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BRASS CITY 06706
SOUTH END VIEWS OF WATERBURY
To a greater extent than the other neighborhoods of Waterbury, the South End has been a place of mixed use with factories, housing and commercial activity in close proximity. The South End was home to some of the city’s most densely occupied housing and one of the most diverse mixtures of immigrant traditions. French, Lebanese, Albanian, Portuguese, and Latino communities joined the long-term Irish and Italian residents in the South End after World War II.
The South End in 1879. The Abrigador was the Irish neighborhood, and the Washington Hill and Hopeville neighborhoods did not exist yet. Sylvan Avenue was Stone Street, what later became Washington Street was an unnamed street connecting Baldwin and South Main Streets, the Brooklyn Bridge on the Naugatuck River had not yet been built, and the town line was where Lounsbury Street is today. See the whole 1879 Waterbury map.
Large scale 1893 map of the South End
The South End in 1955. Shops, some open 20 hours a day, grew up on street corners throughout the South End, defining cluster neighborhoods of various ethnicity. Several districts within the South End became distinct neighborhoods: the “Abrigador” near the Scovill factory; “Washington Hill”, south of Sylvan Avenue; and "Hopeville", south of Piedmont Street. Neighborhood loyalty was reinforced by family networks and ethnic identity, and the shared experiences of neighborhood-based jobs, shops and churches. An error on this map misidentifies Washington School as St Francis School.
All-girls Waterbury Catholic High School on South Elm Street, opened in 1926, became the site of Sacred Heart High School when Catholic High merged with Holy Cross High School on Oronoke Road in the West End in 1975.
The Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, who lived at this convent on South Elm Street, operated and taught at Waterbury Catholic High and the co-ed Notre Dame Academy on South Elm Street and downtown on Church Street, for over seventy years. They now commute to Holy Cross High School in the West End.
I made my grand entrance into the world here - St. Mary's Hospital on Franklin Street. Founded in 1907 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, St. Mary's has been serving the Greater Waterbury area for nearly a century. The hospital's earliest benefactor was the Right Reverend Monsignor William J. Slocum, permanent rector of the Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury. He made an early contribution of $20,000 to get the project off the ground.
Union Square was actually a triangle bordered by Franklin, Union, and Baldwin Streets. Over 20,000 people thronged the Square in September 1907 to lay the St. Mary’s Hospital cornerstone.
The American Suspender Company on the Mad River at East Liberty Street, founded in 1857, became the American Mills Company in 1881.
“When the value goes up, up, up, and the prices go down, down, down, Robert Hall this season will show you the reason, low overhead, low overhead”
The Robert Hall discount clothing chain stemmed from a single Case Clothes store opened in a 123,000 sq. ft. factory building at 196 Mill Street in Waterbury in 1940. The chain had 75 stores and was operating coast-to-coast by mid-1949. Its annual sales were estimated at between $50 million and $75 million. Locating at first in lofts and hanging clothes on pipe racks, Robert Hall hewed to a cash-and-carry, no-frills strategy that enabled it to hold its average mark-up to about 21 percent, compared to 40 percent or more for the average full-service clothing store. In 1946 Robert Hall started its own men's topcoat and suit factories, but the women's lines were purchased on the open market. The 200th store opened in 1955. The company went out of business in 1977.
The Princeton Knitting Mill at 313 Mill Street dumped different color dyes each day into the Mad River in the 1950s, and the stream was never the same color from day to day.
The Waterbury Garment Corp., a leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of children’s sleepwear, was founded at 313 Mill Street in 1921 by Harry Brownstein, and moved to Cherry Street in the late 1940s. The company is now located on Thomaston Avenue and headed by his son and grandson, Jack and Larry Brownstein.
A recent view of the building at 313 Mill Street that housed Waterbury Garment Corp. and Princeton Knitting Mills.
The Sara Glove Company abandoned these buildings on Benedict Street when they moved their manufacturing operations to Woodbury CT many years ago.
The Waterbury Mattress Company manufactured Sealy and other mattress brands in this building on West Clay Street for many years before moving to Oakville in 1958.
A view east from the Baldwin Street bridge over the Mad River. The building on the left is the rear of the original Scovill factory building on Mill Street. The "Rare Road" refers to the Meriden, Waterbury, and Connecticut River Railroad line in the photo that connected the Scovill buildings on Mill Street with those on Hamilton Avenue (which was originally Dublin Street). Large 1935 aerial photo of this area. All the buildings in this photo were demolished in the 1950s for the construction of Route I-84, and Baldwin Street is now an overpass on I-84.
