The Kraus Corset Factory is a historic industrial property at 33 Roosevelt Drive in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The oldest portion of the large brick building, built in 1879, faces Third Street, while a c. 1910 addition extends along Roosevelt Drive. It is the only major building to survive from Derby's period of

corset A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or with a more lasting effe ...

manufacturing. It was built by Sidney Downs, one of Derby's leading businessmen of the period. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on February 12, 1987. It has been converted into apartments.

Description and history

The Kraus Corset Factory is located adjacent to downtown Derby, extending mainly along Roosevelt Drive (

Connecticut Route 34 Route 34 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Route 34 is long, and extends from Washington Avenue near I-84/US 6 in Newtown to the junction of I-95 and I-91 in New Haven. The highways connects the New Haven and Danbury a ...

) northwest of Third Street. The factory is composed of two structures, the main 1879 block, and the c. 1910 addition. The main block is built of brick and is three stories in height, with nine bays facing Third Street and ten facing Roosevelt. The windows are set in segmented-arch openings, with stone sills. Shed-roof dormers project from the roof faces. The addition is a wood-frame structure, also three stories in height, but with a fully-exposed basement level facing the street. The factory's main block was built in 1879 by Sidney Downs, a prominent local businessman who had previously engaged in other corset-making partnerships. He leased this factory to Leopold Kraus whose firm employed about a quarter of Derby's corsetmakers. This business was only successful into the early 1890s, and had been swallowed by competition by 1896. The site next housed businesses engaged in a variety of metalworking pursuits related to corsetry, and in 1907 it was acquired by Sterling Pin. Pinmaking was another major business in Derby, and Sterling expanded the plant to manufacture pins, hairpins, clasps and eyes, and other small wire-based products. It remained in business at this site into the 1970s.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Derby, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut Industrial buildings completed in 1879 Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Corsetry Textile mills in the United States 1879 establishments in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References