Watertown History Page by Charlie Crowell

01/08/2025

Here we see some Lifetime Ware returning to its place of birth on Echo Lake Road. In the background is the old Watertown Manufacturing Company factory.

Right after WWII, Watertown Mfg. came up with the line of colorful, unbreakable dishes. The dishes would become wildly popular.

The dinnerware line first went on sale in early 1947.

That same year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, recognizing its revolutionary design, added Lifetime Ware to its permanent collection.

Production soared and the new dishes, which were designed by local artist Jon Hedu (1914-1995), were advertised in national magazines and seemed to be available everywhere.

They appeared in movies and were even used as prizes on TV game shows.

Residents of the Watertown area were able to purchase slightly defective "seconds" at the factory. The company also operated a factory outlet in neighboring Thomaston.

It was always said that you could tell what color dishes were being made on any given day by the color of the water in Steele Brook. The toxic discharge from the factory was legendary but nobody cared at the time.

A new wing to the factory was built in 1949 but construction at the rambling plant seems to have been ongoing.

The long wing that ran along Steele Brook was undercut by raging waters during the Flood of ‘55 and had to be demolished, greatly reducing the size of the plant.

01/08/2025

My grandfather was once a pharmacist at the old Post Office Drug Store on DeForest Street. This certificate, which is dated 1927, was required by law to be “conspicuously displayed” wherever he worked.

My father told of he and my uncle visiting the store and getting free ice cream cones, scooped up by my grandfather.

The store dates back to about 1799 and wasn't always a drug store. In earlier times it was a general store, selling dry goods, apparel, farming supplies and more.

It is the oldest operating business building in town.

For years, the Watertown Post Office was located inside the store, hence the name “Pist Office Drug Store”. The post office really only amounted to some cubbyholes in the rear of the store.

By the turn-of-the-century however, the need for larger quarters was recognized and in 1907 a new post office was built just to the left, between the Town Hall and the drug store. The post office operated there for the next half century.

Today, the old “P. O. Drug” is the Health Complex Pharmacy.

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Harvey Van Rensselaer Crowell (1895-1965) was also a shipboard pharmacist in the Navy during WWI.

12/29/2024

No small accomplishment! The first place typing trophy at Watertown High in 1976. The recipient says, “I was invited to some awards dinner, had no idea why!” Next thing she knew, she was called up for this award. 😂

12/29/2024

Watertown man busted 125 years ago.

DUMBEST CRIMINALS

In January, 1899, a burglar broke into a grist mill owned by F. C. Slade & Sons. The mill was located on Watertown Avenue about where the Cumberland Farms (seen here) was located until several years ago.

Among the items stolen was a large burlap bag full of oats.

Astonishingly, there was a small hole in the bag and it left a trail of oats leading straight to the home of Joseph Quimet on Frost Bridge Road in Watertown.

Mr. Quimet, described as a French Canadian, was promptly arrested when the stolen bag of oats was found in his cellar.

12/29/2024

The Westbury Room catered countless wedding receptions, retirement parties and gatherings of all kinds.

In the 1940s, this site was home to the "Horse and Hound Inn" which, back in the days before zoning, had some quirky roadside signage.

The place was a gas station and restaurant that offered catering as well. It was operated by Dirk Eykelhoff (1902-1990).

In 1950 the name changed to "The Holland House". Mr. Eykelhoff was still running it.
Sometime in the early 60s it became "The Westbury Room".

The building was eventually abandoned and fell into an advanced state of decay.

This location - on the corner of Thomaston Road (Route 6) and Buckingham Street in Watertown.

12/27/2024

Seen here is the Watertown Fire Department’s 1967 Chevy Mini Pumper. No date on this image but in the background was Traver’s Garage.

Originally in the 1920s, there was a tiny gas station there. Then in the 30s, this larger gas station was built. It sold Cities Service products.

The old station still looks much like it originally did but of course the pumps are gone and some of the ornamentation on the roof is gone. The windows and door have been replaced and two additional bays were added to the right years ago.

Many will remember this as Travers Garage beginning in 1964 and carrying on into the 80s. By the 70s the station sold Texaco gasoline.

From the late 1930s until 1945, Raymond West ran the station. In ‘45 he bought the much bigger station opposite Depot Street. In by 1955 he became the local Chevrolet dealer, becoming known as West’s Chevrolet.

Cities Service became Citgo in 1964.

12/22/2024

This is a Civil War era photo of Truman Julius Smith (1847-1908). Waterbury newspapers called him “Crazy Truman Smith”. He threw his wife (still recovering from childbirth) down a flight of stairs because she kept having girl babies.

Townspeople were so enraged, a group of men showed up at his house after dark planning to teach him a lesson. They brought a bucket of tar, planning to tar and feather him.

As they approached the Smith house, Truman opened a window, stuck out a shotgun and fired, painfully filling one of the men’s rear end with buckshot.

Smith later struck his brother in the face with a hoe, blinding him in one eye.

He snuck around town cutting the tails off cows and throwing dead cats into people’s wells.

He packed 150 pounds of dynamite into a hollow iron hitching post and set it up in a Main Street man’s backyard. He apparently thought he had created a cannon but when he lit it, it just exploded. The blast rocked the town.

Townspeople thought the steam engine on the train had exploded.

As one newspaper put it, “Truman Smith went around making enemies, and then got even with every one of them!”

