately seventy percent of the company's total sales. One of the most popular items was a seven-jeweled watch set in a gold-plated case which was billed as "better than the old dollar watch." At the start of World War II, The New Haven Clock Company began to shift the bulk of its workforce to the manufacture of military-related fuses and timing relays.

A pamphlet produced by the New Haven Clock Company in 1945, entitled, "The New Haven Clock Company Goes to War, 1941-1945," showcased its massive contribution to the war effort. In 1940, the company began the design and production of time switches used in mines. Two years later, it added the construction of precision motors used to operate remote controls in airplanes. The company continued to design and develop relays for fuses, remote-control motors, and radio instruments for the Navy Department. As a result of this war work, production of alarm clocks stopped in 1941, automobile clock production ended in 1942; and chimes, pendulums, and electric clocks and watches were last sold for public consumption in the summer of 1942. Although well-suited to the task of producing these intricate parts, employees went from spending ninety-six percent of their time producing clocks and watches in 1941 to only one percent in 1944. In 1944, and 1945 the company produced parts for bombs, 40 million anti-aircraft fuses, and controls for navy mines.

On June 20^th, 1945, the company was awarded the Army-Navy "E" in recognition of the plant's conversion to wartime manufacture. In the company's annual report for 1945, President Richard H. Whitehead stated that the company would return to the sale of "clocks and watches but would focus on a simpler line of products with fewer patterns, with a special emphasis on dollar watches and automobile clocks. In March 1945, the company employed 1,450 workers, but by July of 1945, only 300 employees remained. Whitehead was optimistic that the company would enter 1946 with 1,350 employees and by fall of 1946 he anticipated employing close to 1,900. This number was projected as a response to the increased demand for automobile clocks. Whitehead closed his report by stating "we look forward to peacetime assembly lines in our plant replacing those that turned out millions of destructive devices." The company's focus on watch production mirrored what was happening in the clock industry state-wide. Waterbury Clock had switched exclusively to the production of watches before 1933.

In July of 1945, Paul V. Eisner and Max E. Taussig purchased a "substantial interest" in the New Haven Clock Company and were subsequently elected to Board of Directors. Together the men owned Rensie Watch Company of New York City, which had numerous watchmaking operations in Switzerland. The leaders of New Haven Clock voted to refinance their capital structure on February 27^th, 1946 and changed the company's name to the New Haven Clock and Watch Company.

Production of clocks and watches resumed in March of 1946, but despite the best efforts of President Richard Whitehead and other long-time company officers, the company's capital was insufficient to back the expansion. Whitehead wrote in 1957, "It took many years to ruin the company after I left because it was in such a strong position … In 1946 I realized that the company had fallen into unfavorable hands and there was little I could do … so … I quit rather than be a front for people I found I did not care to associate with."

Following Whitehead's resignation in 1947, James A. Hamilton served as president for a single year before being succeeded by Larry Robbins in September of 1949. Robbins, an executive with the Eversharp company (a maker of writing instruments), entered a company in which hundreds of men had been laid off in the previous months due to foreign competition. Robbins recognized the challenges ahead of him and the role that the clock shop played in employing the people of New Haven. He stated simply, "Labor is the key problem here. We want our workers to earn a good living".

In February of 1950, The New Haven Register reported Robbins' resignation and cited labor difficulties, inconsistent management, and competition from foreign imports as reasons for the company's instability. Amicus Most succeeded Robbins as President of the firm in 1950. Around the same time, one of the largest firms in the northeast, the Waltham Watch Company of Massachusetts, was driven into bankruptcy. The dominance of foreign imports had a devastating impact on the American clock and watch trade. In New Haven, a succession of quickly-changing company presidents, ending with Seymour Ziff in 1956, resulted in a company in steep financial decline. The New Haven Clock Company filed for bankruptcy the same year. Some production continued at a satellite plant outside of New Haven, but in March 1960, a public auction was held to sell off all the company's manufacturing equipment.

In the 1960s, the movement shop across Hamilton Street was demolished in connection with the construction of Interstate 91. Since the 1970s, the remaining complex has been largely vacant, with small portions occupied by various music clubs, a social club, and other small enterprises. In 2012, the east wing was demolished due to fire damage and resultant safety concerns.

Although New Haven may have been better known as a center for commerce, education, and government, the city's prosperity throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries rested upon an extensive industrial base that included the production of firearms, carriages, clocks, builder's hardware, and many other factory-made products. Throughout its existence, the New Haven Clock Company was one of the city's largest employers. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the company typically employed 1,000 to 2,000 workers, including men, women, and, in its early days, children. Along with a few other large manufacturers, the New Haven Clock Company sustained New Haven's steady growth in population and made it a magnet for both native-born and European-immigrant workers. Production at the New Haven Clock Company Hamilton Street plant ceased in 1956 (when employment still was around 1,000).

