It was caused by a combination of factors. First, the gun control act of 1968 put an end to mail order sales other than through an FFL, so the association with Sears, Montgomery Wards, Western Auto, etc. essentially came to an end. In 1977 High Standard moved from its Hamden location to a much smaller facility at E. Hartford, and many parts had to be outsourced so quality took a hit. Mismanagement also played a large part. Thus, this grand old company, started by Carl Swebilius in 1932 finally came to an end in 1984.

 

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The rest of the story was started by investors buying the name and intellectual property. They then re-started High Standard in Houston Texas. That company failed with bankruptcy about 10 years ago and that bankruptcy was still in court the last time I heard. The man behind the resurrection who brought about clones of original models using modern manufacturing techniques (like investment casting of stainless steel frames) was Alan Aronstein. Today he owns Interarms Texas that provides parts and service for these guns. From the ashes of this final bankruptcy of the High Standard company, the Houston Hi Std gunsmiths started making the new 10-X clone, supported by Alan's parts.

Some former directors of the Houston company, during the bankruptcy, moved some of the assets to Montana. Apparently, according to some who report here, they offer a clone of the Houston guns.

Today you can buy a legal clone of the Houston guns (the latest 10-X) from the former Hi Std gunsmiths located in Houston TX. Alan offers contact information for those guns.

So, you can buy a Hi Std today. They are a match, performance wise, to the originals from Connecticut as were the last Houston High Standard guns.

I own a Supermatic Field King, an East Hartford ML Victor, and a Houston Trophy...all are great guns!
LDBennett

 

Located in Connecticut, the original High Standard Manufacturing Company permanently

closed its doors in 1984. What actions and events brought about its final demise? Why did

this prominent company fail?

High Standard in Connecticut was actually four different companies located in New Haven, East Haven, Hamden and East Hartford.

The original company was originally a partnership between Carl Gustav Swebilius and Gustav A Beck in 1926. Both men were former employees of Marlin. The product was deep hole drill bits used in the steam boiler, automotive, and firearms business This drill bits are often generically called “gun drills”.

In 1927, The partnership was incorporated as High Standard Manufacturing Company Incorporated. The president of the new company was Beck’s son. Beck’s son soon left the company and by the mid 1930s both Becks were gone but the senior Beck maintained a connection as he held the mortgage on the factory building.

High Standard shipped its first pistols, a semi-auto pistol and a single shot pistol beginning in October 1932. In 1940 High Standard entered the Shotgun market.

The company received an order from the British purchasing group for .50 Cal M-2 machine guns. An old four story factory was rented and a new factory was constructed in Hamden and another building in Hamden was purchased. On April 1, 1941, a new company, High Standard Manufacturing Corporation Incorporated, was founded . This new company was basically what the original company had been making shotguns, pistols and deep hole drills with the pistol factory in New Haven and the headquarters in Hamden. The new company had government contaracts for pistols .45 cal 1911 barrels and .30 cal rifle and maghinegun barrels. In the meantime High Standard Manufacturing Company was purchased by the U. S. Government and High Standard Manufacturing Company Incorporated became the management and operation personnel for the government facility.

A third company, the Dixwell Corporation, was created to manage the other two companies. Each of the other companies paid the Dixwell Corporation a percentage of gross sales. They had no product only consulting services. The major participants in management of the other two companies were management worked for the Dixwell Corporation.

With the end of the war, the original company, the High Standard Manufacturing Company Incorporated, had no customers and did not own the factory and machinery So after settling the taxes and excess profits paperwork it closed probably in 1946. I haven’t found anything about the closing of the Dixwell Corporation but I suspect that it closed a little after the closing of the original company.

Post War, the High Standard Manufacturing Corp was making deep hole drill bits, pistols, and shotguns, Sears had been a customer of the shotguns since 1940. Then Sears and High Standard reached agreement on Sears funding the design, development, tooling, and testing the . 12 gauge pump shotguns and .22 rimfire rifles. Later Sears was the impetus for the Dura-Matic , Model 80 pistols and the Sentinel/model 88 and Double Nine/Ranger revolvers.

The Sears business continued to grow dramatically until sales to Sears represented around 65% to the total sales. Then in the early 1960s, Sears started dropping High Standard produced guns. The pistol and revolver saled ended in late 1963. Other products which had been trade named J. C. Higgins were now transitioning to the new sporting goods tradename “Ted Williams” Some survived for a while being marked simply Sears and some briefly used the Ted Williamd name but gradually the .22 rilfle and shotguns were mostly replaced by new models manufactured by Winchester. By 1967 the High Standard guns offered were a Model 34 rifle and the Model 75 shotgun all of the other models had been discontinued.

