HC Librarian

Film enthusiast Nicholas Soltis was born and raised in Bridgeport and spent his entire career as a policeman on the Bridgeport force. Nick enjoyed taking home movies of family gatherings and special events in Bridgeport. In this film, Mr. Soltis captured the 1956 Barnum Festival Parade in front of a Bridgeport furniture store (the Franklin Furniture Company). His wife, Gertrude (Trudy), as well as his son, Conrad, appear at the start of the film. Conrad also makes a special appearance at the end of the film.  Orginal film: 8mm, color

This is the first segment of four reels of 8mm film taken during the first year of the Barnum Festival in Bridgeport, 1949.

This segment begins with a long shot of the stature of P.T. Barnum located at Seaside Park. The photographer pans from the statue toward Long Island Sound where a strip of beach with sunbathers and park visitors strolling along a walkway are visible. As the camera faces east looking across the Sound toward Stratford, the Bridgeport Harbor Lighthouse is visible for a few frames.
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This second segment of four reels of 8mm film taken by Bridgeport resident Vincent Frazzetta, Sr., during the first year of the Barnum Festival in Bridgeport, 1949.

This segment begins with the Barnum Festival Parade on lower Park Avenue near the Perry Memorial Arch.

Parade:
band; floats; clowns; bag pipes; Lions Club; Shriners-various chapters; military band; Bridgeport Hospital; Knights of Columbus; Sorority; National Association of Power Engineers; Police; Italian Association; Hungarian group; drum corps; children; Danbury Fair; YMCA; mermaid float; Bassick High School; Central High School; Honeyspot Monuments; Bridgeport Brass Company; West Side Business Association; floats; Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees); Dinardo Brothers Used Cars; General Electric Company; Junior Police Corps; Bridgeport Police float
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This segment opens with a shot of the main entrance to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus tent then switches to crowds milling about circus tents. Many animals such as lions and tigers may be seen in cages. A sign for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Combined Side Show and a women handling a snake appears. Several processions with elephants. Clowns.

Film segment opens with a demonstration of a Remington electric shaver then a Bridgeport Brass Company booth at the Bridgeport Progress Exposition sponsored by the Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce. A dairy booth with live cows is featured next. A shot of Long Island Sound and the roller coaster at Pleasure Beach and the bridge to the beach follow. The camera then pans to the Pleasure Beach Bridge and follows the shoreline along the East End, over the East Side peninsula with its enormous industrial facilities, and across to downtown Bridgeport and back down toward Seaside Park.
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Genealogy Basics – Starts Tuesday, October 27th
Experienced family history researcher Elizabeth Anderson will cover the basic “how to’s” for getting started on researching your family roots.
Time:  4th Tuesday of every month, 6:00 PM
Location:  Burroughs-Saden Library, 925 Broad St.
Contact:  203-576-7400, #7

• Struggles and triumphs, or, Forty years’ recollections of P. T. Barnum.  Written by himself.  Author’s edition. (Biography complete to April, 1871.)  New York:  American News Company, 1871. vii, 856 p. illus. 20 cm.

• The life of P. T. Barnum.  Written by himself, including his golden rules for money-making.  Brought up to 1888. Buffalo, N. Y.:   The Courier Co., 1888. 357 p. illus. 19cm.

• Life of Hon. Phineas T. Barnum , by Joel Benton.  [Philadelphia]:  Edgewood Publ. Co., 1891.  621 p.: front., plates, ports. ; 20 cm.

Notes:   At head of title: A unique story of a marvelous career.

• Barnum, by M.R. Werner.  New York:   Harcourt, Brace [c1923].  viii, 381 p. illus., facsim., plates, ports. 23 cm. Bibliography:  p. 373-376.

• Barnum / traduit par A. Tougard de Boismilon.  Paris:  Payot, 1924.  [ix]-xiii, [15]-349 p., 1 leaf ; 19 cm.

Notes:   M.R. Werner.  On cover: 3. mille.