Throughout the first decades of the twentieth century, the growth and demographics of the company closely mirrored that of New Haven itself. New Haven was both the largest city in Connecticut and one of the leading manufacturing centers of New England by the late 1800s. By 1871, the city was served by six rail lines and had an active harbor resulting in exceptional trade access for the city's manufacturing concerns. As a result, New Haven's industrial base grew quickly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and consisted of a wide variety of products including corsets, steam boilers, window blinds, matches, bird cages, and rubber goods. Carriage-building was the first industry to emerge. It began with small shops in the eighteenth century and grew into larger factory buildings during the 19^th Century. The area surrounding the Clock Company, located north of the confluence of the Quinnipiac and Mill Rivers, was known as Harborside. By 1887, this neighborhood was densely built with industrial concerns including Bigelow Boilerworks and the L. Candee Rubber Company. Several shops, such as the Sargent Hardware Company, began producing carriage hardware, resulting in a secondary specialty industry. Other large-scale concerns in the Harborside area included Atwater Sash & Blind Works, Pipe Bending Co., New Haven Rolling Mill, and the New Haven Horse Nail Company.

These industrial shops and others throughout the city provided employment for New Haven's growing immigrant population. Men and women seeking both skilled and unskilled labor were drawn to the city's growing manufacturing operations. In 1850, the population of New Haven was 20,345 and of those just over twenty percent were foreign-born. The earliest groups primarily came from Ireland (76 percent), Germany, Sweden, and Russia. By the start of the next decade New Haven's population had nearly doubled to 39,267. Company records from 1866 indicate that New Haven Clock employed 200 people in 1866 and by 1876 that number had grown to 350. It was at this time that the New Haven Clock Company was said to have the largest single clockmaking factory in the world.

By 1880, New Haven's population grew to 62,882, with a quarter of that population born in Europe. Federal census data from the same year indicates that a large number (348 of the company's 419 employees) of the workforce was born in the United States. Of the 71 foreign-born workers, the majority (46) were from Ireland and twelve were from England. From June 1879 to June 1880 New Haven employed 460 men, 52 women and 88 children indicating the increased presence of women in the workplace. All employees regardless of age or sex were expected to work ten hour days, six days a week for every week of the year. In return they earned an average wage of two dollars a day for skilled labor and one dollar for unskilled labor.

The number of Clock Company employees reached 534 by 1900. Statistics show that 94 workers were born outside of the United States and 274 workers had foreign-born parents. The countries of origin of both first and second-generation immigrant workers represented some of the larger immigrant groups in New Haven, still led by the Irish and Germans. Following a region-wide trend an increasing number of women entered the manufacturing force. At New Haven Clock, many of the finishing tasks in 1900 were undertaken by the company's 122 female employees.

Italians from southern Italy began to settle in the Wooster Square area around the turn of the century. Unskilled or semi-skilled workers were employed in various local factories including the J. B. Sargent & Company, Candee Rubber Company and the New Haven Clock Company. Although considered a desirable workplace due to its relative cleanliness, the New Haven Clock Company's high level of production and low price for consumers came at a cost to the employees who worked long hours for low wages. On the morning of October 18^th, 1915 the entire workforce walked off the job and clock production ceased. The strikers' demands included enforcement of an eight-hour workday and a 25 percent increase in pay. A trade publication noted that approximately 400 timers and adjusters had returned to work by November 11^th from a workforce of over 1,000. On Tuesday November 22^nd, they were followed by the fitters, inspectors, "the girls" and the unskilled employees. A second trade magazine of the time reported that only some of the machinists, polishers and buffers remained loyal to the cause and the end of the strike was blamed on the "weakness of members of Local 75". Italians were often characterized as untrustworthy strikebreakers by the nativist owners, company directors and often even by the union leaders. The same article reported that, "a man by the name of P. Yockarino and two brothers by the name of Marcello" were blamed for the breakdown in the ranks of union employees. "In reference to the Marcello Brothers, there is an ugly rumor abroad in New Haven concerning their sudden change of tune and their quick switch from advocating the strike to their urgent advice to break ranks and go back to work".

By 1920, New Haven's immigrant population was reaching its peak; the city's population had grown to 162,537 with 45,626 foreign-born inhabitants. The three largest groups at this time consisted of Italians (15,084), Irish (7,219) and Germans (2,770). Census records from the same year indicate that of the 1721 New Haven Clock Company employees, 1225 had been born in the United States. In total one third of the workers, or 574, were women, proving that their role in the manufacturing process had become imperative to its operation. In 1920, the majority of the New Haven Clock Company employees were first- and second-generation Americans and 496 were foreign-born employees. Of those, 275 were Italian, 64 were Russian, 58 were Irish, and 23 German with smaller numbers hailing from Canada, Poland, England, Sweden, Scotland, Lithuania and Austria.