Before the 1968 National Firearms Act was enacted in October 1968, Sears had abandoned High Standard. Although Sears stopped selling by mailorder, they continued for almost 15 years with gun sales in the stores. Beginning around 1969 Sears resumed buying a single model 21 pump shotgun in .410 bore.

With the decline of sales to Sears, High Stadanrd back filled that loss in sales with new large custioners. Kroydon, J. C. Penny, Western Auto, W. Hogee, and Gamble Skogmo were a few of the earliesr. In all there were over 20 new major customers who were buying mostly shotguns.

1968 was the beginning of a change in High Standards operations. The Leisure Group, a conglomerate from Los Angeles, purchased High Standard from the Stockholders. Sears had been a preferred stock shareholder. This provided a clean exit for Sears and for the Swebilius family. The Swebilius family had been helping finance High Standard Manufacturing Corporation operations since the end of WWII.

As a wholly owned subsiduary, High Standard had to adapt to the new ownership. The Leisure Group fired a large number of the office employees thus losing many years of experience in the business. Bill Donovan and Bill Henry, both of the sales department left of their own accord which decimated High Standard’s sales and marketing department.

In an interview with Steve Hinchcliffe, President of the Leisure Group, he attributed the slide of High Standard to the 1968 National Firearms Act which was enacted just after he bought High Standard Manufacturing Corporation. I would speculate that making the Government the whipping boy was more convenient that acknowledging that in the due diligence before the purchase that they didn’t see that the biggest customer Sears had for all practical purposes stopped doing business with High Stadanrd.

The Leisure Group took a lot of money out of High Standard at the expense of investimetn in newer machinery and maintenance of their old machinery. They also replaced more experienced, more expensive , employees with cheaper new hires with less experience. These employees were mostly office personnel. The shop personnel were union and the pay not particularly high so there was little opportunity to save money by replacing the shop personnel.

The Deep hole drill bit business was sold by The Leisure Group because it was not a leisure product. This original product had been a reliable profit center since the beginning. During WWII it had more profits that the .22 training pistols in % margin and in total product dollars.

About 1972 the Leisure Group replaced High Standard’s president that had left the company with Don Mitchell, a former vice-president of sales at Colt. Mitchell wanted to increase sales but money was very tight and there was none for design and developent of new models. In an effort to increase sales Mitchell instituted deals to sell private labeled guns manufactured by others. This led to Nikko shotguns, Dan Wesson revolvers, Uberti black powder revolvers, and Automag pistols wearling the High Stadnard label. It appears that the deal with Numrich for the Hopkins Allen black powder guns slightly preceded Mitchell. Mitchell without warning jumped ship and went to Ithaca as its new president in 1975.

The new president Clem Confessori n 1976 determined that downsizing and leaving Hamden would be a strategy for survival it would get them out from under an old factry building that was larger than they needed and which required a lot of maintenance and was costly to heat. Production in Hamden ended in February 1977 and resumed in East Hartford in June/July 1977 in an industrial strip mall.

The new factory was much smaller so manufacturing did need to outsource some operations. This did not necessarily compromise quality. Even during its best days High Standard had outsourced parts and operations. Receiving inspection shouild have caught any sub standard parts before incorporating the parts into the products.

The product lineup was greatly decreased as the rifles and shotguns were nolonger produced. The standard slant grip pistols were also dropped. The steel frame Western style revolvers were temporarily deleted from production from February 1977 through August of 1978 and the steel frame Sentinel family was also deleted from the lineup except for a couple of new models that were not cataloged and which did not last. The company now had even less sales to cover overhead. The Leisure Group wanted to sell the High Standard Manufacturing Corporation as they had pretty well run the company in th the ground.and continuing the company would be costly.

In early 1978, the then president Clem Confessori and some other investors purchased certain assets of the High Standard Manufacturing Corporation from the Leisure Group but not the company The new company was High Stadnard, Inc. In August 1978 High Standard Inc resumed production of four models of the steel frame Western revolvers. They had resumed production of two models of the Sentinel family from May through September 1978 and then the Sentinel family was again deleted form the lineup until October 1981.

