Chase Brass is a leading manufacturer of
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
rod, ingot and engineered products in the U.S. Located in
Montpelier, Ohio
Montpelier is a village in Williams County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,072 at the 2010 census.
History
Montpelier was platted in 1845. The village was named after Montpelier, Vermont. A post office has been in operation at Montp ...
, Chase employs over 200 hourly employees who are represented by the
United Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headquar ...
Union (USW) Local 7248, and 98 salaried employees.
Founded in 1876, in
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
, it was one of the brass manufacturers that contributed to Waterbury's nickname "The
Brass City". One of the largest brassworks in Waterbury, Chase left the city in 1975.
Corporate History
The company was incorporated in 1876, with Henry Sabin Chase as its founder and first President.
In 1929 the company built its first midwestern plant, in Euclid, Ohio. That same year Chase became a subsidiary of
Kennecott Utah Copper
Kennecott Utah Copper LLC (KUC), a division of Rio Tinto Group, is a mining, smelting, and refining company. Its corporate headquarters are located in South Jordan, Utah. Kennecott operates the Bingham Canyon Mine, one of the largest open-pit co ...
, which was the largest producer of copper in the U.S., and Ten East 40th St, New York City, the Chase Tower, was finished and named after its first tenant, Chase Brass and Copper. It is now known as the
Mercantile Building.
Standard Oil of Ohio
The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was an American oil company, a successor of the original company established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. It was established as "Standard Oil Company of Ohio" as one of the separate entities created after the ...
(now
BP America) acquired Kennecott in 1981 and thus acquired Chase. In 1988, the sheet division was sold to 500 employees of the company through an employee stock ownership plan; the new firm was named North Coast Brass & Copper Co. Only 40 Chase employees were left in the Cleveland area, at its Solon headquarters, though the firm still had two other divisions, in Montpelier, OH, and Shelby, NC.
![Copper and Brass - Inside brass and copper tube mill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Copper_and_Brass_-_Inside_brass_and_copper_tube_mill.jpg)
In 1988, BP was discouraged from selling Chase to TBG Inc., a New York-based manufacturing concern, with a threatened anti-trust action. The
Justice Department
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
warned TBG that it intended to file a civil suit to block its proposed $127 million acquisition of Chase Brass. In 1990, BP finally sold the brass rod manufacturing operations in Montpelier, Ohio, the last remaining business unit of its Chase Brass and Copper Co. subsidiary. The rod mill, which then employed about 230 workers, made brass products for plumbing and other uses.
In 1997, the board of directors and shareholders of Chase Brass Industries, Inc. legally changed its name to Chase Industries Inc. The Company's New York Stock Exchange symbol remained "CSI." In 2000, Chase joined a consortium of specialty metal producers, the MetalSpectrum Partnership, to market metals on-line.
As of 2001,
Court Square Capital, an affiliate of Citicorp Venture Capital and the Chase Acquisition Corporation, owned 47 percent of Chase's stock, and sales totaled $232 million. In 2002
Olin Corporation
Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Olin che ...
purchased Chase Brass and Copper Co. Five years later, private equity fund
KPS Capital Partners
KPS Capital Partners is an American investment company that manages KPS Special Situation Funds, a family of investment funds. KPS specifically invests out of two funds raised in October 2019: KPS Special Situations Fund V ($6.12 billion) and KPS ...
LP subsidiary Global Brass and Copper Holdings, Inc. ("GBC") acquired Olin's worldwide metals business, including Chase Brass, and now markets products under that name. GBC is publicly traded on the NYSE under BRSS.
