The Buckingham Routh Co.
Tim Taylor, Owner
The Buckingham Routh Company celebrated their 160th anniversary in 2014 as the oldest plumbing and heating contractor in continuous operation in the United States. The company opened its doors in 1854 as the New Haven Steam Heating Company, and sold boilers and flat radiators nationwide — many of them still in use in some of the country’s oldest homes and estates today. In 1895, the company’s founder, James Shearlock, hired his nephew, Arthur Thorpe as the heating engineer. He also hired Thomas Routh and Alfred Buckingham to take charge of plumbing operations and sheet metal work. The three men incorporated the business that same year as The Buckingham Routh Company.
As a leader in the mechanical contracting field, The Buckingham Routh Company has helped build the infrastructure for New Haven and Connecticut icons including Yale University, ATT Underground Communications in Cheshire, IBM of New Haven, U.S. Naval Submarine Base, F.B.M. Building & Dental Clinic, in New London, General Dynamics, and Pratt & Whitney.
The Buckingham Routh Company has installed many of the original central steam connections for New Haven’s buildings, which can still be seen today in the Wooster and Chapel Street areas of the city. From those beginnings, the company went on to install the most advanced technology used today, including systems for a high-tech lab at Bristol-Meyers-Squibb and an epidemiology lab at Yale University’s Medical School.