You’ll be hearing more about Mr. Smith, his feuds with local citizens and his one-man reign of terror in the near future, a remarkable Watertown oddity.

(Photo Courtesy of Trowby Brockman, a great granddaughter)

12/22/2024

12/19/2024

Here’s a shady 1920s view of the Methodist Church on the corner of Main Street and Cutler Street. The church was built in 1898, replacing and earlier church built in 1853 on the same spot.

To the right is the old Hemingway Mansion. The church acquired the spacious home in 1956.

Note the trolley tracks in the roadway. The tracks only went a little further north allowing high school students to get to Baldwin School and workers to get to the old Woolson factory on Woolson Street.

Once at the end of the line, the trolleys reversed the electric motors and returned to Waterbury using Main Street, Watertown Avenue. and West Main Street.

Trolley service ended in 1937.

12/13/2024

Here's a unique little relic from 114 years ago. It's a Christmas plate featuring a 1910 calendar.

This was a promotional item offered by Dan Sullivan, the well-known and long-time Watertown pharmacist.

Sullivan arrived in town in 1899 and opened his drug store on the corner of Main Street and Depot Street in a wooden house that stood there. He called it the Hillside Pharmacy. After a few years he moved the business to the so-called "brick store" (aka the Heminway Building, aka the old bank) on the corner of Main and Echo Lake Road.

Still later he built his own store further up Main Street on the corner of Heminway Park Road.

Sullivan died in 1956 but his daughter carried on the business into the 1970s, making it one of the longest running businesses in town history.

Dan Sullivan was an avid photographer and had many of his pictures turned into postcards. Nobody knows what happened to his photos but his postcards have survived and have contribute greatly to preserving Watertown's past.

12/13/2024

Years ago, you might have stopped by Quigley’s on Main Street for some Christmas gift shopping. This graphic is from a matchbook. The other side says the store offered ski supplies, guns and tackle.

Quigley’s was one of the stores that rounded out Main Street back when the downtown businesses offered everything from groceries, hardware, sporting goods, clothes, and cameras, to dry cleaning, barber shops, TV and radio repair, and even new cars (Chevrolet and Pontiac).

11/28/2024

Here are three old homes on Main Street as depicted on an old postcard. On the left, the home now owned by the Methodist Church. Long known as one of the Heminway mansions, it was built in 1895. The church acquired it in 1956.

In the center is the 1860s home that was destroyed on Labor Day 1982. The house exploded due to a gas leak. It was called “The Elms” and was built for Buell Heminway (1835 1915), son of Meritt Heminway the famous thread manufacturer in Watertown.

On the right is the Klimpke House (401 Main Street). It was built in 1897. Today it is home to the Watertown History Museum.

11/28/2024

This view is labeled “Oakville, Conn.” but the exact location is unknown. The body of water behind the small house could be a clue. Anyone recognize the anything here?

11/21/2024

The office at Swift Junior High as it appeared when the school was built. This photo is from an article in SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL magazine, December 1954.

11/20/2024

A little WWII clipping.

This appeared the day after word of Japan’s surrender was received which resulted in days of wild celebrations.

Laurence Ganung (Feb 10, 1926 - Oct 27, 2005)

WATERBURY REPUBLICAN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1945

11/20/2024

Reminiscent of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie “Rear Window”, this is the scene behind the old "Violet" building and the Phoenix Stage Company, 133 Main Street in Oakville.

This Oakville building was erected in
1911-12 by Emile A. Bussemey (1875-1946). He named the building "The Violet" after his oldest daughter Violet Blanche Bussemey (later Hallihan), 1898-1960.

10/31/2024

Fifty years ago today, Halloween 1974 - It became known simply as "The Riot". It's a really long story that played that out over a period of a few years in the mid- 70s but this was the low point.

The situation included countless bomb scares, false fire alarms, students demanding privileges such as smoking, mass student suspensions and according to many, a weak school board, disgruntled teachers and ineffective administrators.

It was a real mess that was covered by newspapers on a daily basis.

More arrests were made in the following days.

10/11/2024

Seen here is the little Goldberg Store that was located at 1269 Main Street opposite Crestwood Ford. It was owned by Morris Goldberg and his wife. They came to Watertown in 1931 and bought a big Victorian home right next door to the store (1271 Main Street). In 1933 they purchased the store. For the next 40 years, the little business prospered and became a local landmark.

The store closed in 1973. Mr. Goldberg died in 1989.

This picture was on the front page of the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Town Times in 1997.

Both the store and the Goldberg’s house are long gone.

There are a lot of amusing tales about Morris and his store like how he wouldn’t sell you hotdog buns unless you also bought the hotdogs too.

And how he kept big Kotex boxes stacked in the store windows that sat there so long they faded in the sun.

One commenter to a previous post on this topic wrote:

Pearl and Morris Goldberg - I remember them well. Pearl knew everything about her customers, thrived on any news you could tell her. Remember what was prominently displayed in the windows, ladies? | checked ancestry.com. They were both born in CT and their parents were born in Russia. In 1930 they lived on Eastern Ave in Waterbury with their 2 children. Selma, age 8 and Robert 11/12 months old. Pearl's maiden name was Bettigole and she died in 1978. Morris died in 1989 in Southbury, age 90.

I did this post at the request of a grandson who has little memory of the store . He told me, “The only thing I remember about the store is that Grandpa gave free ci******es to police and armed forces personnel in uniform, and gave free candy to his grandchildren.”

Any memories you can share will be appreciated.