Chase Brass acquires a license agreement with Sambo Copper Alloy Co., Ltd (now known as Mitsubishi Shindoh, LTD) to sell ECO BRASS C693 and C87850 exclusively in North America. ECO BRASS no-lead properties meet Federal and State lead regulations. Chase Brass sublicensed California Metal-X and Ingot Metal Company Limited to produce and sell ECO BRASS C87850. 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of Chase Brass, Montpelier, Ohio location. This location was opened in 1965 and manufactured one alloy, C360. As of 2016, Chase Brass, Montpelier, produced C360, C377, C345, C350, C353, C370, C363, C27450, ECO BRASS C693, ECO BRASS C87850, ECO BRONZE C87850 and engineered products.
On April 10, 2019,
Wieland Group
The Wieland Group is a manufacturer of semi-finished products in copper and copper alloys. The group of companies with Wieland-Werke AG as the ultimate parent company is organized into four business units. Since its foundation, the company’s ...
and Global Brass and Copper signed a Merger Agreement, in which Wieland Group acquired Global Brass and Copper. This agreement was subject to a number of closing conditions, all of which have now been met, including approval by Global Brass and Copper stockholders and antitrust clearances, and the acquisition has now been completed.
Waterbury
Headquarters
The Chase Headquarters Building in
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
, is on Grand Street across from the city hall. It is now occupied by the city of Waterbury’s offices. Chase Brass commissioned well-known architect
Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and We ...
to design it in 1916, across from his recently completed Waterbury city hall. Henry Chase, the company president, specifically requested that the headquarters be designed to contrast with the style of the city hall, resulting in a design which shunned colonial marble and brick. The company sold the building to preservationists in 1963 for one dollar, who in turn sold it to the city of Waterbury to be used as city offices, a function it still serves today. It is now known as the Chase Municipal Building and is part of
Waterbury's Cass Gilbert Historical District.
Local influence
The
Chase Collegiate School
Chase Collegiate School was a nonsectarian private day school offering education for children from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. The school was on a campus in Waterbury, Connecticut. On October 2, 2017, the school announced that it had been ...
is a private day school formerly known as Saint Margaret's-McTernan, established in 1865. It was founded by Chase Brass and Copper Company. The Chase Dispensary, a medical clinic for employees of the Chase Brass and Copper Co., opened one of the first birth control clinics in the country in 1938.
Henry Sabin Chase gave property in Litchfield to his daughter, Miss Edith Morton Chase, where she created a summer estate. She bequeathed it to the state of Connecticut to be used to create
Topsmead State Forest
Topsmead State Forest is a Connecticut state forest located in the town of Litchfield. It was formerly the summer residence of Edith Morton Chase, daughter of Henry Sabin Chase, first president of the Chase Brass and Copper Company. She left the ...
.
A former plant site in Waterbury has been designated as a
Superfund
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...
Clean-up
site.
Wartime
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the Chase Brass and Copper Company made more than 50 million cartridge cases and mortar shells, more than a billion small caliber bullets and, eventually, some of the components used in the
atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
.
Most of the brass buttons used on Federal uniforms, belt buckles and other fittings, were made in Waterbury, the "Brass City", notably by the Chase Brass and Copper Company.
Art Deco era
Chase entered the consumer market with a line of chrome
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
household items in the 1930s, created by leading designers of the day such as
Russel Wright
Russel Wright (April 3, 1904 – December 21, 1976) was an American industrial designer. His best-selling ceramic dinnerware was credited with encouraging the general public to enjoy creative modern design at table with his many other ranges of fu ...
,
Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent (June 21, 1882 – March 13, 1971) was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager.
Biography
Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York. Kent was of English descent. He lived much of ...
and Walter VonNessen. They were usually signed with the distinctive company logo of a centaur drawing a bow. These items are sought after today as collectibles.
Chase discontinued this line in the early '40s, when it turned its attention to wartime production. Chase production of their 'Specialty' items lasted only 12 years, but during that time they issued over 500 items, and 500 more lamps and lighting fixtures.
Antique Trader Antiques & Collectibles 2008 Price Guide - Kyle Husfloen - Google Books
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References
External links
Official website
Chase Brass & Copper Co. objects in the collection
of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the ...
{{Authority control
Metal companies of the United States