The new High Standard was heavily financed and since it was in questionable condition the loan rate was 6.5 % over prime and during Jimmy Carter’s administration prime reached 21.5% which meant they were paying 28% interest. That is most likely too much cost for any struggling company to survive. The company did not go bankrupt but was disolved by orderly liquidation and everyone but the stockholders got out whole. In the early 1980s there was a downturn in the firearms market. Which also contributer to the company demise.

In my opinion if High Standard, Inc had tried to go forward, they would have gone bankrupt and it would have been worse for eveyone

In summary, the origianl company, the one you asked about the High Standard Manufacturing Company Inc and its associated Dixwell Corp. probably closed in 1946 and had made its owners a big pot of money. The Company spun off in April 1, 1941, the High Standard Manufacturing Corporation, Inc. was later bought in 1968 and more or less run into the ground by it’s new owner the Leisure Group. The old stockholders which was for all practical purposes Sears and the Swebilius family made out pretty well but the Leisure Group not nearly as well. The last company High Standard, Inc closed with only the stockholders loosing money.

I might also add that most interest in the company today is primarily the pistols which after WWII was a relatively small part of sales, Without the sales of the other products, it is likely that the companies would not have lasted as long as they did. This is especially true of the Sears sales.

 

High Standard in Connecticut was actually four different companies located in New Haven, East Haven, Hamden and East Hartford.

The original company was originally a partnership between Carl Gustav Swebilius and Gustav A Beck in 1926. Both men were former employees of Marlin. The product was deep hole drill bits used in the steam boiler, automotive, and firearms business This drill bits are often generically called “gun drills”.

In 1927, The partnership was incorporated as High Standard Manufacturing Company Incorporated. The president of the new company was Beck’s son. Beck’s son soon left the company and by the mid 1030s both Becks were gone but the senior Beck maintained a connection as he held the mortgage on the factory building.

High Standard shipped its first pistols, a semi-auto pistol and a single shot pistol beginning in October 1932. In 1940 High Standard entered the Shotgun market.

The company received an order from the British purchasing group for .50 Cal M-2 machine guns. An old four story factory was rented and a new factory was constructed in Hamden and another building in Hamden was purchased. On April 1, 1941, a new company, High Standard Manufacturing Corporation Incorporated, was founded . This new company was basically what the original company had been making shotguns, pistols and deep hole drills with the pistol factory in New Haven and the headquarters in Hamden. The new company had government contaracts for pistols .45 cal 1911 barrels and .30 cal rifle and maghinegun barrels. In the meantime High Standard Manufacturing Company was purchased by the U. S. Government and High Standard Manufacturing Company Incorporated became the management and operation personnel for the government facility.

A third company, the Dixwell Corporation, was created to manage the other two companies. Each of the other companies paid the Dixwell Corporation a percentage of gross sales. They had no product only consulting services. The major participants in management of the other two companies were management worked for the Dixwell Corporation.

With the end of the war, the original company, the High Standard Manufacturing Company Incorporated, had no customers and did not own the factory and machinery So after settling the taxes and excess profits paperwork it closed probably in 1946. I haven’t found anything about the closing of the Dixwell Corporation but I suspect that it closed a little after the closing of the original company.

Post War, the High Standard Manufacturing Corp was making deep hole drill bits, pistols, and shotguns, Sears had been a customer of the shotguns since 1940. Then Sears and High Standard reached agreement on Sears funding the design, development, tooling, and testing the . 12 gauge pump shotguns and .22 rimfire rifles. Later Sears was the impetus for the Dura-Matic , Model 80 pistols and the Sentinel/model 88 and Double Nine/Ranger revolvers.

The Sears business continued to grow dramatically until sales to Sears represented around 65% to the total sales. Then in the early 1960s, Sears started dropping High Standard produced guns. The pistol and revolver saled ended in late 1963. Other products which had been trade named J. C. Higgins were now transitioning to the new sporting goods tradename “Ted Williams” Some survived for a while being marked simply Sears and some briefly used the Ted Williamd name but gradually the .22 rilfle and shotguns were mostly replaced by new models manufactured by Winchester. By 1967 the High Standard guns offered were a Model 34 rifle and the Model 75 shotgun all of the other models had been discontinued.

Before the 1968 National Firearms Act was enacted in October 1968, Sears had abandoned High Standard. Although Sears stopped selling by mailorder, they continued for almost 15 years with gun sales in the stores. Beginning around 1969 Sears resumed buying a single model 21 pump shotgun in .410 bore.

