Wilkinson Brothers Paper Mill: Shelton's Lost Pulp Mills
Ghost Factories along Canal Street E and the Housatonic River
Canal Street in Shelton, Connecticut, feels like a graveyard for American industry. Years ago, I walked down this very road to explore the Star Pin Company. Today, Star Pin is nothing but a cracked foundation and scattered rubble. But right next door, separated by a rusty gate, sits another forgotten giant.
I arrived too late to see any leftover machinery or the previous tenant's last setups. Cleanup crews had already taken over the site. Grey duct tape and thick plastic sheeting sealed off the window frames and doorways. Abatement workers were busy removing asbestos from the ancient boiler pipes. Nature had already started claiming the site, too. Back in 2018, the local news reported that a section of the back building simply fell into the Housatonic River. Since then, the property has been used mostly for storage. Still, slipping inside was surprisingly easy.
I came here on a mission. I wanted to find a hidden piece of the Wilkinson Brothers and Co Paper mill or the Naugatuck Valley Crucible Company. Specifically, I was hunting for something original from the past. Decades ago, long after the former paper mill or the factory stopped making paper products and black lead crucibles, workers built a brand new floor right on top of something. The relic was swallowed by progress.
I knew it had to be here somewhere. Stepping carefully through the dim light, I kept my eyes on the ground. The building was in rough shape. In the back room, the flooring had caved in completely, resting heavily on shallow foundation pillars. I scanned the wreckage, searching high and low.
The Floor Collapse That Revealed a Secret
Then, looking down into the jagged pit, I finally saw it.
The floor collapse had acted like an accidental archaeological dig. It peeled back the wood to reveal the rounded brickwork of a half-buried structure. Someone had spray-painted a few letters of graffiti right above it, leaving a modern scar on an antique wall. Staring at those bricks, you can almost hear the roar of the old fires. A century ago, products manufactured in this exact spot shipped out across the globe.
Finding something like this is a powerful reminder of the hidden worlds buried just beneath our feet. As old factory towns try to clean up and reinvent themselves, we are rapidly erasing the physical roots that built our modern economy. These sites matter because they tell the unpolished story of human labor.
Yet, history is rarely simple. As I studied the bricks, a small doubt crept into my mind. Before the crucible company ever arrived, the Wilkinson Brothers Paper Mill first launched the local pulp and paper industry along this hairpin pocket of the river.
Was I truly looking at something historic? Was I truly looking at a kiln or some type of crucible? Or did the broken floor just reveal the circular brick base of the paper mill's long-demolished smokestack?
The ruins were not offering up any easy answers. But whether it once melted metal or pumped smoke into the sky, that buried circle of bricks stands as a quiet monument to the busy, noisy world that once powered this riverside town. From the Wilkinson Brothers Paper Mill in the North end to the Whitcomb Metallic Bedstead Company in the South end stood others in between like U. S. Rubber Reclaiming Works, Wilcox and Howe Co Carriage Hardware, J. and G. Griffin Manufacturers (The Griffin Button Co), Derby Rubber Company Factory No.1, The Silver Plate Cutlery Company, The Adams Manufacturing Company Cotton Mill, Consolidated Railway Electrical Lighting & Equipment Company, Sidney Bloomenthal & Co Inc Silk Mill, Shelton Co Bolt & Tack, The Huntington Piano Company, The Robert N. Bassett Co, and the many companies and factories that called it their place of business no longer stand tall and mighty along a forever changed Canal Street.
The Housatonic River has always been more than just water. For the city of Shelton, Connecticut, the river was the fuel for a revolution. If you walk down Canal Street today, you will now see bright modern apartments and condominiums. But over a century ago, this very street was the loud, beating heart of American industry.
Shelton developer Don Stanziale, Jr. and his firm Midland Development and Contracting have completed Cedar Village at The Locks, which will fully open on June 1, 2026. The new riverfront apartment community sits directly on the former Naugatuck Valley Crucible and Wilkinson Brothers Paper Mill site, transforming this industrial stretch of Canal Street into modern residential living.
Stanziale's other Canal Street projects — 255 Canal Street and the adjoining parcel at 235 Canal Street, the former home of APEX Tool & Cutter Company — will likely not be finished until 2027, depending on permitting and construction timelines.
š Rental prices for Cedar Village at The Locks on Apartments.com.
William Wilkinson and the Paper Mill That Wouldn't Die
It all started with an immigrant's grand vision. William Wilkinson arrived from England ready to make his mark. In the early 1860s, he set up his first paper mill in New York City. However, he soon realized that true industrial power required a better location. By 1871, he moved his operations to Shelton, building a wooden factory right at the northern edge of the newly finished Shelton Canal, built by the Housatonic Water Company.
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| The Shelton Canal Lock. Unsure if it is operable. |
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| Housatonic River views that tenants will be able to see. |
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| A covered deck on top of the new development will have much better views than the former roof of Naugatuck Valley Crucible Co. |
Wilkinson's business was booming. The water powered his machines, and the orders poured in. But industrial work in the nineteenth century was incredibly dangerous. On November 4, 1878, disaster struck. A massive fire ripped through the wooden mill, wiping out the entire structure and leaving behind a devastating $150,000 loss.
For many business owners, watching their life's work turn to ashes would be the end of the story. Wilkinson was different. He rolled up his sleeves and got straight to work. In an astonishing four months and eighteen days, he replaced the ruins with a sprawling brick complex. That same brick layout no longer stands between the canal and the river today.
