Ghosts of Industry: the New Haven Clock Co.

Artwork from one of the epic Yale Art/Architecture school parties.

At one time, the New Haven Clock Co. was the largest clock manufacturer in the United States. Founded in 1853, it had a long and storied history before it ceased operations in 1960. At its peak, it employed more than 1,500 workers, many of them Italian immigrants.

The history of clock making on the site goes back even further, to Chauncey Jerome, who, starting in 1842, revolutionized clock technology and mass production, and pioneered international markets for US clocks. When his company failed, his nephew, Hiram Camp, founder of the New Haven Clock Co., bought it out of bankruptcy and combined the two operations.

Amazingly, several of the clock company's buildings still stand on Hamilton Street, and, the gods of business and government willing, they will be transformed into affordable housing for artists over the next few years--the Clock Shop Lofts.

This transformation has been the dream since 1999 of Bill Kraus, a consultant who specializes in the redevelopment of historic buildings for urban revitalization. He got bit by the preservation bug at an early age when he was growing up in a historic house in Ridgefield. Bill took me on a tour of the remaining buildings on Friday. We wore long pants tucked into our socks to avoid being bitten by fleas brought there by cats.

If you want to learn more about the crazy history of this place and the people who lived and worked here, make sure you see the documentary film being made about it by Bill and famous New Haven doc film maker Gorman Bechard.

There's a phenomenon called "ruin porn" within the photography world--photos of old factories, train stations, government buildings etc. that capture the past grandeur of a place and seem to revel in its current decrepitude. Famous examples are the old Packard plant and the Michigan Central Station in Detroit.

But in the old New Haven Clock Co. buildings, human activities have continued up until this day, so the place is still alive, and evidence of its recent past is scattered around like toys after a giant overgrown kids' play date. Since the clock business closed, a succession of outsider businesses and people have occupied space there, including a number of strip clubs and nightclubs; R&B and punk collectives; a troupe of mimes; a motorcycle club; and countless other strange and wonderful people and enterprises--both legit and criminal in nature.

Here are some historic images of the Clock Shop:

 The Clock Shop today:

Bill Kraus being interviewed by a Yalie.

Scenes from the Bad Ass White Boys Motorcycle Club:

There was a plan at one time to create a "haunted house" in the factory. It didn't pan out, but some of the spooky stuff remains:

Artists, entertainers and musicians lived there:

Featured artists at one of the old strip clubs wrote notes on the walls in their dressing room:

 Bill Kraus found casings for old clocks and internal memos in an attic:

Some odds and ends:

Bill Kraus: a wonderful storyteller whose stories must be heard.