With the decline of sales to Sears, High Stadanrd back filled that loss in sales with new large custioners. Kroydon, J. C. Penny, Western Auto, W. Hogee, and Gamble Skogmo were a few of the earliesr. In all there were over 20 new major customers who were buying mostly shotguns.

1968 was the beginning of a change in High Standards operations. The Leisure Group, a conglomerate from Los Angeles, purchased High Standard from the Stockholders. Sears had been a preferred stock shareholder. This provided a clean exit for Sears and for the Swebilius family. The Swebilius family had been helping finance High Standard Manufacturing Corporation operations since the end of WWII.

As a wholly owned subsiduary, High Standard had to adapt to the new ownership. The Leisure Group fired a large number of the office employees thus losing many years of experience in the business. Bill Donovan and Bill Henry, both of the sales department left of their own accord which decimated High Standard’s sales and marketing department.

In an interview with Steve Hinchcliffe, President of the Leisure Group, he attributed the slide of High Standard to the 1968 National Firearms Act which was enacted just after he bought High Standard Manufacturing Corporation. I would speculate that making the Government the whipping boy was more convenient that acknowledging that in the due diligence before the purchase that they didn’t see that the biggest customer Sears had for all practical purposes stopped doing business with High Stadanrd.

The Leisure Group took a lot of money out of High Standard at the expense of investimetn in newer machinery and maintenance of their old machinery. They also replaced more experienced, more expensive , employees with cheaper new hires with less experience. These employees were mostly office personnel. The shop personnel were union and the pay not particularly high so there was little opportunity to save money by replacing the shop personnel.

The Deep hole drill bit business was sold by The Leisure Group because it was not a leisure product. This original product had been a reliable profit center since the beginning. During WWII it had more profits that the .22 training pistols in % margin and in total product dollars.

About 1972 the Leisure Group replaced High Standard’s president that had left the company with Don Mitchell, a former vice-president of sales at Colt. Mitchell wanted to increase sales but money was very tight and there was none for design and developent of new models. In an effort to increase sales Mitchell instituted deals to sell private labeled guns manufactured by others. This led to Nikko shotguns, Dan Wesson revolvers, Uberti black powder revolvers, and Automag pistols wearling the High Stadnard label. It appears that the deal with Numrich for the Hopkins Allen black powder guns slightly preceded Mitchell. Mitchell without warning jumped ship and went to Ithaca as its new president in 1975.

The new president Clem Confessori n 1976 determined that downsizing and leaving Hamden would be a strategy for survival it would get them out from under an old factry building that was larger than they needed and which required a lot of maintenance and was costly to heat. Production in Hamden ended in February 1977 and resumed in East Hartford in June/July 1977 in an industrial strip mall.

The new factory was much smaller so manufacturing did need to outsource some operations. This did not necessarily compromise quality. Even during its best days High Standard had outsourced parts and operations. Receiving inspection shouild have caught any sub standard parts before incorporating the parts into the products.

The product lineup was greatly decreased as the rifles and shotguns were nolonger produced. The standard slant grip pistols were also dropped. The steel frame Western style revolvers were temporarily deleted from production from February 1977 through August of 1978 and the steel frame Sentinel family was also deleted from the lineup except for a couple of new models that were not cataloged and which did not last. The company now had even less sales to cover overhead. The Leisure Group wanted to sell the High Standard Manufacturing Corporation as they had pretty well run the company in th the ground.and continuing the company would be costly.

In early 1978, the then president Clem Confessori and some other investors purchased certain assets of the High Standard Manufacturing Corporation from the Leisure Group but not the company The new company was High Stadnard, Inc. In August 1978 High Standard Inc resumed production of four models of the steel frame Western revolvers. They had resumed production of two models of the Sentinel family from May through September 1978 and then the Sentinel family was again deleted form the lineup until October 1981.

The new High Standard was heavily financed and since it was in questionable condition the loan rate was 6.5 % over prime and during Jimmy Carter’s administration prime reached 21.5% which meant they were paying 28% interest. That is most likely too much cost for any struggling company to survive. The company did not go bankrupt but was disolved by orderly liquidation and everyone but the stockholders got out whole. In the early 1980s there was a downturn in the firearms market. Which also contributer to the company demise.

