Perkin-Elmer Wooster Heights facility — Danbury
A handwritten 'Perkins Elmer - Danbury' line turns out to connect Joseph's masonry career to a top-secret Cold War spy-satellite factory.
Aerial view of the former Perkin-Elmer plant on Wooster Heights, Danbury, now Danbury Mission Technologies.
Undated · Photo: Connecticut Mills · Reuse terms not verified. · Source
Why this project matters
- Project identity
- Verified
- Kelly connection
- Family source
- Masonry scope
- Strong
Rita’s list
Transcription: Perkins Elmer - Danbury — 1967
Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record
KM-054
1 of two
“Perkins Elmer - Danbury — 1967”
Declassified records show the Wooster Heights facility was under construction in 1967 for the HEXAGON reconnaissance program.
Perhaps the archive's best example of a mundane contractor notation concealing extraordinary national history — with a declassified brick-veneer anecdote that is almost tailor-made for a masonry archive.
What Kelly did here
Family source
Strong
Concrete-block masonry walls and partitions are the strongest material match. The planned brick veneer should NOT be attributed to Kelly because declassified records say it was ultimately omitted.
This scope is recorded as strong, not documented. It is a disciplined reading of the building and the trade practice of the period, not a contract-level record of Kelly’s work.
The construction team
The construction team for this job has not yet been established.
What happened to it
Still in aerospace/optical use as Danbury Mission Technologies
Sources
4 citedOpen →
- 01govinfo.gov
GOVPUB D PURL gpo26922
- 02nro.gov
SC 2017 00006h
- 03connecticutmills.org
danbury mission technologies llc
- 04portal.ct.gov
2021May17DanburyMissionTechnologiesFact Sheet
- Unattributed · Rights unclear / source retained · Connecticut Mills
Aerial view of the former Perkin-Elmer plant on Wooster Heights, Danbury, now Danbury Mission Technologies.
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