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Community Corner

A Stroll Down Rubber Avenue in 1905

The now highly-traveled Rubber Avenue in Naugatuck was a much different place today compared to over a century ago.

It is the year 1905. Let’s take a stroll down Rubber Avenue and see what we can find.

We start at the corner of Water Street and Rubber Avenue. Goodyear’s M.R. Shoe Company is busy making rubber footwear. They produce many products but are especially proud that they are the originators of the Artic Overshoe and produce thousands a day.

As we walk west to our left is Dunham Hosiery, the former Thomas Lewis Woolen Mill.

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Can you hear the machines churning away as together with the workers they produce men’s high-grade underwear, worsted sweaters and coats for men and woman and cotton net for arctic and rubber linings?

To the right are the following merchants, Martin and Foglio Barbers, The Boot and Shoe Shop, a grocery store, Gee Shing Chinese laundry and the Salem Boarding House.

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Boarding houses are an important part of our life here in Naugatuck. Immigration has increased since 1875, as folks are welcomed here from many parts of the world. Since the railroad came into town in 1849, Naugatuck is easy access for workers from New York and farther away to work at the factories.

If fact, much of Rubber Avenue and the surrounding area has houses and tenements to house the workers.

The typical buildings being constructed at this time are three family homes and six or eight block family tenement buildings.

As we reach the corner of Cherry Street, you will see Rubber Avenue School, built in 1888. It is a fine building and considered large for a school in 1905.

All of the students walk to school but there is a bit of a problem with some being tardy.

It seems they are attending the theater at night or possibly just loitering there and, as a result, getting to school late.

After the terrible scarlet fever epidemic in 1903, which closed schools for 5 weeks, daily inspections have started this year when the students arrive to school.

A sure sign that spring is approaching is the children are out playing with marbles once more. Those tell tale circles are once again appearing on sidewalks around town. The going price for 20 marbles is 1 cent.

Merchants are also reporting the sale of tops is a brisk business.

The Fireman on the Locomotives on the Naugatuck Division welcomes spring. The cold weather makes it hard for the engines to keep up steam. Why even the passenger trains are sometimes delayed when the steam goes down in the bitter cold weather.

Past the school to the right (where Dunkin Donuts and Family Market are now), you see the beautiful Woolen Mill Pond. Its large kidney shape and tree lined path make it a remarkable sight.

Just past Pond Street to the right is a row of establishments, Jeremiah Shea’s salon, Donavan Grocery and meats, Annie Galvin Grocery, Doyle’s Grocery and Kubina’s Salon.

There are grocers on almost every corner. Some offer to come by their customers’ homes to take an order and bring it back the same day. Many folks keep a tab which they pay at the end of the month or when they can. Eggs are selling for .24 cents a dozen with cheaper prices predicted. Spanish mackerel and oysters are .40 cents a pound.

It is common to see grocers with their horse drawn delivery wagons riding around town making their deliveries. More common than grocers are the salons.

In Naugatuck, many of the salon owners are of Irish decent. After all, the Irish section of town, Kelly Hill is just up Cherry Street. Many Irish immigrated here after the potato famine and they are a welcome addition to our community indeed.

Some unlucky salon patrons were picked up last night for being on a “jag.” They were promptly given a night of lodging at the Police Station to sleep it off.

Another fellow was lucky to have some friends bring him home in a wheelbarrow. Though it was a wild ride, he should be thankful to his friends, as he would have been arrested.

As we continue down the avenue, you see the Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe Company. This was the first rubber shoe factory in the world. You can see the buildings line both sides of Rubber Avenue. It is plain to see why this road was named Rubber Avenue as the rubber shops and rubber workers homes dominate it.

After we pass Thurston’s Icehouse to the left, the hustle and bustle is behind us.

Let us hop on to a horse drawn carriage for the rest of our tour. This beautiful carriage was made right here in town by the well-respected Stevens Carriage Factory. In their heyday, they shipped up to 10 carriages a day. Many southern plantation owners were quite fond of the carriages as well as the wealthy locals. The company sadly went under by the end of the Civil War. Though this carriage is now about 40 years old, its fine construction and forged malleable iron from local blacksmiths make it as sturdy as the day it was constructed.

You can now see there are mostly private homes and farmland surrounding us. It is beautiful with the Long Meadow Brook meandering parallel with the Avenue.

Down a bit more to the right you see the Town Farm also called the Alms House (located about where the Naugatuck High School parking lot is now). The poor are provided a warm bed and food to eat in exchange for working on the farm. The town voted to buy the 110-acre farm in 1881 and it produces enough crops to pay for half of the upkeep of the residents.

On down past more farmland we come to the Gunntown Burial Ground. It is a quaint spot nestled in a valley with a backdrop of rolling hills. Many prominent families are buried there including the Gunns, Twitchills and Scovill to name just a few.

There is so much activity at the beginning of the Avenue. The factories are going at breakneck speed, schoolchildren playing tops in the schoolyard, horse and carriages traveling up and down the dusty road making deliveries. The smell of industry is everywhere.

How wonderful to be a so close to such a pleasant sight. The rolling green hills and the sweet fragrance of spring are in the air in this idyllic section of Rubber Ave called Gunntown.

It was wonderful spending time with you. Watch your step getting off the carriage and join me next week when we will visit another place in Naugatuck History.

Credits : The Naugatuck Historical Society, archives of Naugatuck Daily News 1905, History of Naugatuck by Constance Green, Naugatuck Stories and Legends Vol.1 and 2 by William G. Leuchars, archives of The Whittemore Library

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