At one percentage point in prison term , Samuel Colt firearms caller held the largest secret arsenal in the world . Colt ’s original factory and the utopian village that flanked it ( a.k.a . Coltsville ) was like the Google campus of the 1800s . Now , itsits in ruin — because guns .
It ’s a shame . Atlas Obscura ’s Luke Spencerrecently visited Coltsville , where rotting buildings rest under an onion - forge , Prussian blue domed stadium and the custom - build railroad sit unused . When it was built in the mid-19th century , the manufacturing plant was cutting bound and made habit of fabrication line techniques long before Henry Ford took credit for popularizing it . Funded by the roaring success of the iconic Colt Single Action Army model ( a.k.a . Colt .45 ) those assembly lines churned out 150 guns a day .
But that ’s scarcely the most interesting thing about Colt ’s Patent Fire Arms Plant . Coltsville is nothing short of fascinating . Spencerreports :
To sway skilled worker to emigrate from the German - speaking lands , Colt built a replica Alpine village everlasting with Swiss chalet , and named it Potsdam , after the Prussian royal city out of doors of Berlin .
His remarkable aid to detail saw the cottages designed with low - pitched cap , and elaborate overhanging eaves with diamond - forge wooden balcony . He even built a traditional beer hall , or Bierpalast , called Germania .
Although Colt kick the bucket in 1862 , just few years after the factory opened , his wife Elizabeth Jarvis Colt continued to operate it until 1901 . In Spencer ’s words , she ’d become reckon as “ one of the most prominent distaff industrialist in America . ”
Women workers inspecting Colt .45 contribution circa 1914 ( Photovia Library of Congress )
In a common sense , Coltsville was a rare winner amongst the many failed utopian factory villages that would follow . George Pullmanhad his capitalistic Zion , the town of Pullman , where conditions were so awful that one of America ’s most famous strike spell the goal of the experiment . Henry Fordhad Fordlandia , a galosh plantation in Brazil where aboriginal workers eventually rise . ( This was after he fake - invented the assembly line . ) Even Frank Lloyd Wrighttried his hand at designing a utopian suburban area , though it rest unbuilt .
Now , Coltsville is in pretty rough shape . After the Colt party moved its manufactory to the outskirts of Hartford , a geezerhood - foresighted battle to turn the factory and village into a national park systematically drag one’s heels due to controversy over celebrating a place where so many guns were manufactured . Congress finallygave approval in December 2014 , and part of the factory is undergo renovations . It will become a museum and visitors center .
It ’s unclear what will happen to the quietus of the hamlet , include the Alpine hamlet and original foundry . For now , the Zion just makes for a good story — and great ruination porn .
For more range of and inside information about Coltsville , go to Atlas Obscura
Image by Luke Spencer
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