Middletown Council Considering Remington Rand Name Change To Honor Keating

MIDDLETOWN — The common council is considering a proposal to rename the Remington Rand building to honor its original developer, Robert M. Keating, an innovative bicycle and motorcycle builder who moved his business to Middletown’s North End just before the turn of the 20th century.

The name — the R.M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park — would be part of a rebranding to propel an already successful asset for the city into a new phase of growth as a small-business incubator.

Two council subcommittees have supported the plan, and the full council will likely hold a public hearing on Sept. 6, with a vote at a later meeting.

“Mr. Keating was a great inventor, and he invented some great things here,” said Thomas Marano, city economic development specialist. “The name speaks to Middletown’s history and its future.”

Marano met with an unofficial committee that had batted around name ideas for a few months, looking for something that not only recognizes the manufacturing history, but also embraces small business opportunities to come.

The building is owned by the city and now hosts a diverse collection of about 25 businesses, including a Crossfit gym, an eel farmer, a furniture builder, two breweries, a custom motorcycle shop, a solar power firm and a company that makes mail-sorting machines.

“We have such a great mix of businesses out there,” Marano said. “We’re trying to take it back to its roots. Mr. Keating originally built that building to manufacture bicycles and he invented all these other things there. He was a very enterprising guy.”

Marano said the committee has discussed ways to recognize the strong manufacturing tradition in Middletown that continues today with Pratt & Whitney. There are discussions about a museum or displays in public areas of the building to note the city’s strong manufacturing history.

Keating apparently was less adept at running the budgetary side of his company, running into financial trouble and selling off his Keating Wheel Co. just a few years after moving to Middletown. The Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Co. purchased Keating Wheel in 1902, and later the building became known for typewriter production in the mid-20th century, initially as Remington Noiseless Typewriter Co., then Remington Rand.

“He was a tinkerer, he wasn’t a businessman,” said Gary Keating, one of two brothers who became fascinated by the man who invented the modern baseball home plate, numerous plumbing devices and an early motorcycle he built the same year Oscar Hedstrom finished the prototype of the Indian motorcycle, also in Middletown “He was probably the worst businessman in the world, but he took something, looked at it and made it better. That was his niche. He worked on something until it was better and then he’d patent it.”

The name change would not even be under consideration if not for the work of Gary Keating and his brothers, Robert and Brian.

“It’s hard for me to say why I did it, because we’re not relatives,” Gary Keating said. “It was just to put the whole story together.” He said he was impressed with Robert M. Keating’s ambition and the diversity of projects he took on.

Brian Keating, had come across some early Keating bicycles and motorcycles. What started as curiosity about the shared name eventually became a pet project for the brothers, particularly Gary Keating, who contacted city staff, council members, local blogs and reporters often to share the building’s early history.

“There was interest but it was something that nobody quite knew where to go with it,” Gary Keating said of the name change idea. “Maybe with my not going away, I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, people started listening. You really can’t ignore your history.”

Councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski, a member of the council’s economic development committee, said a rebranding could help attract a new round of small businesses to the building.

“I think in marketing it creates a brand of invitation for entrepreneurial spirit,” Kleckowski said.

She said the “anchor tenants” like ID Mail and Greenskies Renewable Energy have created an environment that supports new businesses willing to take a chance.

“We have great space now and the entire facility is being renovated,” Kleckowski said. “It automatically creates a network of business people helping new business people.”

Renovations have been steadily tackled since the city acquired the building in 2000. New windows have been installed in much of the building, environmental remediation is mostly complete and the city signed a deal with Greenskies two years ago to put a solar roof on the building to generate much of its own power.

“We’ve had great success since the city acquired the building,” said Councilman Gerald Daley, chairman of the economic development committee. “We’ve had success starting businesses there and we hope to continue that.”

He said the new name was carefully chosen after numerous meetings. Naming the building the R.M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park captures the historical significance and the innovations still to come, Daley said.

Don Brutnell of Marlborough, Robert M. Keating’s great nephew, said his family is grateful for the work Gary Keating and his brothers have done in the last few years to recognize the Keating name.

“I’ve thanked all the Keating guys a number of times when I’ve met with them,” Brutnell said. “We’re ecstatic about what they’ve done for Robert Keating, to bring him back and share what he’s all about.”

He said his family is also thankful that the city is considering a way to recognize their relative.

Brutnell never met his Great Uncle Bob, but his dad and older cousins shared stories occasionally about Keating and his inventions. But Brutnell said it wasn’t until more recently that he understood how truly pioneering those early innovations were.

For example, as the Keating brothers point out, Robert M. Keating was so brilliant and ahead of his competition that he won patent infringement suits against both Harley-Davidson and Indian. By the time Keating died at 59 in 1922 he held 50 patents.

The common council meets Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at city hall, 245 deKoven Drive.