Remington & Union Metallic Cartridge, Bridgeport

COLLECTION HISTORY

The people behind the place.

The Barnum Avenue complex developed under Union Metallic Cartridge during the late 1860s and later operated under the Remington name. Preservation Connecticut locates it at 761 and 889 Barnum Avenue and documents both manufacturing and associated worker-housing districts. [CT043-S01]

The inventory now labels the complex demolished except for its shot tower. Older photographs showing extensive factory ranges are therefore evidence of a lost landscape. Bridgeport had more than one Remington plant: this collection keeps a photograph’s own location and caption rather than assigning every image to the same building. [CT043-S01]

The change from Union Metallic Cartridge to Remington is more than a change of sign. It asks readers to follow corporate identity, industrial buildings and labor across time without assuming that each changed on the same day. The Barnum Avenue addresses provide a geographical anchor. Associated worker housing places the enterprise within Bridgeport's residential development, where the rhythms of manufacturing extended beyond the plant itself. [CT043-S01]

The remaining shot tower and photographs of extensive lost buildings preserve very different scales of evidence. The tower is one surviving component; an older overall view can recover relationships no longer apparent on the ground. Worker and crowd photographs add another layer, but their own captions must establish which Remington location they show. Their presence in a citywide collection does not prove that every scene occurred at Barnum Avenue. This distinction allows a wider account of Bridgeport industry while protecting the identity of each site. [CT043-S01]