Last of Winchester Repeating Arms Factory Being Demolished|General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

Thanks Heather,

Definitely the Final Stages of a, “Long Gone Era”!

We understand it, as time marches on!

Anthony

Brings a tear to my eyes, when I think of all the fine people who once worked there, and the many fine firearms that came through those gates.  

I lived in New Haven back in the 1980’s while in graduate school, and would pass by the plant from time to time.  While “Winchester” has been only a memory for quite some time, I still find myself saddened by the destruction of those old buildings.

BRP

Blue Ridge Parson said
Brings a tear to my eyes, when I think of all the fine people who once worked there, and the many fine firearms that came through those gates.  
I lived in New Haven back in the 1980’s while in graduate school, and would pass by the plant from time to time.  While “Winchester” has been only a memory for quite some time, I still find myself saddened by the destruction of those old buildings.
BRP
  

Yale School of Divinity?

The sad thing is the businesses and residents moving to that site are largely rabidly anti 2A.

. they should be offering some of the bricks to us diehards. Notice they didn’t interview anyone that was pro gun?

The old redbrick Winchester factory was, like so many good things, a place in time as well as space.

The ruins of what was once a vital part of American history are really a monument to Olin Industry’s unfortunate tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the mergers and acquisitions market, plus union instransigence, and with a little help.from Ford Motor Company’s whiz kids. 

What we, for the most part, think of as “Winchester” was really only the company’s Commercial Gun Department,  essentially the hobby of John M. Olin, that made (for the most part) elegant, superior sporting rifles and shotguns requiring inordinate amounts of highly skilled and expensive hand labor that could never be sold at a profit. For JMO this mattered not if it sold more ammunition, which was not made in New Haven. 

The board of directors and stockholders of Olin Industries did not see it that way. 

The existence of the the New Haven gunmaking operation — as represented by the old redbrick complex — was inextricably tied to the continued health and well-being of John Olin. As it and his influence failed, so did Winchester guns made in New Haven.

Note well the sale of the gunmaking operation was in 1981 (as of 12/31/1980 but closing was in June, 1981.)  John Olin died September 8, 1982 after a long illness. By then, most of the few remaining catalogued Winchester guns were being made at a new, smaller factory up the road from the old facility. 

For myself,  a brick from the old factory would have no reasonance at all. I’d rather have a nice rendering of the plant in, say 1948. 

.

Hi Guys,

Its said that actor George Segal took a brick from the wall in the garage that the St Valentines Day Massacre happened in when that building was torn down. He played a character in the titled movie. Probably it looked like a lot of other bricks of the era looked like but he thought enough to take it. I don’t see anything wrong with taking a Winchester brick its just like taking a  St Valentines Day Massacre brick. Anyway, George Segal is dead, the Massacre building is dead, and the Winchester buildings are dead. But Winchester, like the St Valentines Day Massacre is alive in history, and they can’t take that away or demolish it either.

Rob

I agree. While history can be suppressed — for a time – it cannot be erased or changed, if we who experience it take pains to record and publish it.  That is what historical societies and museums do. I would have included universities but have seen far too many attempts to rewrite history to have much faith in many academic historians who should know better.  

I do think it is important to regard the Winchester brand and its firearm products as a living and ongoing enterprise. To worship exclusively the artifacts of a corpse may be comforting but it guarantees an endpoint. If that matters to anyone.