The Waterbury Brass Company site in Hamilton Park preserves the remnants of a major nineteenth-century brass works founded in 1846 on the north bank of the Mad River by Israel Holmes and other local businessmen. Established as the nation’s largest maker of rolled brass, the company became the region’s leading brass producer by the late 1850s and also emerged as a leading brass-kettle manufacturer after acquiring production rights in 1852. Absorbed into the American Brass Company in 1899, the plant remained in use until 1905. Today, only fragments such as walls and turbine pits survive, yet the site remains significant to Waterbury’s industrial past and the growth of brass manufacturing in the United States.