American Precision Museum / Mill Brook & Waterpower

In 1846, a United States Army order for 10,000 rifles transformed a small gun shop on the north bank of Mill Brook in Windsor into Robbins and Lawrence, a leader in precision manufacturing. To meet the order, the company built a brick armory and machine shop on the south bank and became one of several Connecticut River firms that developed interchangeable parts for large-scale production. Its machine tools cut wood and metal rifle parts with accuracy and consistency, speeding assembly and helping lay the foundation for the mass production of products such as shoes, watches, sewing machines, typewriters, bicycles, and automobiles. Although Robbins and Lawrence closed in 1856, machinists and engineers trained there carried its innovations to other companies, securing Windsor a place in the American Industrial Revolution. The four-story armory featured high ceilings, wood construction, heavy wood floors, a narrow width, and expansive windows, while an 18-foot iron and wooden water wheel in the basement powered belts and shafting for the machine tools; steam power had been added by 1850. Mill Brook had already powered Windsor industry since the 1700s, when its three falls dropping 60 feet in three-quarters of a mile drove grist and saw mills, followed by shops producing ironwork, shoes, leather goods, and textiles. By 1846 Robbins and Lawrence had fully developed the middle falls, and machine shops and assembly buildings occupied the north bank into the early 1900s. In 1898, Frank Kennedy bought the dams and properties along Mill Brook, including the armory, and generated electricity from waterpower and coal-fired steam from 1902 to 1926; after his heirs sold the facility, it became part of Central Vermont Public Service in 1929. Electricity generation ended in the 1930s, though the property continued as a transmission substation, and in 1965 the American Precision Museum purchased the armory, which now houses a major collection of machine tools and early machine-made products related to the first hundred years of precision manufacturing.

Windsor, Vermont · United States