White and Wells Company
Community Contribution
26 Hotchkiss Street.
One of the few buildings to survive the full force of the flood.
Companies Associated w/Complex
Goodyear India Rubber Glove Company 1920-
U.S. Rubber Company
White and Wells Company 1897-1920
Historic Narrative
The small surviving brick factory building on Hotchkiss Street was originally home to a paper box manufacturer called the White and Wells Company. The company, established in Waterbury with a factory at 214 Bank Street, was incorporated in 1895, and built a Naugatuck factory around that time. A fire in 1902 destroyed the facility, forcing the company to take up temporary space within a Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co. building on North Water Street. The standing factory was presumably built c.1902-3. White and Wells supplied the local manufacturers of rubber goods with materials for packaging their finished products, working under renewable five year contracts. In 1920, the company and its assets were purchased by the Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co., then a division of the U.S. Rubber Co., for $150,000. The move was intended to provide more efficient and economical paper box production for U.S. Rubber Co.
