Hopkins & Allen Gun Factory was Norwich’s largest employer and one of many gun factories in a city that provided more arms for Union forces during the Civil War than any other city. The company began operations in 1868 and, as the nation’s largest armory, stood on this site in a four-story brick building until a cold, dark morning on February 4, 1900, when night watchman Joe Skelly discovered a fire. By the time the fire department arrived, the building could not be saved, and Hopkins & Allen was destroyed in the biggest fire in Norwich’s history. The loss imposed a special hardship because the gunsmiths’ tools were consumed in the flames, leaving the entire workforce unemployed. A new 80,000 square foot Hopkins & Allen was built on the same site and rededicated in March 1901; the 220-foot-long, 60-foot-wide, four-story building cost approximately $55,000. Hopkins & Allen remained in business until 1917, with the World War I Armistice given as the reason it went out of business.