In my opinion if High Standard, Inc had tried to go forward, they would have gone bankrupt and it would have been worse for eveyone

In summary, the origianl company, the one you asked about the High Standard Manufacturing Company Inc and its associated Dixwell Corp. probably closed in 1946 and had made its owners a big pot of money. The Company spun off in April 1, 1941, the High Standard Manufacturing Corporation, Inc. was later bought in 1968 and more or less run into the ground by it’s new owner the Leisure Group. The old stockholders which was for all practical purposes Sears and the Swebilius family made out pretty well but the Leisure Group not nearly as well. The last company High Standard, Inc closed with only the stockholders loosing money.

I might also add that most interest in the company today is primarily the pistols which after WWII was a relatively small part of sales, Without the sales of the other products, it is likely that the companies would not have lasted as long as they did. This is especially true of the Sears sales.

I have talked to Clem, Merle, George, and Bob about ALL of this over the years. I have some documents that also cover some of this transition. John has written a WONDERFUL report and, I am sure that this covers years of research !!! I did notice that John failed to mention that the FINAL agreement was made as Clem and Merle decided that they needed a Bathroom break !!! In the mems room one final hurdle was settled (per Clem). Bob and I always had lunch at the Shot Show with Merle and George. I learned alot at those lunches. Bob was on the employee stock investment board at HS. He knew alot about the financial facts of HS. As an aside, Bob and Jane(switchboard operator during WW II) had invested in the US Savings Bond Plan at HS and NEVER stopped buying them until his death in 2015. His sister told me that after his death they found several suitcases full of US Bonds dating from WW II. - Alan Aronstein

 

John:
Very interesting with many facts I did not know in detail. Thank you.
LDBennett

 

My Diamondback Sidekick looks similar to the old High Standard rimfire revolver. Is the design being licensed?

 

No not related.

 

Mr. Stimson, Great writeup on HS!
Having lived in the area close to HS, Marlin, Mossberg and Winchester most of my life.
I passed by these facilities hundreds of times I had no idea HS was located in East Haven!
I guess You never stop learning new things.
Thanks!

 

Ron, I used to have a number of clients all over CT and recall (this was 40 years ago) you could stop at the factory and you could actually talk to a gunsmith. Same at Colt, and Ruger when I drove thru NH. Talk sweet to the receptionist and you would walk away with logo stuff.

Sadly I wasn’t a HS fan in those days and never knew I was so close by.

 

Velveeta:
I don't intend to be petty but maybe you should figure out the timing of the several moves Hi Std made over the years. In the last 75 years (and maybe longer) the three location for Hi Std were Hamden, East Hartford, and Houston Texas. These city names were engraved on the guns in those days. The last time Hi Standard was located in Connecticut was the mid 1980's. Are you old enough to have driven by any of the Connecticut sites while Hi Std resided there?
LDBennett

 

There were several plants over the years in several cities.

169 East Street, New Haven was the initial location in 1926

61-63 Foote Street, New Haven was the next in 1935

1811-1817 Dixwell Ave., Hamden Acquired in anticipation of British machine gun order. 1940

1337 Dixwell Ave., Hamden Ground broken Oct 1940 for new machine gun plant

100 Waterfront St., New Haven 1940 Building rented for machine gun production

Dodge Ave., East Haven Used as the pistol plant beginning in the late 1940s and as a warehouse up until early to mid 1960s.

31 Prestige Circle, East Hartford


High Standard was lazy, cheap or indifferent to keeping the roll marking in synch with reality. The company name and the company address was not always up to date. In the late 1940s the Factory on Dodge Avenue , East Haven was the pistol plant, yet no pistols were marked East Haven. During that time the coporate headquartes wer ein the Dixwell avenur plant in Hamden yet the pistols were still marked New Haven.

 

Yes, thank you for providing this information. I had no idea High Standard had so many locations.

 

 

This liquidation of Hi Std guns/etc apparently was in 1985, the final days of Hi Std in Connecticut. The article is dated January 1985. Note that the pre-sale display of lots was to be at the East Hartford address. Note also that lot #5 (shotguns) and lot #7 (Duramatics) were cited as not having been manufactured in East Hartford but at some other locations.

All very interesting and historical info not generally known by us mere users (not collectors). Thank you John.....
LDBennett

 

I have another High Standard internal document that is dated as being recieved Sept 10 1984. It was probably the flyer mailed to prospective buyers.

Then, as now, the magazines were post dated so as to appear to be current when reaching the public. The January dated magazine was probabaly on the news stand in late November of certainly by December. This is an issue that a researcher has to always remember.

