The American Precision Museum is located in the renovated 1846 Robbins & Lawrence factory on South Main Street in Windsor, Vermont.

In 1846, Samuel Robbins, Nicanor Kendall, and Richard Lawrence took the bold step of bidding on a government contract for 10,000 rifles.

The nearby Connecticut River and the active railroad attest to the importance of transportation in the development of the site.The building operated as a cotton mill beginning in 1866 for nearly two decades, before returning to manufacturing machine tools in 1888.

In 1964, CVPS proposed razing the building, prompting Smithsonian curator and Windsor resident, Edwin A. Battison to formulate plans for the creation of a museum.

The first phase of the Industrial Revolution was introduced in America during the late 18th century and was modeled on the English system of textile manufacturing.

In the remote village of Windsor, entrepreneurs and artisans had already constructed a series of dams that powered sawmills and a gristmill on the Mill Brook, 18 buildings and shops in total.

[10] The second reason Robbins & Lawrence can be credited with the birth of the precision tool industry is the number of people who were employed at the factory that went on to work at, or found, other companies.

Windsor, Vermont played an important role in the development of precision manufacturing and the machine tool industry in America.

The Robbins & Lawrence armory served as a breeding ground for innovation in the mid-19th century and as a center for excellence in the high tech industry of its day.

By continually increasing productivity, the machine tool industry spread the notion that material abundance was possible for a broad cross section of the American people.

Precision manufacturing reinforced the growth of the American middle class and laid the foundation for the consumer culture that developed during the 19th and 20th centuries.