Community Corner
Old Ball & Socket Arts Factory Could Soon Serve New Arts Purpose
A trio of Cheshire High School graduates look to turn the former button and fastener factory into a multi-purpose community center with a focus on visual arts.
The old Ball & Socket factory on West Main Street in Cheshire has stood vacant for years, but if three Cheshire High School graduates have anything to say about it, the property could soon be home to a vibrant and bustling arts and community center.
Jeffrey Guimond, Kevin Daly and Ilona Somogyi are pursuing a plan to renovate the West Main Street factory property into a multi-purpose community center and visual arts gallery after reaching a tentative agreement with current owner Dalton Enterprises, although there are still portions of the deal to be worked out.
The deal is expected to close sometime near the end of the year, officials confirmed Tuesday.
“We’ve dreamed of doing this since we were kids,” Guimond told the Cheshire Citizen this week. “It screamed. It spoke to us. We wanted to do this ever since we saw it.”
The 93,000 square foot building has a lot of history, serving as a 1800s button and fastener manufacturer before later being turned into a storage facility. The site is currently listed as a “Waste Cleanup and Refuse Site,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA reported the following regarding its history:
Ball & Socket (B&S), Cheshire, CT, manufactured metallic buttons and fasteners from the 1850s until September 1994.
On-site operations included metal stamping of brass and carbon steel, tumbling, electroplating, lacquering, and metal cleaning. The facility has implemented several Interim Corrective Measures ("ICMs"), including the closure of former electroplating sludge lagoons and the construction and operation of a groundwater pump and treat system to remediate contaminated groundwater, aimed at alleviating threats to health or the environment caused by on-site contamination.
In 1997 EPA conducted an evaluation that determined that there currently existed unacceptable exposures to humans from site contaminants in groundwater, soils, surface water, etc. under current site uses.
The Cheshire graduates, who were all part of the class on 1986, are applying for grants and are seeking to get the property added to the state’s historic site registry.
Ball & Socket Arts, the company established by the graduates, is applying for nonprofit status and has already received $2 million from the state Department of Economic and Community Development, $1.68 million in loans and $400,000 from another grant, Guimond told the Cheshire Citizen.
For more on Ball & Socket Arts and the plans for the facility, visit the company website by clicking the link provided.
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