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Steel Ice Skates 

Clover Leaf 

Union Hardware Co. 

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A Little History

The Union Hardware Company was established in 1854 for the production of ice skates. The firm was initially organized by Torrington industrialist Achille F. Migeon with $12,000 in capital, and occupied an old lock shop along the Naugatuck River in Torrington Hollow. 

Around 1865 it relocated to a site on Migeon Avenue, where it would remain for the rest of its history. Roller skates were added to the firm’s catalog around 1876, these supplemented with a assortment of iron, leather and wooden goods by the turn of the century. 

Among the latter were various models of steel and bamboo fishing rods, fishing reels, gun accessories, hack saw frames, screwdrivers, chisels, tool handles, and other wooden goods. 

The company continued to diversify during the early decades of the twentieth century, adding nail clippers, steel golf club shafts, and police goods, such as handcuffs, by the 1930s. 

The initial plant erected along Migeon Avenue by the Union Hardware Company was comprised of a mix of brick and frame structures between one and three stories in height. 

These were incrementally removed and replaced during the late-19th and early-20th century, with the oldest existing building being the western half of the 1896 skate department and machine shop, a one-story red brick factory building with clerestory monitor roof located along the northern boundary of the plant. 

This was enlarged ca. 1905, a period that saw numerous additions to the plant.

 The latter included construction of a new office building, machine ship, forge shop, boiler house, and various shipping and storage buildings.

 The Union Hardware Company continued to expand its influence during the 1910s and 1920s, acquiring the Tower and Lyon Company of New York in 1911, the T.H. Wood Company of South Coventry, Connecticut in 1922, and the Chapin-Stephens Company of Pine Meadow, Connecticut in 1926.

 The firm also added a line of steel golf club shafts to its catalog during this period, a move that helped drive total employment to around 900 employees in 1930.

 The latter would become a vital market for the company and sustained its operations into the late 20th century. In 1960 the Union Hardware Company was purchased by the Brunswick Sports Products Co. – later the Brunswick Corporation