Eagle Lock Company
The Eagle Lock Company (established 1833), was at one time the largest trunk and cabinet lock maker in the world. It was based in Terryville, Connecticut. Eagle Lock was at the forefront of padlock security in its time. The main company was in Terryville, but they had opened another factory in Ohio.
History
The factory had a manufacturing line of over 2000 different kinds of locks. A sales room was once operated on Chambers Street in New York City. The factory consisted of one main office building, and later in 1889 and 1905, extra work space was added including Two five story buildings on either side of the office. The factory had a boarding house on prospect street for Male employees, that was torn down in the early 1900s.
The lock company housed four ponds including upper pond (now Terryville Fish and Game), middle pond (now privately owned), lower pond (no longer in existence but once held water to power the Eli Terry Waterwheel), and Reservoir One (once filling up all of the land behind the congregational church and along eagle street, it was drained and removed after a fire in 1975). The factory had had buildings where the Terryville Rite Aid is and where the new park next to the waterwheel is. Today, only four of the buildings out of some 50 remain, only one of the buildings was not altered, while the other three were disconnected and had floors removed.
The lock company finally went out of business in 1975, due to a strike from the remaining employees. The employees were honored for over 65 years of laboring work in the towns 175th annual birthday.[1]