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Birdsey-Somers Co. Factory
museumofcthistory.org

"The origins of the Birdsey, Somers Company date to ca. 1860 when Isaac W. Birdsey established his first corset factory in his native town of Huntington (later Shelton), Connecticut. In 1870, Birdsey reorganized the firm as the Birmingham Corset Company, and this met with such considerable success that additional factories were deemed necessary by 1880. One branch was set up in Newark, New Jersey, while a second was established in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The latter was organized as the Bridgeport Corset Company, which operated under the management umbrella of I.W. Birdsey and Company. By 1889, the various plants operated by I.W. Birdsey and Company employed nearly 1,000 hands throughout Connecticut and the firm occupied offices and a wholesale store at 85 Leonard Street in New York, New York. Around 1896, Birdsey joined with Thomas P. Somers and R.H. Hubbell to reorganize the Bridgeport Corset Company as Birdsey, Somers Company. By 1908, Birdsey ceased to be associated with the firm and Somers held assumed the dual role of president and treasurer. In 1913, a new four-story reinforced concrete factory was built for the company at the corner of Barnum and Ridgefield Avenues, however, the firm occupied this plant for just three years. Significant downsizing efforts forced the company to sell the Barnum Avenue plant to the American Graphaphone Company in 1916 and a substantially smaller factory at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Logan Street in Bridgeport was subsequently occupied by the corset manufacturer. The Birdsey, Somers Company remained in business less than ten years after moving to Connecticut Avenue. The firm closed its doors around 1925 and the plant subsequently passed through a series of short-term occupants. This included the A.J. Donahue Company, an elastic textile manufacturer originally established in Milford, Connecticut, during the 1920s; Foland’s Dairy, a milk and ice cream producer operated by Henry W. Foland of Stratford, Connecticut, during the 1930s; the Bridgeport Impression Die Company during the early 1950s; and the E.V. Haffling Company, Inc., tool manufacturers, during the late 1950s. The plant fell into disuse by the late-20th century and remains vacant at the present time..." connecticutmills.org



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