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February 5, 2022
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The last of the Winchester Repeating Arms Factory is currently being demolished to make way for a Science Park development. The link to NBC News Connecticut is provided below.
December 9, 2002
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Thanks Heather,
Definitely the Final Stages of a, “Long Gone Era”! 
We understand it, as time marches on!
Anthony
May 23, 2009
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Using taxpayers dollars to tear it down no less. I wonder what all that land cost per acre, by the time you total the cost per sq ft to purchase it and then turn around to demolish all the buildings on it.
Its a shame on one hand but it had its day in the sun.
WACA #8783 - Checkout my Reloading Tool Survey!
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-research-surveys/winchester-reloading-tool-survey/
June 1, 2023
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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
February 22, 2024
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Wow That brings back many fond memories working with Bruno in the Custom Shop. Days gone by>
September 22, 2011
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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.
June 1, 2023
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Boola Boola, Alleluia!
BRP
February 17, 2022
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. they should be offering some of the bricks to us diehards. Notice they didn’t interview anyone that was pro gun?
May 23, 2009
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oldcrankyyankee said
they should be offering some of the bricks to us diehards.
I’d take a brick but it would be hard to determine it from any other brick made of the same period.
I’ve heard tell of a collector that did make off with some factory manhole covers back in the late 80s or 90s. Those would be neat to have. But certainly not an item that you could easily sell and move.
I love how they claimed they were being abated then demolished. When I can clearly see the tin clad fire doors that are full of asbestos still hanging on the side of the building being knocked down in the video. Somebody missed those during the inspection before demolition.
WACA #8783 - Checkout my Reloading Tool Survey!
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-research-surveys/winchester-reloading-tool-survey/
January 20, 2023
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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.
.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
February 11, 2025
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This is a very sad day.
March 8, 2023
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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
September 19, 2014
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Well said, Robert. I do suspect eventually the street names and names of land will also change to be politically correct and avoid the “Winchester” name. Tim
January 20, 2023
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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.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
February 5, 2022
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Maureen Devlin, daughter of Robert Devlin, contacted the office a month or so ago. Mr. Devlin was a toolmaker for Winchester from 1948 to 1982. Sadly, he passed in 1998. In my conversation with Maureen, we talked about the demolition of the Winchester factory buildings and the loss of history. She very kindly drove to the Winchester factory site and sent the attached pictures. She thought these photos may be of interest to the membership.
September 19, 2014
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Heather, Very considerate of her. Please thank her for us. Tim
December 21, 2006
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Wow , eh. I was in that building in 1974, to look at the gun collection, when it was still there. We didn’t get a tour though, being kind of late in the day, plus We weren’t invited. We went to Conn. to tour the Marlin factory, which We did and had our first Marlin Collectors meeting and dinner with Lt. Col. “Bill”, William S. Brophy. There are only 4 of Us left from that meeting and dinner of the charter members of M.F.A.C.A.. I guess that makes Me kinda rare ‘eh.
W.A.C.A. life member, Marlin Collectors Assn. charter and life member, C,S.S.A. member and general gun nut.
April 30, 2023
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Not going to lie, I kind of want one of those bricks!
Mark my words though, I bet one or more end up on Gunbroker at some point 
January 20, 2023
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Heather said
Maureen Devlin, daughter of Robert Devlin, contacted the office a month or so ago. Mr. Devlin was a toolmaker for Winchester from 1948 to 1982. Sadly, he passed in 1998. In my conversation with Maureen, we talked about the demolition of the Winchester factory buildings and the loss of history. She very kindly drove to the Winchester factory site and sent the attached pictures. She thought these photos may be of interest to the membership.
That was a most gracious and thoughtful act of Ms. Devlin and I’m sure all of us are grateful. Perhaps our current President will write a letter to her expressing our thanks.
Because many of us know the factory only as it was at its heights from photographs and drawings, these photos will help us realize what is about to be demolished [or has just been] were only a few remaining, ruined buildings, not the enormous works of our imagination.
It is passing strange to me that more of us are ungrateful much of the Winchester line lives on and new guns can be purchased by working folks without committing daylight robbery. For the truly obsessed, you can still buy a new Winchester Model 21 that’s likely better than the average build quality out of New Haven, although not necessarily better than those made in the Custom Shop. Just as good, though, from the couple I’ve seen from CSC.
I’m old enough to remember all the moaning at the bar in the early Postwar years, by sportsmen who pined for a new Winchester Model 92 … and later for the return of the Model 12, the, 63, the 71 — in particular the 1886 — AND NOW YOU CAN HAVE ONE.
No, it may not be just like you like it but, compared to Parker, Remington and most of the Birmingham, England gun trade, that’s like complaining you’re being hung with a new rope.
My point is, Winchester and Colt firearms both have somewhat miraculously survived extinction, to some extent because of continued demand and impressive new manufacturing techniques — but largely because some Czech and Belgian businessmen saw what others couldn’t. I’ve often wondered what the late Bill Ruger might have done with one or both near-defunct companies. He was offered both and declined.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
February 5, 2022
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Hi Bill and Tim,
Vinny did send her a thank you. In addition to talking to her about the loss of history, we also talked about her dad. He was a proud employee of Winchester. He loved his job and understood the importance of preserving history. In looking at his history with Winchester it occurred to me that with everything being so transient we don’t see many people working for the same company for 30, 40, or 50 years like in my grandparents and parents day.
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