Watertown History Page by Charlie Crowell

02/11/2025

Here’s a nice wintery Watertown scene. Located at 64 & 68 Sunset Avenue, these homes were both built in 1898.

(2014 photo)

02/10/2025

From my Waterbury page

This was Arnold’s Restaurant at 1833 Watertown Avenue. This was just past Phil’s Steak and Lobster House, almost into Oakville.

This building was later home to a couple of other restaurants (Alfredo's, The Good Time Grogery), then one fall it was used as a haunted house attraction.

Not long after, it was demolished. The site is now a used car lot.

02/09/2025

The Bradshaw car dealership in Oakville sold a lot of different brands over the years going back to the early days (1931) as a Hudson dealer. Other makes included AMC, Datsun, Renault, Chrysler, Jeep, and a bunch of others I can’t remember at the moment.

Bradshaw closed at the end of 2019 after 88 years in business. It was easily the town’s oldest auto dealership.

This ad is from the Wtby Rep-Am (1990)

The 1938 Hudson “Woody” Station Wagon shown here originally sold for $965.

02/02/2025

This was the slogan Crestwood Ford used for years. The dealership opened in 1960. The ultra-modern Main Street showroom was built in 1965.

The full slogan: “You’ll never walk away from a Crestwood deal, you’ll drive away!”

This was especially true in March of 1965 when Watertown resident Francis Membrino of Basset Road traded in a year-old Black Angus cow for a used car.

Salesman Jim Brooks handled the deal and Membrino drove away in a not-so-new 1956 station wagon.

What became of the cow isn’t clear.

01/29/2025

A 1994 ad from Gustafson’s Apple Farm on Linkfield Road.

In 2020, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, in coordination with Connecticut Farmland Trust, announced the preservation of Gustafson Farm.

The farm dates back to 1907.

01/29/2025

Here's a 1972 ad from Watertown's Pioneer Volkswagen. Adjusted for inflation, $1999 in 1972 comes out to about $14,800 today.

The average price for a new car nowadays is $49,740.

01/29/2025

Michael Lamy posted this picture of his father
Ray on Main Street in the comments of a post here a while ago. It's well worth revisiting.

Years after this photo was taken, Ray would open J&R Sportswear in the store across the street. The business later became J&R Together Shop.

As Michael mentioned:

It was my Dad's clothing store, which opened in 1968. The J&R stood for my parent's names, Judy and Ray (Lamy).

At first they sold really basic dress clothes, but within just about a year, Dad completely changed the direction toward more youthful lines, like india tops, bell bottom jeans, incense, beads and a variety of "smoking accessories".

This was the result of the changing times, and all the stuff Dad was discovering while attending boutique shows in New York City. I think it was really ahead of its time.

Soon they took on space downstairs as well and began selling water beds. That evolved into a bike shop, which focused on a new wave of bicycling, "European bikes" or "10 speeds".

Dad's Cousins Ron, Marcel, Loraine and Denise Lamy all were employed there, along with Roy Langlois, a really nice bunch. As a kid it was a great place to observe all sorts of unusual and interesting people (Hippies) and my curiosity about how things work found a place to flourish.

I learned to assemble and repair bicycles, how to communicate with customers (all MUCH OLDER than me and developed a broad awareness of music because there was always something cool playing there.

To the left was Pat Rossi's Camera Shop, then further north still was Gino's Shoe Repair. To the right... was the Barber shop. FOND MEMORIES! Thanks for indulging me.

(Thank you again Michael! Great stuff!)

01/27/2025

Bob Wills posted this photo a while ago in the comments. This is the center of Oakville in 1948 or ‘49.

The Autoyre Company (right) was adding on to its factory at the time. The company would abandon Oakville in the 50s. The building would later be home to Wi******er Electronics, Timex, Sealy, and others before being demolished.

In the 90s, the intersection of Main Street and Riverside Street was reconstructed. The war monument (seen here) was moved and the so-called Oakville Green was created.

Great scene captured here. Thanks Bob!

01/23/2025

In the early 1950's, locals dredged out the little mill pond on Skilton Road and named it "Aunt Grace's Pond". A homemade sign was even created as seen here, but unfortunately the famously destructive "Flood of '55" largely filled the pond back in.

Then over the succeeding decades the pond slowly filled in even more. Eventually the dam collapsed.

Today, the pond is gone. In its place is just a cascading stream.

This photo (from about 1969) shows the sign still there, but it later disappeared. The giant tree has also vanished from the landscape.

Aunt Grace left her mark in Watertown's history with her lifelong devotion to people in need. She was a remarkably caring woman who took in people of all ages. Over the years she raised 14 children despite never having any of her own. At times as many as 18 people lived in her farmhouse.

As one person who knew her said, "She was a one-woman welfare department."

People living at Aunt Grace’s farm included the sick, the destitute, the homeless and unwanted, drunks and more. Even women of questionable morals who were arrested in town were placed under the care of Aunt Grace.

As the decades passed, people she helped often returned to the farm to visit her and thank her.

The stories of Aunt Grace's generosity have become legendary. During the hard times of the Great Depression, visitors to the farm always left with a quantity of food, even if it was just a large sack of much appreciated potatoes.

Born in Watertown in 1870, Aunt Grace died on June 21, 1957.

(Florence T. Crowell photo)

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.

_____________________________

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.