Interstate Route 84, the modern multi-lane divided highway that would cut through the center of Waterbury in the 1960s, was envisioned in the 1946 Annual Report of the City of Waterbury.
Death of a neighborhood: lower Baldwin Street at the corner of Bridge Street in the early 1950s as the Baldwin Street bridge is demolished for the construction of Interstate Route 84. The back of the original Scovill factory on Mill Street can be seen on the left. (Photo courtesy of Rosemarie Carvalho)
Holy Land USA, located on Pine Hill in the old Abrigador neighborhood between Hamilton Avenue and Baldwin Street, was a legitimate vacation destination for families in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, drawing as many as 44,000 visitors a year. The sign and cross overlooked Route I-84.
More photos of Holy Land USA See the Holy Land USA video
Pine Hill was called Rose Hill in the 1800s. The old Rose Hill firehouse on lower Baldwin Street near Merriman School was a Silas Bronson Library branch from the 1930s to the 1960s.
A view of Washington School on Baldwin Street. The neighborhood is known as Washington Hill, and I lived there from the day I was born until 1961.
Bishop Thomas B. Beavan of Springfield dedicated the church of St. Francis Xavier on Baldwin Street on March 24, 1907.
Another faith-generated institution, a parish school (left) located near the church and staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, was dedicated on February 10, 1924. The church rectory is at right.
A recent view of the house I lived in for the first 13 years of my life
Washington Hill was a blue collar middle class family neighborhood in the '40 & '50s. Most of the men worked at one of the brass mills that gave Waterbury its "Brass City" nickname, or at the nearby Waterbury Button Co. on South Main Street, and lived with their families in a two or three family house like these on lower Lounsbury Street.
The children went to school at either the Washington School or St. Francis Xavier School, and walked to the Cameo Theater on Baldwin Street to see Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers on Saturday afternoons. They played on the swings, see-saws and monkey bars at the playground and cooled off in the wading pool in Washington Park on Sylvan Avenue in the summer. The women dried the laundry on backyard clotheslines and phoned in their grocery orders for delivery to the house from one of the neighborhood markets on Baldwin Street.
This World War I German Krups cannon was in the playground at Washington Park for more than 80 years.
A recent view of the Washington Park Community House.
First National Stores was one of America's largest grocery chains. The company operated First National (later Finast) stores throughout the northeast. In the early 1940s there were 15 First National Stores in Waterbury, 2 of which were on Washington Hill. A typical store was about the size of a 7-11 today.
Baldwin Street was Washington Hill's "Main Street" for decades. Some neighborhood businesses on Baldwin Street in the 1950s: Cameo/Win Theater, Harmon's Tavern, DeRosa Furniture, (George) Corey's Market, Dunphy's Pharmacy, Brophy's Market, Kelly Funeral Home, Hogan's Restaurant, (Marshall) Matney's Market, Washington Hill Pharmacy (Bernie Litsky & Emil Bria), Simpson's Market, Patsy's Barber Shop (Patsy Iacovino), a Fulton Market, McGrath's Tavern, (Ray) Cruess's Market, (George) Hatch's Radio & TV Repair, a First National Store (became Gracie's Superette), (Sam) Pisani's Tailor Shop, Cadet Liquor Shoppe, Lou's Market (Lou Ciarlone), (Richard) Derouin's Flower Shop, Pay-Less Laundromat, Haddad's Corner Market, and the (Leon & Michael) Dervis Brothers' Market.
There were two doctors on "The Hill" in the 1950s:
Dr. Whalley's home and office was at 720 Baldwin Street,
and Doctor Quinn was at 730 Baldwin Street.
A 1955 ad for Hogan's Restaurant at 798 Baldwin Street ("The Friendly Spot on the Hill") in the Waterbury American, and a recent view of what remains of the building.
The Engine Co. No. 4 firehouse on the corner of Baldwin and Luke Streets has been a Washington Hill landmark for over 100 years.
The Washington Hill Pharmacy was in the left half and Matney's Market was in the right half of this building across the street from the firehouse. The building is now the home of the Washington Hill Athletic Club, whose "athletics" are limited to watching sports on TV while drinking beer at the bar.
