Crownbrook

Crownbrook also saw rapid growth in the early 20th century as the commercial and manufacturing activities of the North End grew.  Bishop Street was settled with small wooden houses by the mid-19th century, when Little Brook still flowed through the neighborhood above ground.  Seven frame houses were built on School Lane, later Bishop Street, before 1860.  After the Waterbury Clock Company built its factory at North Elm and Cherry in 1873, the neighborhood blossomed. 

 

"Everybody in this neighborhood really had wonderful gardens. A lot of gardens. And we still have some good gardens... we still have a Harvest Festival every year."
~ Fanny Marone

 

By the end of the century, there were more than 40 houses in the area for new Irish and German families.  The Hill Street area was still covered with woods and open fields in the 1920s, although the new triple-deckers built to house increasing numbers of immigrants would soon fill both areas.

 

"There was a lot of Polish and Russian in the neighborhood, a few Italians, and we were just like a big family.  We would go to each other’s homes and sometimes eat at each other’s homes."
~ Franklin Hunter

 

Among the newcomers were Swedish, Polish, French, Jewish and Italian families.  They worked as gardeners, clerks, masons, laborers, dressmakers and employees in the nearby factories.  New community organizations were established to meet the needs of the diverse population, such as the Swedish Baptist Tabernacle on Bishop Street, the Pearl Street Neighborhood House and the AME Zion Church. 

 

"We used to have annually the recitals in the springtime at Pearl Street Neighborhood House where we would display our talent…. It was quite an honor to be able to play in that recital, [showing] that you had worked hard, taking your lessons through the year."
~ Naomi Tucker Tillman Artis

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"Unfortunately, schools were not open for afterschool programs.... We were members, most of us, at the Pearl Street community house.... It was a mixture of black students and white students, and we got along so fabulously.... We didn't know boundaries, we didn't know color. We just enjoyed ourselves."
~ Norman Feitelson