Catch up on past weeks in Valley History in the Valley History Archive
From the pages of the Evening Sentinel
This Week in Valley History...
July 25 - 31
100 Years Ago - 1910
Monday, July 25
The day brings a high of 96 degrees and oppressive humidity. There is no relief overnight, many sleep on roofs, verandas, or in open areas like the Derby Green. People are passing out from the heat, and horses are being kept in their stables as much as possible.
DERBY – The 3-day celebration of the festival of St. Marie delle Virgini by the Italian Independente Society ends with one of the finest fireworks displays seen in Derby up to that time at Lake Housatonic Park. The fireworks event is book ended by a concert which takes place before and after it.
SEYMOUR – Work begins on re-grading and paving North Main Street with gravel.
July 26
ANSONIA – Today is the Adam, Forepaugh & Sells Bros. circus day. The big show arrives on three separate circus trains, which unload directly at Division Street, where the show will be held. Later that morning, many are disappointed when the circus parade is cancelled, due to the difficulty getting parade wagons from Derby Meadows to Clifton Avenue via Mill Street. Hundreds come to the circus that afternoon and evening. Extra trolleys drop people off at Division Street, where people had to run a gauntlet of hucksters and vendors. The circus itself wasn’t marred by any accidents, and this particular show has a good reputation for keeping co artists and disreputable persons away from the show itself. Shortly after the last show, the circus began picking up stakes to make the next day’s show in Bridgeport.
ANSONIA – Articles of incorporation have been filed for the new Independent Trap Rock Company. The company has procured a track of land near the Seymour town line, where there is a quantity of trap rock. The company will also produce ice – a dam which will create a 6-acre pond, and ice storage houses will both be built there.
ANSONIA – “Joseph Marjiano is erecting a concrete building on the Fosdick property, new New Jerusalem. Marjiano purchased a plot of land from H.G. Fosdick, and is having the building erected by out of town parties. The structure is being built of cement blocks, procured from the Seymour Concrete Co. It will be 3 stories high and when completed will be occupied by the owner as a dwelling and wholesale fruit storage house”.
ANSONIA – “West side residents were loud this morning, in their complaints of the noise made at one of the local mills. The racket, it was stated, was made by an open condenser, and kept people awake for a good share of the night”.
DERBY – A number of children line the parade route of the Adam, Forepaugh, & Sells Bros circus for hours, not wanting to believe that the parade was cancelled.
SHELTON – “While the numbers that spend the evening in Riverview Park is constantly increasing since the park has been lighted, last eve saw probably the largest crowd there of any night this season. In the first place it was so terribly warm the people naturally strolled in that direction to catch the cool breezes that came up from the river, and then the fireworks in Lake Housatonic Park just across the river were plainly visible from the eastern side of the park. It was the coolest spot in town, last evening, and attracted a large number of our people”.
July 27
ANSONIA – Preliminary dissolution papers have been filed, ending the Ansonia Hall Company, which ran the Ansonia Opera House from its construction until now. The Ansonia Opera House was recently sold.
ANSONIA – State Sen. Alton Farrel, of North State Street, flies in a hot air balloon named Springfield from Pittsfield, MA to a farm near the coast of Exeter, RI. Sen. Farrel has flown two other times, in Europe. The balloon flew 135 miles and reached an altitude of 7,800 feet. He and his companion were trying to break distance record from Pittsfield, which is 250 miles as of this time.
HOUSATONIC VALLEY – “Both banks of the Housatonic are dotted with tents and bungalows for several miles below here and some distance above. Our beautiful valley offers many inducements to people desiring to spend the summer holidays in the country and 'near to nature's heart'”.
OXFORD – “The need of rain is again very great. While heavy clouds have given promise of showers, they pass around without rain in this valley. Vegetation shows the effects of the continued drought, combined as it has been with such scorching heat from the sun. Everyone would welcome a day of steady rain”.
July 28
ANSONIA – There have been few thunderstorms this summer, but the area was visited with a big one early this morning.
ANSONIA – A new house on Howard Avenue is struck by lightning, knocking down part of chimney and tearing holes in roof. Wires are downed by the storm.
ANSONIA – A fire breaks out on the top floor of Rich Building on Liberty Street during the thunderstorm. One room gutted, and the two floors below suffer water damage.
ANSONIA – Many are upset at the sudden appearance of a large billboard on the former property of Willis Hotchkiss on Foundry Hill, just above the Ansonia Baptist Church.
ANSONIA – There has been an epidemic of gas meter thefts in recent weeks. Early this morning a meter thief was spotted on North State Street, and four shots were fired at him, but he escaped.
