About Ball and Roller Bearing Company
Historic Architecture, Architecture, Interesting Places, Other Buildings And Structures
The Ball and Roller Bearing Company, also known as American Family Crafts and the Joseph Nutt House and Machine Shop, is a historic industrial complex at 20-22 Maple Avenue in Danbury, Connecticut. The complex includes three buildings, two of which are wood frame and one which is brick. The two wood frame buildings include the Queen Anne-style former home of Joseph Nutt, who established a machine shop providing services to Danbury's hat making industry in 1886. Nutt's home also served as his company's office, and is attached to a single-story monitor-roofed brick structure. The factory is most notable as the location where Lewis Heim, owner of the Ball and Roller Bearing Company, invented the modern centerless grinding machine in 1917.