The demographics of the workforce mirrored those of the city at large. By this time, Italians had become the leading immigrant group in New Haven, constituting nearly 33 percent of the foreign-born population and more than nine percent of the total population. New Haven Clock played a large role in the lives of local Italians. Evidence of this can be found in an article in the Corriere del Connecticut, Connecticut's Italian-language newspaper, which anxiously reported the lay-off of 600 Clock Company workers on January 3^rd, 1938. The reporter expressed hope for a rehire, but indicated distress that this happened so close to Christmas. Italians continued to represent the largest ethnic group at the factory until its closure in 1956.

Site Description

The New Haven Clock Company Factory is an industrial complex consisting of a number of interconnected brick buildings, mostly three or four stories high with shallow-pitched gable roofs, that were built between 1866 and 1937. The earlier parts of the complex are characterized by segmental-arched single window openings, flat brick walls, circular cast-iron wall anchors for the timber interior framing, and restrained Classically-inspired ornament, such as arched and ocular windows and cornices with dentils and partial returns. The early twentieth-century portions mostly have brick-pier walls, wide segmental-arch window openings for paired windows, and little or no decorative detailing. The buildings are set on foundations of granite ashlar. The complex's overall plan forms three sides of a square, with a passageway in the north side giving access to the interior of the square. Although numbered as 133 Hamilton Street, the primary elevation (Building No. 1) extends along St. John Street from Hamilton Street to Wallace Street, facing south. The surrounding neighborhood consists of mostly modern warehouses and other commercial buildings. With the exception of an entertainment club that occupies the west end of No. 1 and two car-detailing businesses in No. 11 and the Lacquer Spraying Building, the complex is vacant. Historically, the components of the complex accommodated a tremendous variety of operations that were needed to make clock cases and assemble finished clocks (the brass movements for the clocks, as well as the company's watches, were made in a separate plant across Hamilton Street that was demolished in the 1960s). Nearly all window openings have been boarded up. Some of the interior has been partitioned, but most is as it was historically, with large open spaces separated by brick firewalls. A few of the complex's components have been lost, but at least 75% survives largely intact.

The historic name of the complex reflects the fact that this was the place where final assembly, testing, and shipment of the company's clocks took place. The complex was sometimes referred to as the "East Shop," "Case Shop," or "Case Works," to distinguish it from the Movement Shop formerly located to the northwest across Hamilton Street, which was demolished in the 1960s. These buildings also have a common local name, the "Clock Shop," which appears in newspaper articles and is frequently used by former employees.

The complex is composed of ten buildings.

The following descriptions of individual components use the numbering system that appears on the 1926 Underwriters of New England insurance survey and the 1951 Sanborn insurance map. There are two unnumbered building that were built after 1926. The approximate dates of construction for the buildings are based on documentary evidence, chiefly a series of historic maps and views that provide an interval for the buildings' dates, supplemented by newspaper accounts. The dimensions were measured from aerial photographs; the dimensions given here substantially match those in the New Haven Assessor records.

Building No. 1, three stories, 42' x 284', ca. 1866. This part has a shallow-pitched gable roof, segmental-arched window openings (now boarded up), and circular cast-iron anchors for the interior timber framing. The middle five of the thirty-five bays have an intersecting shallow-pitched gable roof, the cornice of which extends slightly forward from the building's main cornice. There is a small circular window within the gable, and the center window openings on the second and third stories are taller and round-arched in shape. Stepped courses and brick dentils embellish all the cornices, which form partial returns across the center and end gables (the end gables also have small circular windows). This portion, designated No. 1 in early twentieth-century company records, dates from the rebuilding of the clock factory following a disastrous fire in 1866. It is divided into four unequal areas by brick firewalls that extend above the roof, possibly indicating that it was completed in phases. Among the documented industrial processes accommodated by this portion of the complex were sawing, turning, veneering, wood-turning, sanding, buffing, varnishing, box-making, brass stamping and turning, white-metal casting, silver and nickel-plating, glass-fitting, and packing. Appended to the north side is a small 1-story concrete-block addition built about 1930. Remnants of a sunken paved walkway are found along the north side of No. 1, which faces the interior of the block.

Building No. 8, four stories, 40' x 107', 1872. This extension northward along Hamilton Street probably represents part of an expansion of the plant that was completed in 1872, with the top story added in 1879. It has a shallow-pitched gable roof and repeats the cornice, cast-iron anchors, and segmental-arched window shape found in No. 1.

