Trumbull, Vanderpoel & Co. Bantam, Conn. 17

Trumbull, Vanderpoel & Co. Bantam, Conn. 17

Image of a large brick building under construction. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to cover New England or upstate New York. The quest for images that would be saleable as postcards resulted in the documentation of small towns and small town life at the turn of the 20th century. As the photos were shot, the glass plates were promptly sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. The Trumbull-Vanderpoel Electric Manufacturing company was organized in 1912, producing safety switches, knife switches, switch boards, panel boards, weatherproof sockets and switches. By 1915 the factory employed 100 hands. Power came from the hydroelectric dam on the Bantam River, which is just behind the factory, and shipping from the Litchfield branch of the Shepaug Railroad also adjacent. In 1919 the plant was taken over by the Connecticut Electric Manufacturing Company, known through the 1960s as the CT Electric and Switch Factory. In 2015 the structure was renovated and opened in 2018 as The Bantam Arts Factory. Bantam is a Borough of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut.