Collins Co

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steeley

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The Collins & Company factory opened in 1826 with the purchase of an old gristmill and a few acres of land along the Farmington River in Canton. The company started small with eight men, each making eight axes per day. At the time, workers earned $14 to $16 a month. As the company grew and gained a national reputation for its high-quality axes, new orders flooded in. Soon, the company hired workers from Connecticut and surrounding states to meet the demand. As the number of laborers grew, the company built housing for workers and their families, a Congregational church, bank, and other structures. The emerging factory town became known as Collinsville.

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They are mostly know for axe's and machetes , bolo's and bowies for the war effort .
 
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There making machetes in these photos.
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The company continued to operate successfully and flourished during World Wars I and II. However, after the Flood of 1955 wiped out the railroad line, the company could not match the foreign competition. Portions of the business were sold to the Stanley Works in New Britain and to other firms. In 1966, the Collins Company closed after 140 years in business.


On a side note I had this Bolo for some time and now i know who made it.
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Collinsville and the factory grounds are about 15 minutes from my house. I have an old machete from my grandfather that was made there as well.

There is mostly nothing in the old factory now. Would make some nice loft apartments/condos though!
 
Collinsville and the factory grounds are about 15 minutes from my house. I have an old machete from my grandfather that was made there as well.

There is mostly nothing in the old factory now. Would make some nice loft apartments/condos though!

That is cool, so there is nothing but the shells of the building ?
 
There is an axe museum on the grounds, but it is not in one of the original buildings. The buildings are used somewhat, storage by the landlord? Not sure, but there isn't much going in there that is for sure, not sure what the insides look like these days.
 
With all that water around, it sure would make some beautiful loft space. Apartments, art studios, offices...I'd love to spend my days there.
 
So I stopped by the old Collin's axe factory campus today. It is a little more inhabited than I previously thought, but still no apartments. Several art studios, an antique gallery, some wood working shops, etc.

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Excellent photography !
how cool is that.
 
Nice pics John. Did you take all these yourself?
 
This is an awesome thread. Thanks for starting it with your usual info steeley and thanks to John for rolling out there and taking these great pictures to share with us. :thumbsup:
 
Yeah I took all of these yesterday.

And yes old factories can be very beautiful.
 
I took some screen grabs of the birds eye view from Google Earth. The place is pretty big. It takes up most of this screen shot, everything just east of the river, south of Bridge St and west of Front St.

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There is more detail available if you zoom in in Google Earth and poke around, but this is as close as I could get and get everything in one shot. And here is one with some labels so you can line the pictures up.

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#1 is across the river from all the other buildings and some sort of control house for the generator systems. The Collins Co powered their factories (and town?) with a hydro electric system they built on the river.

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#2 is also part of the dam/hydro electric system. I was able to get down onto the platform there and take some pictures.

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Looking down into the river, calm side:
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Looking down into the river, not so calm side:
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#3 is the rocks in front of the waterfall you see Steeley's photos. The water level was not that high so it was only coming through the tubes (as seen above). The rocks were dry and I was able to walk out onto them and take these photos.

No waterfall:
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Down on the rocks, #1 is just out of frame to the left:
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Looking across the rocks at #2:
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Standing right at the wall looking at both buildings at #4 which are the red and brick buildings you usually see photographs of this place:
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Up close look at #2 from the downstream side:
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Looking up at the Collin's sign from the rocks:
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#5 is this building:
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The boilers (I think?) seen here (taken through a window) from The Bigelow Co. in New Haven, CT are inside building #5:
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#6 is the busted bridge:
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And a shot up river from the busted bridge. Building #5 is the one on the left:
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#7 is this alley between buildings, and you can see all the other buildings heading south towards the old railroad bridge. Most of the active wood working and other shops are in these buildings:
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#8 is this awesome little freestanding house/workshop. It looks like the tenant lives there and also does some sort of craft there as well. He was sanding something while I was there. His dogs are friendly:
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Backside of building #8:
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#9 is the old railroad bridge. No more railroad, but there is a bike path that cross over it now and most of the Farmington Valley, all the way into Massachusetts:

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Under the bridge, looking the most south eastern buildings:
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And this concludes your tour!
 
These are my favorite threads! Thank you again for taking the time to visit and take pictures!

Those are some very good pictures sir! :doublethumbsup:
 

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