• Trumpets of jubilee: Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lyman Beecher, Horace Greeley, P.T. Barnum, by Constance Mayfield Rourke.  New York:   Harcourt, Brace & Company [c1927].  xiv, 445 p. pl., ports. 24 cm.  Bibliography:   “A note on sources”: p. 435-437.

• The unknown Barnum, by Harvey W. Root.  New York; London:   Harper, 1927. vii, 376 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

• The fabulous showman; the life and times of P.T. Barnum, by Irving Wallace.   New York:   Knopf [c1959]. 279 p.: ill. ; 22 cm.  Bibliography:  p. [256]-265.

• Barnum in London, by Raymond Fitzsimons.  New York:   St. Martin’s Press [1970]. 179 p. plates, ports. 23 cm.  Bibliography:  p. 170-173.

• Barnum’s own story; the autobiography of P. T. Barnum, combined &  condensed from the various editions published during his lifetime,  by Waldo R. Browne.  Gloucester, Mass.:   P. Smith, 1972.  xii, 452 p. illus. 22 cm.

• Humbug; the art of P. T. Barnum by Neil Harris.   Edition [1st ed.]  Boston:   Little, Brown [1973].  xiv, 337 p. illus. 25 cm.  Bibliography: p. [297]-303.

• P. T. Barnum presents Jenny Lind : the American tour of th Swedish Nightingale, by W. Porter Ware and Thaddeus C. Lockard, Jr.  Baton Rouge:  Louisiana State University Press, c1980. 204 p.:  ill.; 24 cm.   Notes:  Includes index.   Bibliography:  p. 197-200.

• Struggles and triumphs, or, Forty years’ recollections of P.T. Barnum, written by himself,  edited and abridged with an introduction by Carl Bode.  New York, N.Y.:  Penguin Books, 1981.  394 p.; 19 cm.  Series:  The Penguin American library Penguin American library.  Includes bibliographical references (p. 35).

• Selected letters of P.T. Barnum, edited and introduced by A.H. Saxon.   New York:  Columbia University Press, 1983.  xxxv, 351 p.:  ill., facsims., ports. ; 24 cm.  Includes bliographical references and index.

• Barnum / par lui-m^eme ; lettres choisies et presentees par A.H. Saxon ;  traduites de l’americain par L.R. Dauven.  Sorvilier [Switzerland]:   Editions de la Gardine, 1986. xxi, [267] p. : ill., ports., facsims. ; 22 x 23 cm.  Collection Le Cirque et l’homme.

Note:   Includes index.  “Exemplaire: XXXIII”   “L’edition originale a ete limitee a 1000 exemplaires numerotes de 1 a 1000 et 100 exemplaires hors commerce numerotes de I a C

destines aux proprietaires de lettres et photos originales …”–

Colophon.

• P.T. Barnum:  the legend and the man / A.H. Saxon.  New York:  Columbia University Press, c1989. xii, 437 p., [53] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm.

Notes:   Includes index.   Bibliography:  p. [345]-423.

• P. T. Barnum : the world’s greatest showman, by Alice Fleming.  New York:  Walker and Co., c1993.  vi, 160 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. Bibliography includes bibliographical references and index.

• P. T. Barnum

  : American dreamer, produced by History Television Network Productions, H-TV.   New York, NY:  A&E Home Video, c1994.  1 videocassette (50 min.:  sd., col. with b&w sequences ; 1/2 in.

Notes:   Videocassette release of an episode of the television series, Biography.

VHS.

Credits:  Associate producers, John Griffin and Dave Snyder; executive producers, Susan E. Leventhal, Michael Cascio and William Harris; producer/director, Andrea Black.  Performers:   Jack Perkins.

Summary:   An entrepreneur with an extraordinary vision of entertainment, P. T.  Barnum didn’t invent the circus, he reinvented it. Barnum took the most exciting human and animal acts he could find, put them in a three-ring setting, and electrified America. Here are Barnum’s little-known forays into other careers as well, including politics, newspaper publishing, museums and land development.

Genre:   Documentary television programs.  Video cassettes.

