americanbrasscam

Soon during the summer of 2002 demolition is set to begin on this now closed manufacturing complex. Once the structures are razed and the land is cleared of any contaminates redevelopment can begin. Demolition and cleanup is estimated to take up to two years time and as of the posting of this information no firm plans for final use of the land have been publicized. This page will be updated as news develops. The image displayed by this webcam represent only a small portion of the many acres that these buildings occupy.

The ownership and various names of this company have changed many times. First starting in the late 1800's it was originally called "Chicago Brass", later it passed through the years as "Anaconda Brass", as when "Atlantic-Richfield" owned the property it was known as "Arco Metals". The last owner was Finland Based "Outokumpu" who to this day own and manage metals processing facilities worldwide and are still flourishing while this Kenosha plant was deemed not to be profitable enough for the company to continue with it's operations. When most Kenoshans discuss this factory most will remember it under the name of "American Brass".

This factory manufactured copper and brass products from solid ingots or billets of metal processed elsewhere into "rolled sheet brass" and "copper tubing" mostly, but over the decades manufactured a host of other products including brass ordinance shells fabricated under contract for the military during World War II. At peak production times the brass (as the factory has been called) employed enough people to fill five large parking areas with automobiles and made finding street parking for local residents a scarce item as three eight hour shifts kept the plant buzzing twenty-four hours a day. Combined the factory, office space, parking, and a small lakefront pumping station used to bring cooling water to the plant (located east of third avenue on sixty-eighth street) once covered just under twenty city blocks.

Included amidst residential housing the surrounding area featured hotels and rooming houses along with a number of taverns that doubled as a quick place to get something to eat (and often drink) during a workers lunch break. Many of these places catered to the darker side of society after the sun went down when prostitution and other illegal activity were not uncommon in the area. As production dwindled and employment declined the workers left and transients moved in. The surrounding neighborhood deteriorated even more and acquired an increasingly disagreeable reputation. Since the middle 1980's things have been on the rebound for the area once known as "Brassville". All of the taverns have been closed down, the prostitutes are gone and many changes have taken place to bring "new life" to the area including the promotion of owner-occupied single family homes.

As with industry nationwide Kenosha has lost a number of employers comparable to the Brass. "MacWhyte Wire Rope" manufactured wire cable products used in everything from elevators and aircraft building to supplying countless other companies that used their products in manufacture of industrial equipment as well as consumer goods. "Eaton Dynamatic" who made electric dynamos and related electrical control panels likewise closed shop. And Kenoshas all time largest employer "Nash Motors" that combined forces with "Kelvinator" and "Hudson Motor Company" to form "American Motors Corporation" built cars from the ground up. American Motors came to an end in the 1980's shortly after the company was consumed by the German Based "Daimler Chrysler Corporation" (Makers of Mercedes Benz). Abandoning automobile production and assembly in Kenosha Daimler decided to keep an engine building facility here that's only a small fraction of what the plant once was.

As Kenosha has evolved industrial parks were created in areas that not so long ago were on the outskirts of this rapidly expanding community and although "new jobs" have sprouted from this effort the number of people employed and the high wages and benefits these industrial jobs of the past once rendered are now gone.

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