Can We Prevent the Loss of History?
Street façade of the Bigelow Boiler factory. 198 River Street, New Haven.
By Duo Dickinson and Susan Godshall
Photos by Robert Grzywacz
When the second hand of your analog clock clicks to the next second, change happens. This is just time. Time changes whether we want it to or not. But history, the residue of humanity's use of time, offers a measure of control, (or at least perspective) in its creation. Sometimes opportunities arise to intervene and possibly change the course of history.
Weather, like time, happens without asking permission. On August 4 the residue of a hurricane, Isaias, ripped through Western New England, including New Haven. Trees that survived a dozen hurricanes were felled. If they were close enough to the shore, thousands more were scalded by salt water. But most buildings weathered the storm. Most of them. Some took a big hit.
The historic, largely abandoned factories on River Street on the New Haven Harbor saw Isaias add damage to their indignity. Fragile in their neglected erosion after 80 years of disuse, the buildings are a time capsule that may be, finally, killed by our culture's indifference. A last ditch effort by the State Historic Preservation Office, Preservation Connecticut, and the New Haven Preservation Trust, in cooperation with the City, are trying to avoid that outcome.
This is a tale of a factory building’s great success and sad decline. You might be doubtful, looking at the barely-standing factory at 198 River Street, but a little digging reveals its glorious past.
New Haven has many historic districts, reflecting 382 years as an incorporated city. One of these, River Street Historic District, is the site of industries that shaped the city's transformation into a manufacturing center between the 1870s and World War I. River Street is our city’s ONLY industrial historic district and represents the (greatly diminished) stock of the city’s industrial heritage.
One complex in the district, the H. B. Bigelow Company boiler works, was a national leader in its field of steam boilers. Its founder, Hobart B. Bigelow, made River Street a successful center of metal-fabricating industry. His factory buildings had distinctive characteristics which still can be seen today. For instance, the huge openings in the façade allowed heavy steam boilers to be swung out and loaded directly onto freight cars which connected to the national rail network.
It was here that the New Haven Railroad experimented with electric-powered engines, which ultimately led to the electrification of the New York to New Haven main line, the first major railroad electrification in our country.
Immediately after World War I, at the peak of rail-based development, New Haven held a concentration of carriage, hardware, and clock manufacturers. Industrial decline, urban renewal, and highway construction caused the demolition of most of these buildings and the loss of their industrial streetscapes. Today, the sad red brick remnants of the Bigelow Boiler factory stand alone as a reminder of the busy rail-based industrial streetscape from this period.
Bigelow Boiler is owned by the City of New Haven and is available for a developer to bring lively reuse to the old building. Although it suffered indignities from the recent storm, it has good bones and would reward an imaginative new owner. What’s more, because it is part of a National Register Historic District, there are tantalizing Federal tax benefits begging to be used. The time is nigh for a magician to come along and tell the old story in a new way.
Money follows value. Does New Haven, or more accurately, our culture, value history enough to save these buildings?
Duo Dickinson, Susan Godshall, and Robert Grzywacz serve on the Board of Directors of the New Haven Preservation Trust.
Bigelow Boiler factory roof damage caused by storms.
Bigelow Boiler factory detail view.
Large second floor loading door for moving steam boilers onto rail cars.
Update: New Haven Preservation Trust regrets that most of the Bigelow Boiler factory was demolished on September 18, 2021. The Trust had been working with the City and the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office on a stabilization plan for over a year, but time, weather and public safety considerations brought an end to the hoped-for reuse plans. This is a huge loss to New Haven’s industrial history, and especially to the River Street Historic District. Bigelow Boiler is the latest of many buildings lost due to demolition by neglect. Its demolition highlights the importance of responsible, continued stewardship of our historic architecture.