ANSONIA – People from all over the Valley attend Ansonia Band concert at Westwood Park.
DERBY – “People living on Derby Avenue, during the hot weather and while the water in the Naugatuck has been low, have been getting the full benefit of the stench that comes from the sluggish stream. On those days and nights when there has been very little air, the odors have hung around, and have been so thick at times that it seemed almost possible to cut them with a knife. This morning after the rainstorm the odors seemed more offensive then ever and people have been complaining a great deal about them. It will be a welcome day for the people on that side of the river when the water is turned from the (Birmingham) canal and the full volume of the stream flows down the river channel”.
SHELTON – Lightning damages a house on Long Hill Avenue. There are several lightning strikes in White Hills, too, with no serious damage.
July 29
ANSONIA – Ansonia's trolley express building is physically moving from Cheever Street to new spur track being put on lower Main Street.
DERBY – Most of the grass on Derby Green is dead due to the drought. Some say the Green has not looked this unattractive in a number of years.
DERBY – The Ansonia YMCA dedicates the lodge at the new Camp Ansonia on the Housatonic. The lodge is small, measuring 12’x15’, with an 8’ veranda. Camp Ansonia will open to children Monday.
SEYMOUR – Although locally famous wanderer Johnny o' the Woods has been visiting far less frequently this year, but he did appear in Town this week.
July 30
HOUSATONIC VALLEY – Many boats of all kinds on are seen on Lake Housatonic this time of year. Some enterprising individuals are making money renting them. Canoes are popular. Many sing songs while canoeing, making the area very pleasant. Normally boats are out until 10 PM, at which time an uncomfortable breeze normally blows down the river.
OXFORD – “That Oxford's farms are in shady demand seem to be indicated by the fact that every week transfers of real estate are reported as made or about to be made. The activity of Oxford…seems to be much greater than in Seymour. Had the proposed trolley been built from Woodbury to Seymour, the development of Oxford's advantages as a place suitable for summer vacation would doubtless have been much greater. There are some who believe that this proposed route will be in the course of the development of trolley transportation, become a reality. There is a large and increasing daily travel between Oxford and Seymour, and a trolley would certainly be a great boon to Oxford's people, who lack of means of transportation”.
OXFORD – Two houses near the river are damaged by lightning.
SEYMOUR – A sudden thunderstorm stops a baseball game between the Coe Brass Company and the Seymour Manufacturing Company in the 8th inning. While some run to nearby houses, a number of others take shelter under a pine tree behind the backstop. The tree is struck by lightning, and 7 under it are stunned. The worst injured was an Ansonia man who was unconscious for several hours, but he will recover.
75 Years Ago - 1935
Thursday, July 25
Over an inch of torrential rain falls in this morning. The drains can not keep up and there is considerable street flooding. This is on top of the 0.37” which fell yesterday.
ANSONIA – A delivery truck in front of 421 Main Street is left parked in reverse gear during the rainstorm. When the truck is restarted, it jumps across the street hitting a Mitchell Dairy truck and smashing through a plate glass window of an adjacent store. A youth taking shelter from the rain in the store doorway is injured, though not seriously. By time the time the police arrive, a foot of water is on street from the torrential rain.
ANSONIA – Jason Wright, president of the Board of Public Works, breaks his spine when he falls from a stepladder while picking apples behind his Winter Street house.
July 26
DERBY – William Wittrock, a former National League baseball pitcher and Derby resident for the last 35 years, dies of a sudden heart attack in front of his house at 89 Minerva Street. A Cincinnati native, he played on a number of baseball teams before joining the Cedar Rapids, MI professional baseball team, where he met and became good friends with John J. McGraw. Several seasons later, he played on the Louisville Grays in the fledgling National League, and from there he returned to Cinncinati to play on that team’s Red Stockings, also in the National League. He ended his career playing with the Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons of the Atlantic League, due to troubles with his arm, after which, he came to Derby, though he was enticed to play on the local Derby Angels. He worked at the Candee restaurant on Main Street, Derby for several years before going leaving for the Robert N. Bassett factory in Shelton. He retired as foreman from the Cameron Electrical Company on Main Street, Ansonia.
July 27
ANSONIA – Mayor Hart is formally told the Ansonia FERA office will be eliminated. The laborers will be transferred to the newly forming WPA, and the social workers are urged to apply there too. The local FERA administrative board will be eliminated.