• P.T. Barnum : America’s greatest showman,  by Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt.   1st ed.  New York:  Knopf, c1995. ix, 358 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm.

Notes:   “A Borzoi book”–CIP t. p. verso.  Includes bibliographical references (p. 349-350) and index.

• P. T. Barnum
  • Vertical File, Bridgeport History Center, Subject:  “Biog.  BARNUM, P.T.”
  • Newspaper Clippings, Bridgeport History Center, Subject:  “Biog.  BARNUM, P.T.”
  • Newspaper Clippings, Bridgeport History Center, Subject:  CIRCUS
  • Manuscripts Collection, Bridgeport History Center
  • Photograph Collection, Bridgeport History Center
  • Circus Book Collection, Bridgeport History Center, various

Poli and Majestic Theaters

• The Story of Bridgeport, by Elsie Nicholas Danenberg; illustrations by Jesse Benton.  Bridgeport, Conn.:  Bridgeport Centennial, Inc., 1936

[HC974.691 85d]

• Bridgeport:  a Pictorial History, by David W. Palmquist; design by Jamie Backus Raynor.  Norfolk, VA:  Donning, 1981; 1985

[HC974.691 B85p]

• Only in Bridgeport:  an illustrated history of the Park City / Lennie Grimaldi ; picture research by Neil S. Swanson ; “Partners in progress” by Sharon L. Cohen.  1st ed. Northridge, CA: Windsor Publications, various editions:  ill. (some col.), ports.; 29 cm.

Notes:   “Produced in cooperation with the Business/Industry Council of Fairfield County.”–Prelim.  p. 2.  Includes  index.  Bibliography:  p. 299. [HC974.691 B85g]

• Bridgeport at Work, by Mary K. Witkowski.  Charleston, S.C.:  Arcadia Publishing, 2002.

[974.691 B85wi2]

• Bridgeport, by Andrew Pehanick.  Charleston, S.C.:  Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

128 p. :  ill. ; 24 cm.  Postcard history series. The golden age of postcards, which took place between 1900 and 1940, was also the golden age of Bridgeport. Local and national publishers printed scenes of the city’s beautiful and renowned parks, magnificent mansions, palatial theaters, and sprawling factories, as well as its busy streets and unique architecture. [HC974.691 B85peh]

• Newspaper Clippings, Bridgeport History Center, subject:  “THEATERS”
• Vertical File, Bridgeport History Center, subject:  “THEATERS”
• Photograph Collection, Bridgeport History Center
• Postcard collection, Bridgeport History Center

Beardsley Park and Zoo

• Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo:  the First Eighty Years, Established 1922, by DeMattia, Robin F.  Virginia Beach, VA:  The Donning Co. Publishers, 2002.

• Dolly Curtis Interviews:  Dr. Howard Hochman, Veternarian for  Beardsley Zoo, Bridgeport, CT, 2000 ,

  .  Easton, CT:  Curtis/Cromwell Productions, 2000

• Dolly Curtis Interviews:  Greg Dancho – the New Carousel at the Beardsley Zoo ,

  .  Easton, CT:  Dolly Curtis Interviews Television Programs , 1995

• Dolly Curtis Interviews:  Greg Dancho – Beardsley Zoological Gardens,

  Easton, CT:  Curtis/Cromwell Productions, 1994.

• Newspaper Clippings, Bridgeport History Center:  “PARKS – Beardsley Park (Zoo)”
• Vertical File, Bridgeport History Center:  “PARKS – Beardsley Park (Zoo) and (Carousel)”
• Bridgeport General Photograph Collection, Bridgeport History Center, various images
• Postcard Collection, Bridgeport History Center, various images
• The Story of Bridgeport, by Elsie Nicholas Danenberg; illustrations by Jesse Benton.  Bridgeport, Conn.:  Bridgeport Centennial, Inc., 1936

• Bridgeport:  a Pictorial History, by David W. Palmquist; design by Jamie Backus Raynor.  Norfolk, VA:  Donning, 1981; 1985

• A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, by Rev. Samuel Orcutt; published under the auspices of the Fairfield county historical society.  New Haven, CT:  Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor; published under the auspices of the Fairfield County                 Historical Society, 1886.  2 v. (viii, 1393 p.):  ill., plates, ports., folded maps ; 26 cm.