The company closed in early December 1984 pretty much right after the auction and the buyers moved the auctioned items out.

The parts were abvailable for viewing at the East Hartford address because that was the location of the factory at the time it was closing.

Lots 5, Shotguns; 6, rifles; and 7, the Dura-Matic family of pistols had not been produced in East Hartford because production of those product lines ended in Hamden in February 1977 or earlier. There had not been any production in those years in any location after February 1977.

Note there was no tooling for the Crusaders as the initial production run had been machined by outside vendors.

Note that Gordon Elliott bought lot, 1 and 4. Nine years later Gordon hooked up with Alan and others to form High Standard Houston.

Lots 2, 5, and 6 were purchased by Cholly Steen at Sarco.

Lot 3 went to a Texas company and was later produced by American Derringer.

Lot 7 - I don't know who bought Lot 7 or where it went.

 

never mind

 

There were several plants over the years in several cities.

169 East Street, New Haven was the initial location in 1926

61-63 Foote Street, New Haven was the next in 1935

1811-1817 Dixwell Ave., Hamden Acquired in anticipation of British machine gun order. 1940

1337 Dixwell Ave., Hamden Ground broken Oct 1940 for new machine gun plant

100 Waterfront St., New Haven 1940 Building rented for machine gun production

Dodge Ave., East Haven Used as the pistol plant beginning in the late 1940s and as a warehouse up until early to mid 1960s.

31 Prestige Circle, East Hartford


High Standard was lazy, cheap or indifferent to keeping the roll marking in synch with reality. The company name and the company address was not always up to date. In the late 1940s the Factory on Dodge Avenue , East Haven was the pistol plant, yet no pistols were marked East Haven. During that time the coporate headquartes wer ein the Dixwell avenur plant in Hamden yet the pistols were still marked New Haven.

I am Very familiar with Dodge Ave. in East Haven.
There was a Florist Building and after that there was an another building that must have been HS.
Tweed New Haven Airport was next . Come to think of it You could liken it to an Industrial Park.

Velveeta:
I don't intend to be petty but maybe you should figure out the timing of the several moves Hi Std made over the years. In the last 75 years (and maybe longer) the three location for Hi Std were Hamden, East Hartford, and Houston Texas. These city names were engraved on the guns in those days. The last time Hi Standard was located in Connecticut was the mid 1980's. Are you old enough to have driven by any of the Connecticut sites while Hi Std resided there?
LDBennett

Unfortunately YES!
Born in 1951!

 

I am Very familiar with Dodge Ave. in East Haven.
There was a Florist Building and after that there was an another building that must have been HS.
Tweed New Haven Airport was next . Come to think of it You could liken it to an Industrial Park.

Unfortunately YES!
Born in 1951!

I have talked to Clem, Merle, George, and Bob about ALL of this over the years. I have some documents that also cover some of this transition. John has written a WONDERFUL report and, I am sure that this covers years of research !!! I did notice that John failed to mention that the FINAL agreement was made as Clem and Merle decided that they needed a Bathroom break !!! In the mems room one final hurdle was settled (per Clem). Bob and I always had lunch at the Shot Show with Merle and George. I learned alot at those lunches. Bob was on the employee stock investment board at HS. He knew alot about the financial facts of HS. As an aside, Bob and Jane(switchboard operator during WW II) had invested in the US Savings Bond Plan at HS and NEVER stopped buying them until his death in 2015. His sister told me that after his death they found several suitcases full of US Bonds dating from WW II. - Alan Aronstein

Thank you Alan. That is the short form due to time constraints on my part.

At a Louisville NRA annual exhibits Bob showed me a picture of his wife Jane as the switch board operator in the machinegun plant. She was pictured in a monthly newsletter edited by Joseph Murphy, one of the original 5 incorporators. I later found another photo in a different newsletter when she worked for a different department.
I have bound copies of the WWII machinegun company newsletters. Some are gold embossed with the name of a High Standard executive.

The map I have seen shows the New Haven-East Haven city line running down the main runway.

Bob Shea said that there was a shuttle truck running from Foote Street plant to the Dodge Ave plant to the Dixwell Ave plant moving parts, tools, and material. Even though the plants were mostly dedicated to one product line, production emergencies made it necessary to move operatrions on some parts to other plants. They eventually closed the Foote Street plant and the Dodge avenue plant became a warehouse before they got rid of it.