1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Waterbury

WATERBURY, a city and one of the county-seats of New Haven county, Connecticut, U.S.A., since 1900 coextensive with the township of Waterbury, on the Naugatuck river, in the west central part of the state, about 32 m. S.W. of Hartford. Pop. (1900) 51,139, of whom 15,368 were foreign-born (5866 being Irish, 2007 Italian, 1777 French Canadian, 1265 Russian, 1777 French, and 938 English); (1910 census) 73,141. Area 29 sq. m. Waterbury is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and is connected by electric lines with New Haven, Bridgeport, Thomaston, Woodbury and Watertown. It has four public parks (the Green, Chase, Hamilton and Forest), with a total acreage of 80 acres, and a Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, designed by George E. Bissell. The most important public buildings are the Federal building, the county court house, a state armoury, the Silas Bronson Public Library (1870, with an endowment of $200,000 and with 81,500 volumes in 1910), the Odd Fellows Temple, a Y.M.C.A . building and the Buckingham Music Hall (1907), and among the charitable institutions are the Southmayd Home (1898) for aged women, the Waterbury hospital (1890) and the St Mary’s hospital (1908). In the city are the St Margaret’s Diocesan School for Girls (Protestant Episcopal, 1875), the Waterbury Industrial School and the Academy of Notre Dame (1868). There is good water power here from the Naugatuck river and its tributaries Mad river and Great Brook. In 1905 Waterbury ranked third among the manufacturing cities of Connecticut (being surpassed only by Bridgeport and New Haven), with a factory product valued at $32,367,359 (6.7% more than in 1900). The most important manufactures are rolled brass and copper (value in 1905, $12,599,736, or 24.3% of the total for the United States), brass-ware (value in 1905, $7,387,228, or 42.2% of the total for the United States), clocks and watches—over a million watches are made here each year—and stamped ware (value in 1905, $1,037,666) The manufacture of brass-ware originated here in 1802 with the making of brass buttons; iron buttons covered with silver were first made here about 1760, block tin and pewter buttons about 1800, bone and ivory buttons about 1812, sheet brass in 1830, and pins and plated metals for daguerreotypes in 1842. Old-fashioned tall wooden clocks were made in Waterbury in the latter part of the 18th century, and cheap watches were first made here in 1879, these were long distmctive of Waterbury, and were often called “Waterbury watches.” The manufacture of cloth dates from 1814, and broadcloth was first made here in 1833. The city has a large wholesale trade and is a shipping point for dairy products. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks.

The township of Waterbury was incorporated in 1686, having been since its settlement in 1677 a part of Farmington township known as Mattatuck. The city of Waterbury was first chartered in 1853. The city and the township were consolidated in 1901. City elections are held biennially and the mayor, city clerk, treasurer, comptroller, city sheriff and aldermen hold office for two years. With the consent of the Board of Aldermen the mayor appoints five electors who with the mayor constitute a department of public works; appoints, three electors who with the mayor, comptroller, and president of the Board of Aldermen constitute a department of finance; appoints live electors who with the mayor constitute a department of public safety; and appoints five electors who constitute a department of public health. In 1902 there was a destructive fire in the business district of the city, and during a strike of street railway employees in 1903 state troops were called out to maintain order.