Notes:  Vol. 2 contains also histories of Huntington, Trumbull and Monroe, towns incorporated from old Stratford. Epitaphs from the various cemeteries are included.

Genealogies: v. 2, p. 1113-1358.

• History of Bridgeport and vicinity, ed. by George C. Waldo, Jr.   New York; Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub., 1917.  2 v., plates:  ill., ports. ; 28 cm.

Notes:  Vol. 2 contains biographical sketches.   Includes one chapter each on the towns of Stratford and Fairfield.

Mary and Eliza Freeman and houses

• A History of Connecticut’s Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe, by Charles Brilvitch.  Charleston, S.C.:  History Press, 2007
• Binder: 
  • Mary & Eliza Freeman Houses, Bridgeport, CT:  Structural Condition Survey and Report, prepared by Norden, James F., P.E.; Gibble Norden Champion Brown Consulting Engineers, Old Saybrook, Connecticut, 2003.
  • National Register of Historic Places, Registration Form, Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses, 352-4 and 358-60 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT.  Various authors.
  • Newspaper Clippings, Bridgeport History Center:  “NEIGHBORHOODS – South End (Little Liberia)

Charles Stratton

• “Have you seen Tom Thumb?”, by Mabel Leigh Hunt. Illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg.  Philadelphia, New York:  Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1942. 259 p. incl. front. (port.) illus. 21 cm.

Notes:  A biography of the midget entertainer who was a favorite attraction of the P.T. Barnum circus.  Facsimiles on lining-papers.  “Sources found most useful”:  p. 13.

• Barnum presents General Tom Thumb, by Alice Curtis Desmond.  New York:  Macmillan, 1954. 236 p. illus. 22 cm.

• Barnum in London, by Raymond Fitzsimons. New York:  St. Martin’s Press [1970] 179 p. plates, ports. 23 cm.  Bibliography: p. 170-173.

• General Tom Thumb and his Lady, by Mertie E. Romaine.  1st ed. Taunton, Mass.:  W. S. Sullwold Pub., c1976. 94 p.:  ill. ; 24 cm. Bibliography:  p. 94.

• The real Tom Thumb, by Helen Reeder Cross; ill. by Stephen Gammell.  New York:  Four Winds Press, c1980. 92 p.:  ill. ; 22 cm.

• Tom Thumb:  The Remarkable Life of a Man in Miniature, by George Sullivan.  Boston:  Clarion Books, 2010

• The Story of Bridgeport, by Elsie Nicholas Danenberg; illustrations by Jesse Benton.  Bridgeport, Conn.:  Bridgeport Centennial, Inc., 1936

• Bridgeport:  a Pictorial History, by David W. Palmquist; design by Jamie Backus Raynor.  Norfolk, VA:  Donning, 1981; 1985

• A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, by Rev. Samuel Orcutt; published under the auspices of the Fairfield county historical society.  New Haven, CT:  Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor; published under the auspices of the Fairfield County                 Historical Society, 1886.  2 v. (viii, 1393 p.) : ill., plates, ports., folded maps ; 26 cm.

Notes:   Vol. 2 contains also histories of Huntington, Trumbull and Monroe, towns incorporated from old Stratford. Epitaphs from the various cemeteries are included.

Genealogies:  v. 2, p. 1113-1358.

The ABCD Cultural Arts Center was a creative and social hub of Bridgeport in the 1960s and 70s.  The Arts Center occupied a space at the intersection of visual arts and music,  and politics and community activism.  Thanks to a generous grant from Connecticut Humanities,  the BHC held an exhibition and public programming celebrating the Arts Center in 2019-2020.  If you have memories of the Arts Center we would like to hear from you.   Researchers may visit a link to the “virtual exhibition with materials from these original events:
We Are Artists Everyone: the Bridgeport Cultural Art Center, 1970-1986

This silent film follows a Bridgeport Player’s Club or drama club’s production.  The film is in both black and white and color and has text card interspersed throughout.  Both men and women participate in the production.

