The CHASE BRASS & COPPER CO. was once one of the largest manufacturers of brass and copper products in the country. The company traces its origins to a firm incorporated in 1876 in Connecticut. In 1929 the company built its first midwestern plant, on Babbitt Rd. in EUCLID. That same year Chase became a subsidiary of the Kennecott Copper Corp., which was the largest producer of copper in the U.S.
During World War II, a government-financed plant was built on E. 260th St. (formerly known as Upson Rd.) in Euclid. The Upson Rd. Plant, as it was known, was purchased by Chase in 1946. The company's Cleveland area holdings then consisted of the sheet mill on Babbitt and the tube mill on E. 260th. In 1962 Chase moved its headquarters from Waterbury, CT, to Cleveland.
The tube mill was shut down in the middle of a strike in 1973. In 1975 the mill was demolished and Euclid Square Mall was built on the site. The Standard Oil Co. of Ohio (see BP AMERICA) acquired Kennecott in 1981 and thus the Chase holdings. Chase's headquarters were moved to Solon in the early 1980s. In Jan. 1988, the sheet division was sold to 500 employees of the company through an employee stock ownership plan; the new firm was named North Coast Brass & Copper Co. Chase then retained only 40 employees in the Cleveland area, at its Solon headquarters, though the firm still had two divisions, one in Montpelier, OH, and another in Shelby, NC.
In 1990 the North Carolina plant was closed and the company headquarters was moved from Solon to Montpelier. Chase no longer retained a presence in the Cleveland area.
