Picture Tolland: Burning The Belting Factory

TOLLAND, CT — The latest installment of the Picture Tolland series takes us back to 1974, when the Underwood Belting Company building was burned to the ground in a fire training exercise.

That was, of course, after the building was deemed unsafe.

According to town records, the original Underwood Belting Company factory was on Tolland Stage Road approximately where St. Matthew Rectory is today. The factory, and a later one the company built on Old Post Road, manufactured belting for everything from sewing machines to 4-foot wide belts for industrial use.

One Underwood brother was an inventor, and held several patents including one for a leather and cotton belting product and another for a V-belt. The factory shipped belts all over the world and had agents in New York, Boston, Providence, Chicago and Dayton, Ohio.

Used later to house chickens, the building became dangerous and was then used by the fire department for the fateful training exercise.

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Picture Tolland is a periodic series depicting images of the town, past and present.