Photograph: History of Mail Transportation, United States Post Office, Bridgeport. Mural Painted by Robert Lamdin

According to art historian Patricia Raynor, “the United States-on post office walls large and small are scenes reflecting America’s history and way of life. Post offices built in the 1930s during Roosevelt’s New Deal were decorated with enduring images of the “American scene.”
Bridgeport, Connecticut was one of the cities to receive one of the beautiful murals that were a part of the Works Progress Administration. In 1936, Wesport artist Robert Lamdin was chosen to paint a mural on the upper walls of the new Bridgeport post office. The mural, three almost lifesize panels that stretch over one wall of the lobby were chosen to show powerful images of an important part of American history…that is, the transportation of mail. A stagecoach was depicted on one panel to show the early days of mail transport…via horses and wagons. Another panel showed the work inside the post office, with men carrying bags loaded down with huge deliveries. By the 1936, the idea of planes transporting mail was now a reality, so the mural showed that aspect of mail deliver history.
Robert Lamdin continued to create murals throughtout Connecticut. One of the murals he created was for the Westport library. The special mural that Lamdin created in Bridgeport, Connecticut still graces the wall of the main lobby of the Post Office on Middle Street. Bridgeport’s mural is still intact.   Murals in other cities in the United States were either torn down or are in deteriorating states or repair. These WPA and New Deal murals are priceless pieces of art that were not only depict important moments of history, but also remain to remind us of the Roosevelt era and the history of this country.

A promotional film on Bridgeport produced by People’s Bank in the early 1970’s. The film covers the City’s location within Fairfield County, infrastructure, industry, arts and culture, schools, social service organizations and other features as a publicity and marketing tool to attract business and residents to the City.

Time: Tuesday, October 20th, 6:30 PM
Burroughs-Saden Library, 1st floor
Author Bill Ryczek will discuss Connecticut’s minor league football teams from the 1960’s and 1970’s with a special emphasis on Bridgeport teams like the Jets. Some of the original team members will be in attendance!

The Connecticut Humanities Council offers a number of articles and essays on various history topics for cities and towns across the state. Visit the link for Bridgeport below:

Connecticut History.org – Bridgeport

Free genealogical consultation from the experts at LDS!

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness
Get help from fellow genealogists across the country!

• Genealogy 101: the Basics with Ancestry.com
• Pedigree Charts and Family Group Sheets
• Brick walls in research – 3 overlooked resources
• Immigration Records – National Archives and Records Administration
• Organizing and Preserving your Family History
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• RootsTech Session Videos – Latter Day Saints

WCVB – Boston television interview on Gustave Whitehead with Mary Witkowski, BHC Head, Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, et. al.

INTERVIEW –  “Wright Brothers:  Wrong Story?”

History Center photographs are now available to search and view online.  The images are part of the General Photograph Collection held by the BHC and feature street scenes.  Please check back with us each month as we add new images to our site. (more…)

Industrial film produced by the Holmes & Edwards silver company in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The film shows workers manufacturing silver items (more…)

Ice Cutting

“Ice Cutting” was produced for a local Bridgeport Company, The Southern New England Ice Co., which was already over 100 years old at the time the film was made in the 1930’s.  The film depicts an activity that was once essential to city and rural life but today has been replaced by commercial ice production and modern refrigeration.  The ice harvesting industry reached a high point in the United States in the late 1800’s when the U.S. was exporting thousands of tons of ice a year. Due to the manufacture of modern refrigerators for household purposes and industrial ice production, the practice of ice harvesting was actually drawing to a close in the 1930’s, but the techniques were still widely known throughout the Northeast at that time.  (more…)

Most residents of Connecticut, when considering who were the earliest immigrants to this State naturally think mostly of the European countries.  If you asked anyone when the first Puerto Rican immigrant came to Connecticut, they would say, ” probably the 1950’s.” (more…)