The Washington Hill Pharmacy sold drug products distributed by The Penslar Company in addition to the national brands.
Their penny candy was in high demand with Washington Hill children.
Patsy Iacovino opened his barber shop at 845 Baldwin Street in the 1930s and provided tonsorial services to The Hill's men and boys for over forty years. His son Patsy Jr. joined him in the business in the late 1940s.
McGrath’s Tavern at 866 Baldwin Street was a typical blue collar neighborhood public bar in the 40s & 50s. The building site is now a vacant lot.
Sam Pisani's Tailor & Clothing shop was on the ground floor of this six unit "block" apartment building at the top of The Hill, which is now the site of the Family Food Market convenience store. The satellite dishes are relatively recent additions.
All the bars and taverns on The Hill were owned and operated by Irishmen, but the only liquor store, the Cadet Liquor Shoppe at 900 Baldwin St., was owned and operated by Paul Merluzzi, an Italian. WBRY radio Chief Engineer John Tomasiewicz owned J T TV Service next door in the building.
A typical three family house on The Hill like this one on the corner of Baldwin and Lounsbury Streets provided twice the living area of a six family "block" apartment.
Mulcahy Grammar School on Fairmount Street was gutted by a fire in the early 1950s. (brasscitylife.org photo)
Many Washington Hill boys played football and stickball in the Mulcahy schoolyard in the late 1950s, when the building was used as a schoolbook storage warehouse. The building was demolished in the 1970s for the William Kelly Apartments elderly housing.
The Dervis Brothers' Market, Ieronimo's Barber Shop, and Haddad's Corner Market were in this building on the corner of Baldwin and Madison Streets.
Paul Lord's Servicenter Sunoco Station was directly across Baldwin Street at the corner of Madison St.
War Workers' Housing, Madison Street, 1919. English cottage version of contemporary suburban styles employed by the federal government in its first public housing venture. These duplexes, pairing five- and six-room units, were erected for skilled brass workers.
The Renting Office in the previous photo, at 103 Madison St., and the duplex next to it at 107 & 111 Madison St., 85 years later.
The WATR Radio transmitter "shack" was in the woods past the Warren Street cul-de-sac near Edgewood Avenue.
Located south of Washington Hill, the Hopeville neighborhood is bordered by Piedmont Street, South Main Street, Pearl Lake Road, Sylvan Avenue and Edgewood Avenue. It was originally known as Simonsville after Andrew Bayley Simons who purchased the Gabriel Post farm in 1865 and made extensive improvements on the property. The name Hopeville originated from the Hope Manufacturing Company that made harness trimmings and coach and saddlery hardware in the late 1800s.
Hopeville residents got their groceries at the Fulton Market and their pharmaceutical needs at the Ray Drug Co. owned by Maurice “Moe” Reiss in these buildings at the corner of Baldwin and Middle Streets in the ‘40s & ‘50s, and
satisfied their hinger for pizza and "grinders" at Spinella's Restaurant at the corner of Baldwin and Stiles Streets.
The Wheeler-Young VFW Post 201, now located on Baldwin Street in Hopeville, was founded in the 1930s and met in the State Armory on Field Street. Several original members (not in this photo) recently celebrated their 60th anniversary at the Post.
The Diamond Bottling Corp. (aka Diamond Beverage Corp.) bottled soda, mixers, and Pal orange drink at their plant on South Main Street in Hopeville for more than a century.
This 1920s era postcard named the "Althea Spring" on Althea Street in back of the bottling plant as the source of the water used to make Diamond beverages, and showed their original office that was built of ginger ale bottles.
The company name was changed to Diamond Ginger Ale Inc. in the 1940s in honor of their best selling product. They left Waterbury in the 1970s for a new bottling plant in Watertown CT, but are no longer in business.
The Reiner family bottled beverages, first as Reiner Bottling Works, then as the Puritan-All Co., from the 1880s to the 1940s at their plant on South Main St.
Other Waterbury soda brands in the 1950s included Bliss, Commander (Brassco Bottling Co.), Paul's (Riverside Bottling Co.), and Top-Notch (C. Mascolo Bottling Works).
Our Lady of Lourdes Church on South Main Street, which was modeled after the Roman church of Santa Francesca Romana and serves the Italian community in the south end, was dedicated on February 14, 1909.