SEYMOUR – “At the peak of the season, both Riverside inn and Bel-Air house are full of city guests who amuse themselves with horseback riding, walking, boating, and bathing. Seventy-six were served for Sunday dinner, recently at Bel-Air house. The smaller places are doing good business, too”. These hotels were along the river in Squantuck.
July 29
OXFORD – “About 200 attended the special town meeting held at Grange Hall last evening. Without opposition, authority was granted to the Board of Selectmen to make application for a grant, under the federal emergency bill, of money to build roads and bridges. It was then voted to authorize the selectmen to enter into an agreement with the state highway commissioner to build, under state aid road, over Rockhouse hill which will be a continuation of the state aid road now built through Quaker Farms”.
July 30
ANSONIA – “The red shone above the green in Ansonia’s two stoplights this afternoon. Following the uniform traffic control act passed by the last legislature, the police department today reversed the colors to conform to the general usage in the state, the red light being placed on top, the green at the bottom. The amber intermediary signal is unchanged. The meaning of the lights remains the same, red being the ‘stop’ signal, green the ‘go’”.
July 31
OXFORD – “Complaints are being made concerning the actins of many of those who are frequenting Swan's reservoir on Park Road. No fault is found with those who decently and properly enjoy the bathing facilities, but when as has occurred frequently of late a bunch of hoodlums, both young men and women, take possession of the road, using it as a dressing room, or as a dance floor, as the case may be greeting passengers with obscene remarks and gestures, it is full time something should be done. Authorities have been appealed to and if a warning is not sufficient to suppress the nuisance, more drastic measures will be used”.
SHELTON – 150 female employees walk out of United Shirt and Blouse Company on Center Street, over a reduction in prices on piece work. The dispute is settled the following day after the union meets with management, and it is agreed there will be no cut in pay.
50 Years Ago - 1960
Tuesday, July 26
SHELTON – The Housatonic Public Service Company announces it wants to build a power plant near the Shelton Docks site.
July 27
ANSONIA – The local police, along with the state and neighboring police departments, have set up road blocks in search of three men who stole a car and ran from a foot patrolman downtown this morning. The car hit a milk truck on Liberty Street shortly afterwards, and the suspects then fled. They may be responsible for another car which was stolen not long afterward on Main Street near Division Street.
ANSONIA – In the past year, City residents’ net earnings totaled $44.5 million. This is an increase over the previous year’s net earnings of $40,622,000. This results in an average income of $7,807 per household per year, significantly above the U.S. average of $6,385 as well as New England’s average of $7,321. Total retail sales totaled $27,384,000, significantly above the pervious year’s $20,744,000.
SHELTON – Brophy's General Store on Huntington Street suffers $15,000 in damage to stock and equipment after a window air conditioning unit catches fire at 7 AM.
July 28
ANSONIA – The McMahon and Wren Building on Water Street will be razed to make room for the extension of Canal Street to Bank Street. Built in 1885, it was one of the most modern apartment houses in Connecticut at the time. It later became a warehouse for the Connecticut Fruit Company, where the Lavietes Brothers conducted a wholesale fruit and grocery business. After that, it was reconverted using federal funds back into an apartment building called Watercress Apartments to handle an influx of new factory workers.
SHELTON – Girl Scout Camp Millcroft has its final program of the season and closing ceremonies off Huntington Street.
July 29
ANSONIA – The Sewell Fountain will be moved from the tip of the curve at South Cliff Street and Cottage Avenue onto the Ansonia Public Library grounds.
ANSONIA & DERBY – A new flashing traffic signal has been installed at the junction of Division Street, Clifton Avenue, and Atwater Avenue.
OXFORD – The season’s closing exercises are held at Girl Scout Camp An-Se-Ox.
SEYMOUR – Children from the Maple Street playground parade through neighborhood holding signs protesting the dismissal of their playground director. The Police Chief and First Selectman disperse the children, and make them give up their signs. The children were reported “most unhappy” with this.
SHELTON – The Shelton Basket Company division of Shelton Products has been sold to a newly formed corporation, also called Shelton Basket Company, out of Haywood, Wisconsin. The basket company will move there on August 15. It has become increasingly hard to find wood to make the baskets at this time, and foreign competition is high. The new corporation is composed of a local Native American tribe. The Shelton Basket Company has been in its same location since it was founded in 1910.
July 30
Tropical Storm Brenda drops 2.58” of rain in the area, but causes only minor damage. The Housatonic rises 2’ in less then an hour.
SEYMOUR – Derby Avenue experiences minor flooding. Construction equipment near the riverbank for the new Route 8 Expressway has to be moved to higher ground.
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Counter added August 28, 2005