The northernmost three bays of the twelve bays along Hamilton Street formerly housed the company's offices, accounting for the complex's street address. The office portion formerly had a gable roof at right angles to the rest of No. 8, but by the mid-1880s it had a full fourth story and the roof was continuous over the whole. The interior of the office portion features plaster walls, chair rails and molded window and door surrounds). Other historical uses carried on in No. 8 included storage, wood-carving, varnishing, gilding, and final assembly of cases. In the interior corner where No. 8 joins No. 1 is a 5-story elevator tower added in the 1920s.

Building No. 10, four stories, 40' x 101', built in 1885 on the site of the complex's earlier iron foundry. No. 10 is eighteen bays wide, counting a five-story elevator tower that was added to the south elevation in the 1920s, and forms the middle part of the square's north arm; it repeats most of the constructions details found in No. 1 and No. 8. Historically, No. 10's uses included storage, a stock room, a machine shop, and veneering, varnishing, buffing, polish, and final assembly of cases.

Building No. 11, four stories, 36' x 74', 1920. No. 11 has the wide windows and brick-pier walls characteristic of the World War I period; its numbering reflects the fact that it was built on the site of earlier 1-story portions. Historical uses included lacquering, repairing, lead casting, glass-bending, and final assembly.

Building No. 14, two stories, 40' x 48', 1902. Appended to the north side of the north arm of the complex, outside of the square, No. 14 is ten bays wide and two stories high, with a shallow-pitched gable roof facing Hamilton Street. It was built in 1902 on the site of an earlier japanning building. The company's lunch room was on the first floor, with offices above.

Building No. 15, four stories, 40' x 46', 1925. Located just east of No. 14, outside the square, No. 15 has the wide window openings and brick-pier walls found in the other early-twentieth-century portions. No. 15 accommodated final assembly, the "running room" (presumably for testing the clocks), and storage of finished goods.

Building No. 20, four-and-one-half stories, 40' x 100', ca. 1919. No. 20 is three bays wide and has the ridge of its gable roof running west-to-east, perpendicular to Hamilton Street. No. 20 forms part of the north arm of the square; the passageway to the interior is at the east end.

Building No. 21, four stories, 40' x 48', ca. 1919. No. 21 continues the west arm of the square northward along Hamilton Street between No. 8 and No. 20. It has brick-pier walls and wide segmental-arched window openings and is five bays wide.

Lacquer Spraying Building, one story, 18' x 36', 1927. Located in the interior of the square, at the southeast corner of No. 10, the gable-roofed Lacquer Spraying Building has the appearance of a large brick garage.

Shipping Building, one story, 33' x 108', 1937. Located in the interior of the square just east of No. 8 and No. 21, the Shipping Building has a shallow-pitched gable roof carried on steel trusses and a concrete loading dock along its long east elevation.

The square formerly had an east arm along Wallace Street that was built in at least two phases, ca. 1872 and 1920, but it is no longer standing. A high brick wall marks its location. The complex's power plant, which included lumber-drying kilns, also is no longer standing; it was located on the east side of the interior of the block.

The interior reveals historic wooden divided-light sash in place in many of the boarded-up window openings. Interior timber framing is of two types: 1) heavy post-and-beam framing with plank layers forming the floors/ceilings and 2) joisted construction with floorboards on joists, concealed behind tongue-and-groove ceilings. Other notable original interior elements include timber roof trusses on the top floors that provide clear space below, several sliding metal-clad fire doors, metal elevator doors for two elevator shafts added in the 1920s, a few surviving benches, shelves, and materials carts, and in the office space of No. 8, plaster walls, chair rails and molded window and door surrounds.

Images of clocks from the first New Haven Clock Company Catalog (1880)

Tennis Ink Set from the 1890 New Haven Company Clock Catalog (1890)

Illuminated Night Clock, 1890 Catalog of the New Haven Clock Company (1890)

Figurative clock, 1890 Catalog of the New Haven Clock Company (1890)

Wrist watches from the firm's 1938 catalog (1938)

Women working at the clock factory (1910)

Aerial image from 1934 showing New Haven Clock caseworks in lower right corner. The movement complex was located across Hamilton Street and is attached via an elevated walkway (1934)

Elevation of the complex looking south along St. John Street (2016)

Building No. 1, center portion of south elevation (2016)

Building No. 1, south and east elevations, corner of St. John Street and Wallace Street (2016)

Building No. 1, west and south elevations, corner of Hamilton Street and St. John Street (2016)

Interior of block, north elevation of Building No. 1 (2016)

West elevation along Hamilton Street, left to right: Buildings No. 14, No. 20, No. 21, No. 8, and No. 1 (2016)

Interior of block, south elevation of Buildings No. 10 and No. 11, with one-story Lacquer Spraying Building in front (2016)