A bird's eye view of the landmark St. Anne Church on South Main Street. St. Anne's parish was formed in 1886 by and for the French speaking people in the south end of Waterbury. Most of the residents there were descended from immigrants of the Quebec Province in Canada, or were immigrants themselves.
The Farer News Company on West Dover Street was the city's largest distributor of newspapers and magazines in the 1950s.
The Waterbury Buckle Company on South Main Street has been producing buckle hardware and accessories for government/military and commercial applications since 1853.
Steele & Johnson manufactured brass buttons for the military from 1858 to about 1920 at the corner of South Main and Mill Steets.
Founded in 1812, the Waterbury Button Company on the Mad River at South Main Street was a major producer of buttons for military and civilian markets for over 100 years.
The Waterbury Button Company also was heavily involved in the toy business in the 1920s through the 1950s, manufacturing aluminum toys such as airplanes, candy banks, zeppelins and tractors. The company was among the first manufacturers to mold a new plastic called Bakelite into buttons and toys. Bakelite proved to be ideal for electrical parts, and the company molded articles for the electrical industry.
The Waterbury Button Company changed its name to The Waterbury Companies Inc. in 1943 and marketed their plastic toy products under the new name. Despite the name change, the company continued to be called "the button company" by Waterbury residents for decades. The company moved its operations to Cheshire CT in 2002.
The former Waterbury Button Company / Waterbury Companies property in 2004.
The wooden covered bridge over the Mad River on Washington Avenue was replaced by a steel bridge in 1878.
Telecells manufactured by the Waterbury Battery Co. at 1036 South Main Street were used by Admiral Byrd on his expeditions, 1928-30. Their glass battery oil bottles are still being found near railroad tracks throughout the country. The company went out of business in the late 1940s and the Harper-Leader Manufacturing Company moved into their 32,850 square foot factory in 1953, used it to produce chrome plating, and abandoned the site in 1988. The general offices building on the property had been the home of 19th century Hall of Fame baseball player Roger Connor, who had installed a unique baseball bat weathervane on the roof.
The Big Dollar Market at 1200 South Main Street was Waterbury's first independent supermarket when it opened in 1936. It was heavily damaged in the 1955 flood, and reopened in 1956 as Everybody's Supermarket, the largest market in town. Everybody’s closed the store and moved to Cheshire in 1992, and two successors -- Food World and the SouthSide Supermarket -- lasted only months on the South Main Street site before closing. The nearly 21,000-square-foot building has been vacant for several years.
A view of South Main Street at Antonelli's Market during the August 19, 1955 flood. (brasscitylife.org photo)
This Valley Diner was located at 1047 South Main Street at the corner of Lounsbury Street. This diner, which was moved from Willimantic in 1971, replaced the original diner that had been at this location since the 1930s. The diner closed in 1996, and was moved back to Willimantic in February, 2005. There was also another Valley Diner at 1309 South Main Street at the corner of Glen Street that operated in the 1950s while this diner was vacant.
Finnegan and Seuss established their Eagle Brewing Company on Brewery Street in 1901, and were closed by Prohibition in 1920. It operated as the Waterbury Brewing Company from 1934 to 1938, and the Eastern Brewing Corp. from 1938 to 1939, brewing Clock Ale, Clock Lager, and Nutmeg State Beer.
South Main Street was Route 8 before the expressway was built in the 1960s. This 1930s billboard on Route 8 advertises Muniemaker Cigars, which were made in New Haven.
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The Tranquillity Farms Dairy and ice cream shop was in this building at the intersection of South Main and Baldwin Streets.
One of the first Arlan's Department Stores, a pioneer of "big box" discount retailing, opened in an abadoned factory building on Railroad Hill Street in 1958. Arlan's closed all their stores when they went out of business in the late 1970s.
The history of the enterprising Platt family goes back over 200 years, when they established a grist and saw mill on the Naugatuck River in the south end at what became Platt's Mill Road. By 1825, the Platts were producing wire and button eyes, which led to the manufacture of ferrous and non-ferrous buttons. The company came together in 1847 as A. Platt and Company, involved in the manufacture of rolled zinc products and metal buttons. The Platts began producing stampings and drawn eyelet components about 1875. After the raging flood on the Naugatuck River virtually destroyed the plant in 1955, the company, now The Platt Brothers and Company, erected a modern manufacturing facility at the current location on South Main Street.
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