I was wondering a while back what had happened to the old Colt Factory in Hartford...my inquires lead to more stories of old gun factories...the next thing you know I have a whole bunch of them to write about

so if you are interested:

http://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2015/02/ghost-gun-factories.html


let me know if you have any info on an old gun factory

thanks

Wow, I love it!! Thank you for preparing that!!

I have info to add about the former H&R factory in Worcester, MA. This is a good story that I rarely think of because it was so long ago, and you want to read to the end to see the surprise.

I grew up in the area and know it very well. There were functional remains of the factory until the late 90s, when it was all leveled. Most was demolished, after gradually falling down, when Walgreen's was built around 1995-ish.

From the 80s to the 90s, portions of the building tumbled slowly, but much remained in use. A tiny portion on the northeast corner was an auto body shop, and the rest was rented out as large item storage (boats, cars, machinery). The auto body place was gone by 1989-90. So many walls had fallen in by around 1993 that the building was abandoned. Vandals and thieves stripped it of anything of value fairly quickly, and it became a hangout for junkies. My brother and his friends went poking around there after a game at Foley Stadium once, and encountered some "crazy people" as he described it.

Circa 1995, a friend of my brother's was working for an Egyptian national who owned a demolition or construction company. If memory serves, it may have been run by the Aswad family, who owned and operated the "1 Prime" or "Valu" gas station a short distance up Chandler Street at the time. They were tasked with tearing the building down to the ground. It was an ordinary, boring, dirty job, until one of the workers broke into what was described to me as just a normal wall, and found a tremendous cache of NOS gun parts from H&R and Iver Johnson. They made the mistake of getting all excited, and the owner of the demo company found out, and came along and took every single gun part, and they were never seen again. Trust me, I did my best to track the things down, or at least try to learn exactly what was found, but the guy I know who was there is not/was not a firearms enthusiast so he could barely describe what he saw.

cool story, these anecdotes from "those who were there" make the stories even more interesting.

Anyone else?

Some of the Rochester Postal Meter facility still exists.  Larry Ruth, author of the M1 Carbine books has photos, and some can be found on-line.

Canadian Arsenals Limited, outside Toronto, has been leveled with the exception of the iconic water tower.

The John Inglis plant in Toronto still exists.  

The Small Arms Factory Lithgow (Lithgow, Australia) still exists, now owned by Thales, and limps along.

Brown-Lippe-Chase in Syracuse (DOWNTOWN Syracuse NY) made M2HBs and tested them from the rooftop!   The building still exists.

The Buffalo Arms plant (1919a4, M2HB)  is now occupied by a company STRIPITZ (spelling?)

Photos for the above can be found online to varying degrees and ease of discovery.  


FYI, Ithaca guns for a brief time around 2000 maybe 2005 was resurrected and was based in Victor NY in the old train station.

I recently updated the blog post with new info on some other gun factories....thanks for the leads!

http://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2015/02/ghost-gun-factories.html

thanks TinCanBandit.  When I visited Hartford over a decade ago, the old Colt factory was being used by some junior college.

Great post TINCANBANDIT!

Thanks!

The Buffalo Arms main plant is on Broadway, between Buffalo proper and Depew....

I used to pass it everyday on my way to work. It is still basically all there, including the main admin/office building. It is basically subdivided and rented out to various small companies, etc...I always wanted to poke around and see if I could find any hidden stashes, but too many occupants and people around, and didn't feel like getting pinched for trespassing.

I gotta believe somewhere in there is some stuff hidden, or just forgotten about...especially maybe in the admin building since it is devoid of any tenants....

I have a few issues of "The Accelerator" which was the company news magazine, including the first issue which shows them building the plant, and the surrounding small neighborhood which was built as housing for the workers, as the plant was located in the middle of nowhere at the time, all farmland...

My semi 1919A4 is mostly Buffalo Arms parts that were cherry picked from Dan Bartha's (Angola Armory) parts, and Dan made up custom side plates for his and my guns with custom engraved Buffalo Arms nomenclature on them...its a very cool gun...

MA, CT, and NY, WTF happened to you

Proud American heritage out with the bathwater.

I've been wondering that myself for years

Where on Broadway?  What business is there now?  Oh, and a laurel and hearty fuck you for moving to Texas!  Good luck down there!  PS The strippit plant is in Akron, bout 20 miles east of Buffalo. The .50's were built there IIRC, and the .30's were built in, well, Cheektovegas. I thought Buffalo Arms was on Grider st.

Thanks! Texas is great! I mean for real...go to a gun show down here, buy anything you want...including pistols, and walk out the door...NICE!

Anyway, ok, you know where Kennedy is off Broadway, there is a big old plant there with one of those old style sawtooth rooflines? If you are on Broadway heading out of the city, about halfway to Dick road, before crossing over Sheridan, the plant is there on your right....its subdivided now, there are multiple small businesses in it now, kind of an industrial park sort of deal...

Oh, and the plant in Akron is where the test ranges were too...I have been by that plant many times as well....my buddy Dan Bartha (RIP) was big into the history of Buffalo Arms, as his dad worked there...

The plant was originally built to build contract guns for the British, but then WWII loomed, and it was decided to make guns for the US instead. Like I said, I came across about 4 or 5 issues of "The Accelerator" including issue #1 which shows the plant being built, and the housing surrounding it built to house workers closer to it...

I really wanted to write a book about it, I even have a title "Brownings on Broadway"...but whose got the time...and research just got harder, its a lot further drive from Dallas than it was from Lancaster....

due to an unfortunate accident while trying to update this blog post, I accidentally deleted it

here is the new link

http://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2016/02/ghost-gun-factories.html

We're still dealing with the lead remediation at the old factory.
I don't know about Victor; the company moved to an old school in King Ferry.
Wiki says it moved to Auburn, which isn't correct
Just another example of corporate owners who bled a subsidiary to death needlessly in the name of greater profits for the head company

Yep, one of the incarnations of Ithaca was a small shop in Victor NY.    I know a guy that has one of their blueprints.