M. Daly’s Bridgeport: Pleasure Beach

Historic Map Works

Plat maps with details of lot apportionments and street details for cities across the United States

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Maps with details on buildings prepared for the insurance industry

Memorial Day Parade in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1923-1929

This film is from the period between the World Wars. The World War I manufacturing boom further expanded Bridgeport’s already well established status as a significant industrial center in the Northeast and strongly associated the city with the munitions industry, aviation, and war-related production.  During this period, thousands of men and women, including African Americans from the rural south and immigrants from Europe came to Bridgeport to work in factories like Remington Arms.  Many domestic service organizations and the Red Cross trained people to knit socks for the troops and administer first aid; war bonds were heavily advertised and sold.  But Bridgeport did not just support the war effort on the home front.  Like other American cities with a large blue-collar labor force, Bridgeport also sent many of its own into service during the war.  Thus by the end of World War I, the city’s economic and social identity had become inextricably linked with the new role of the United States as an industrial powerhouse and an emerging world power

Like many American cities whose economies were once heavily based in manufacturing, Bridgeport has seen many changes in recent decades.  It’s once vibrant downtown was packed with businesses of all sorts from department stores and law offices to banks, restaurants, and specialty shops.  For commerce, social activities, and major events such as the Memorial Day parade, the city drew visitors from the less densely populated surrounding towns by all modes of transportation, including train, trolley, ferry, and auto.  This film of downtown Bridgeport in the 1920’s serves as testimony to a different time in the life of a city that is now undertaking a “revitalization” of that same downtown.

Newfield Park: Home to One of New England’s Most Sacred Baseball Sites

by Michael J. Bielawa
Of all the lost stadia across the long history of New England’s minor leagues, Bridgeport’s Newfield Park is certainly one of this region’s most sacred sites. Located in the city’s East End, near the shore of Long Island Sound, this ball yard has been dedicated to the diamond arts for over 110 years. What makes this plot of earth even a more spectacular treasure-trove is the fact that after professional baseball began here in 1898, the stadium was frequented by legions of the game’s greatest, and most famous, ball players.
The place name “Newfield” most likely came about with relation to neighboring Stratford. That community having been founded earlier, its inhabitants eventually expanded farming efforts beyond their town’s “Old Pasture” into communal arable land of today’s eastern Bridgeport, called “the farfield,” which in turn evolved into “the newfield.” Initially all the land encompassing what is today’s downtown Bridgeport was referred to as “Newfield,” dating from about the time of the American Revolution up until roughly 1800. Additionally, the mouth of the Pequannock River was referred to as Newfield Harbor. Over the decades this place name remained intact for the boundary connecting Bridgeport and Stratford. The area stretches from the Yellow Mill River east to Johnson’s Creek (situated at I-95’s northbound exit 30). In 1873 it was organized as the separate borough of West Stratford. Then in 1889 the inhabitants of West Stratford voted to join bustling Bridgeport. The “Newfield” name is still a proud part of the community and the moniker is applied to the East End’s branch library, a major street and public park.
Baseball seemed destined for the land in this section. During the mid to late 19th century much of the area around Bridgeport’s Newfield neighborhood was owned by the ball playing O’Rourke Brothers, John (1849-1911) and James (1850-1919). Following his major league career, Orator Jim converted his land holdings into a ballpark for his professional club, the Bridgeport Orators. This move consolidated his team at a single field, following two seasons of juggling games between the island park of Pleasure Beach (accessible only by ferry), Athletic Park (located at today’s intersection of Boston and Success Avenues), and Avon Park in neighboring Stratford. This latter park was owned by the local trolley company.
The first game ever played at Newfield Park was an exhibition contest between the Bridgeport Orators and Springfield of the Eastern League, on Friday, May 13, 1898. Newfield Park went on to become home to O’Rourke’s league champion 1904 Orators (of the Connecticut League). In 1930, the New York Giants minor league affiliate Bridgeport Bears, took first place in the second half of an Eastern League split season. The Bears then lost to Allentown in the championship series four games to one.
Barnstorming and exhibition contests were often staged at Newfield, featuring Bridgeport’s pro teams or local amateur All-Stars pitted against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Braves, New York Giants and the New York Yankees. African American clubs visiting Newfield included the New York Lincoln Giants and the Brooklyn Royal Giants. Semi-pro and local Industrial League teams were a vital component of Newfield Park’s dynamic heritage entertaining countless fans.
When the Depression caused a downturn in ticket sales ingenious promotions were employed such as night baseball. The first game played under the lights at Newfield took place on August 4, 1930.
The last pro team to call Newfield home were the 1941 Bridgeport Bees of the Interstate League, an affiliate of the National League Boston Bees (aka Braves). Ironically the Boston Bees can trace their lineage to the Red Caps, the same club where Jim O’Rourke had his National League start. Low attendance during ’41, combined with dim-out regulations resulting from America’s entry into World War II, doomed the possibility of future ball campaigns.
Newfield Park became the stage for carnivals and horse shows. A race track was installed and midget auto races became a weekly feature. During World War II the neglected ball park witnessed vandalism and acts of arson. In April 1944 a portion of the abandoned park’s grandstand collapsed. Neighbors raised safety concerns about teens and children getting injured. Finally, in July 1944 Newfield Park was taken over by the city due to delinquent taxes. City fathers resurrected the razed stadium’s heritage by converting the old ball yard into a public park. The field continues as a neighborhood haven for athletics, including football and basketball. Horseshoe pits are active in the area beyond the vanished right field fence. Embellishing the past, Newfield is now also a home to baseball’s cultural precursor, cricket. Poetically, the game James O’Rourke readily embraced will always be played here. Vintage Games took place in 1999 and more are planned in Bridgeport’s future.

