By Carolyn Ivanoff George Francis Gilman was a man recognizable to Bridgeporters, especially those in Black Rock. He was the wealthiest man in Fairfield County. When he retired from his legendary career as a tea importer to Bridgeport in 1878, he purchased a prominent 1762 colonial ...
By Andy Piascik When the 84-unit Casa Frouge high-rise on Cartright Street on Bridgeport’s West Side opened in 1955, its developer the Frouge Construction Company billed it as the city’s “first luxury apartment building” and “the outstanding apartment residence in New England.” Located across North Avenue ...
Photo: Charles Ritchel c. 1840-1911 Charles Ritchel was an inventor who is credited with inventing the first dirigible. In 1878, Ritchel built a hand-powered dirigible fashioned out of rubber from the Goodyear Rubber Company in Naugatuck and the Folansbee Machine Shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is ...
By: Mary K. Witkowski, Bridgeport City Historian Corbit Studio, Photograph property of Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library Lewis Corbit Sr. and later his son Lewis Jr. were responsible for documenting almost a century of Bridgeport history. Lewis grew up in South Britain, Connecticut, where he worked as ...
By Carolyn Ivanoff Daniel Nash Morgan was a prominent Bridgeport personality for many years during his long life. A self-made and extremely successful entrepreneur and politician, Daniel Nash Morgan served his city, state, and nation. Interesting to note in these politically polarized times, he was a ...
By Carolyn Ivanoff During the 1960s my grandmother lived on the top floor of the four- story Consumer Building at 1064 East Main Street on the corner of East Main Street and Arctic. The building was the tallest building in the area and from any window ...
A recent gift to the Bridgeport Public Library Historical Collections was this small wooden ruler, only six inches in length. The ruler had the name "Gutchess College" engraved on the side, with the addess 46 to 54 Cannon Street. What was Gutchess College? The Bridgeport City ...
By Carolyn Ivanoff The industrial powerhouse that was Bridgeport during the 19th and 20th centuries made its mark world-wide with many, many products. Bridgeport manufactured everything: sewing machines, cars, phonographs, typewriters, corsets, submarines, machine tools, munitions, every product imaginable. Many of these products were common to ...
By Andy Piascik In 1924, Nick Ozzi purchased a storefront building at 447-449 Coleman Street and established a shoe repair business, Ozzi’s Shoe Rebuilding, that lasted for 69 years. The business was located on the ground floor of a building that also included two apartments upstairs ...
Sam and his brothers Kiev and Elliot owned a radio shop located at 746 Madison Avenue, Bridgeport in 1932. An oral history with Sam Liskov can be read on the website http://bridgeporthistory.org/
by Andy Piascik In 1933, Antonio Mastromonaco established the Bronx Casket Company on Webster Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx. Mastromonaco was born in Campobasso in Italy and emigrated to the United States around 1913. He had been a laborer in Italy and was ...
By Robert Foley The Charles Cooper was built in Black Rock, Connecticut in 1856 and is the only surviving American ship of its kind in the world. It is the best surviving wooden square-rigged American merchant ship. Built for New York’s South Street packet trade, the vessel voyaged around the ...
By Lennie Grimaldi Donald Trump placed his right hand on the shoulder of a model – tall, blonde, striking, must have been 22 – and with his left hand steered Joe Ganim by the shoulder, easing the two together. “Let me introduce you to a friend ...
By Abraham Lima This is Part 3 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center: To read the previous articles, use the guide below to navigate. Part 1 “En El Principio, Los Mojados en USA” and “What are Tortillas?” https://bportlibrary.org/hc/hispanic-populations-and-culture/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-1/ Part 2 – “From Puebla ...
By Abraham Lima PROLOGUE: The eagle eating a cactus perched on a snake was the symbol the god Huitlolopotchli gave to nomadic Nahuatl-speaking people as to where to build their new city. They found just that in the middle of Lake Texcoco and thus the city of ...
by Abraham Lima This is Part 2 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center: The tri-color flag of Mexico, the green red and white. In the middle stands an eagle on a cactus with a snake, the legacy of this eagle, the eagle the ...
