Ball & Socket Factory, Cheshire

COLLECTION HISTORY

The people behind the place.

The West Main Street factory began with Cheshire Manufacturing Company in 1850. Preservation Connecticut distinguishes that business from Ball & Socket Manufacturing Company, which it dates from 1901 to 1994. The complex’s changing corporate names are part of its history. [CT047-S01] [CT047-S02]

The arts reuse project offers a way to study what happens after a manufacturing business closes. The National Endowment for the Humanities preserves a successful Ball & Socket Arts application describing plans to develop the site’s public history. A plan is evidence of an intended project, not proof that every proposed element is complete. [CT047-S01] [CT047-S02]

The factory's 1850 beginning belongs to Cheshire Manufacturing Company. Ball & Socket Manufacturing Company is a later corporate chapter, dated 1901–1994 in the preservation inventory. Keeping both names visible explains why a building can be older than the business most closely associated with it. It also gives researchers more than one name to search in directories, advertisements and property records. [CT047-S01] [CT047-S02]

The arts project changes the questions asked of the same site. Manufacturing records help explain products and work; an arts organization's history proposal shows how later stewards planned to interpret that work for the public. A successful application establishes an intended program, while dated photographs and completion reports establish what was actually done. The resulting history is one of continuity of place and change of purpose. [CT047-S01] [CT047-S02]