Sources:

A detailed, illustrated, history of Newfield Park is preserved in Michael J. Bielawa, From FarField to Newfield: The Baseball Dream of Orator Jim O’Rourke (Fairfield, CT: Audubon, 1999).  Bielawa’s work also includes interviews of ball players and fans sharing their memories of the park. Few photographs of the ballpark or stadium exist, however the 1934 aerial survey, compiled by the Connecticut State Library, offers a Depression Era view of the field prepared for football. Sanborn Insurance Maps provide an evolutionary look at the grounds. The day to day history of Newfield comes to life in the pages of the city’s newspapers:  Bridgeport Daily Standard, Bridgeport Evening Farmer, Bridgeport Evening Post, Bridgeport Herald, Bridgeport Post and the Bridgeport Times-Star. The History Center at Bridgeport Public Library sponsors valuable and entertaining walking tours of Bridgeport’s neighborhoods including Newfield Park.

Many items from the P.T. Barnum Research Collection are now available online! Thanks to generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, researchers may access many items from the History Center and Barnum Museum collections: Over a thousand items — advertisements, books, magazines, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, prints, programs, records, sheet music, and souvenirs — all available through the Connecticut Digital Archives!`

1912 – Some of our Bravest and Finest (movie)

Bridgeport History Center

This silent film was found hidden in the archives of the Lewis Corbit Photo Studio Collection.  It is thought that this was taken by either Lewis Corbit or a family member as the firemen and police marched up Bridgeport’s Main Street.

Towards the end of the film is a rare shot of the UMC/Remington Arms employees crossing Barnum Avenue.  The unusal site of men and women busily leaving and returning to work shows the activity of the East Side of Bridgeport in the early 20th century. (more…)

Time: Thursday, October 15th, 6:00 PM
Burroughs-Saden Library, 3rd floor, History Center

Come celebrate the digitization of the Bridgeport Evening Farmer (1909-1922) now available through the Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project and the Library of Congress. Fairfield University Professor Ceceilia Bucki will discuss the Progressive Era and WWI in Bridgeport.  Christine Gauvreau and Gail Hurley of the Connecticut State Library will demonstrate how to search the paper and highlight some interesting stories covered during this very significant period in Bridgeport’s history.