Back in business, the mill began churning out manila envelopes and hardware papers. Locals proudly called it the Derby Mills or Derby Paper Mills. The company grew at a staggering pace, supplying the packing twine and paper that held a growing nation together. By the mid-1880s, the Wilkinson Brothers Paper Mill, or Wilkinson Brothers and Co Paper and Sulphite Pulp Mills, later named at the time in 1896, was outputting a million dollars' worth of paper a year.
But times change, and smart factory towns know how to adapt. As the new century arrived, the massive brick complex began to shift from a single business into a busy neighborhood of innovation. In 1906, the Star Pin Company bought a two-story building at the southern end of the plant. Right around the same time, another section became home to the young Driscoll Wire Company. By 1917, the paper machines finally stopped running. Wilkinson Brothers shut its doors for good, leaving massive spaces open for a new era of manufacturing.
Wire, Pins, and the Driscoll Wire Company
The Driscoll Wire Company quickly stepped up to fill the void on the south side. William F. Driscoll incorporated the business in 1917 with just $30,000 in capital. Two years later, management shifted to Philip E. French and company president J. Howard Marlin. They turned the wire company into an absolute powerhouse. According to a 1930 article in the Hartford Courant, the factory's total output skyrocketed by a thousand percent in its first ten years.
Inside those noisy walls, workers crafted low-carbon wire of all different finishes and tempers. That wire became the rivets, screws, pins, hairpins, and buckles that Americans used every day. The company thrived well into the 1960s. By 1951, they employed a tight-knit crew of sixty people who specialized in cold-drawn steel wire and commercial heat treating.
While the south side of the complex stretched wire, the north side melted metal.
The Naugatuck Valley Crucible Company
In 1917, local businessman David N. Clark bought the northern half of the old paper mill. Clark was already a prominent figure in Shelton. He had started a highly successful hardware firm in 1882 and founded the Shelton Metallic Filler Company in 1890. Armed with $250,000 in funding, he launched the Naugatuck Valley Crucible Company.
They made crucibles, which are giant, heat-resistant pots used to melt down raw metals. These heavy containers were essential for Connecticut's thriving brass industry. The company constantly evolved its lineup. A 1922 advertisement showed off their graphite crucibles, metal stirrers, and phosphorizers. By 1930, they added black lead crucibles to the catalog and shortened their name to the Naugatuck Valley Company.
Just two years later, they merged with a Chicago firm to become the American Crucible Company. They quickly grew into one of the largest crucible manufacturers in the entire country, building heavy-duty pots for steel melting and oil-fired furnaces. They occupied the old paper mill for decades before eventually moving their operations to nearby North Haven in the early 1950s.
The history of this site is a masterclass in adaptation. Over the years, that same brick complex housed even more businesses. The Bleached Fibre Company made paper stock there, while Better Packages Inc. manufactured packing tape dispensers on 255 Canal Street.
Earlier this year, the last of those strong walls was finally dismantled and hauled away to make room for the current housing development. The factory workers, the paper machines, and the miles of steel wire are now completely gone.
I never did solve that mystery. Standing on Canal Street today, looking at the fresh paint and new apartment walls, that buried circle of bricks still weighs on my mind. It is a powerful reminder of how we constantly build our future directly on top of our past. We may have traded paper, packing twine, and heavy wire for Cedar Village at the Locks riverfront apartments, but the spirit of adaptation still powers this riverside town once again.
Were you or a family member employed at the Naugatuck Valley Crucible Company, American Crucible Company, Driscoll Wire, or Wilkinson Brothers Paper Mill? Do you have photos from inside the Canal Street complex, old crucibles, product catalogs, or stories from when these factories still hummed along the Housatonic? With the buildings now demolished, your memories are the primary record of this layered industrial site.
Drop a comment below or contact me directly. Full credit given to all contributors.
Source(s):
1. Herald, S. (2018, May 29). (Building partially collapses on Canal Street). SheraltonHerald.
2. (n.a). (Naugatuck Valley Crucible Co.). Connecticut Mills.
3. Metal Industry. (1923). United States: Metal Industry Publishing Company. pp.81.
4. (1912) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Derby, New Haven County, Connecticut. Sanborn Map Company, Apr. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01119_005/
5. (1906) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Derby, New Haven County, Connecticut. Sanborn Map Company, Oct. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01119_004/
6. (1901) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Derby, New Haven County, Connecticut. Sanborn Map Company, Oct. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01119_003/
7. (1892) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Birmingham, New Haven County, Connecticut. Sanborn Map Company, Jun. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01100_002/
8. Gioiele, B. (2020, May 7). Shelton receives $700K in federal brownfields grants. CT Insider. https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/Shelton-receives-700K-in-federal-brownfields-15252054.php
9. Orcutt, S., & Beardsley, A. (1880). The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. Press of Springfield Printing Company. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ctcderby/books/hotod009.html
10. Gioiele, B. (2023, March 15). Shelton 129-unit apartment project on Canal Street nears approval. CT Insider. https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/canal-street-apartment-plan-soon-approved-17836734.php
11. Gioiele, B. (2026, March 29). Another major housing project is coming to Shelton's fast-changing Canal Street. New Haven Register. https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/shelton-ct-canal-st-development-condos-22095716.php
12. Gioiele, B. (2026, March 15). Shelton developer proposes 48-unit condo plan for Canal Street in between other planned apartments. CT Insider. https://www.ctinsider.com/news/shelton/article/shelton-ct-apartments-canal-st-development-21345032.ph
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