A Closer Look: The Community Building

Here is a photo from the East Haven Photograph Album of the East Haven Fire Department at 200 Main Street taken in 1924. The caption is-

1924 Next to fire station was the Community Building. Upstairs was Peggy Whyte’s School of Dance.

A closer look with the magnifying glass reveals some interesting details of the signs on and near the Community Building.

Number One: "Community Alleys, Bowling, Pool."
Number Two reads "Community Theater".
Number Three: "?andy? Soda ?emons, Ice Cream."
Number Four: a name and below that "Patent Medicines".

Interestingly, Sign Number Two indicates that not only was it a community building, but also a theater. There appears to be a movie poster on the sidewalk advertising the film. This theater would then be separate from the Capitol Theatre, located down at 271 Main Street by the present Margaret Tucker Park. If anyone has information or a correction to this observation please call the library.

On Sign Number Three- "?emons" is visible, the other letters blocked by the pole. a guess to the word ?emons was lemons. The sign would read: Candy, Soda, Lemons, Ice Cream. This of course, didn't make much sense.
By looking at the sign on the sidewalk, also advertising ice cream,it appeared there was an "s" in the word. A check on the Internet determined there was indeed a "Semons" ice cream company in the New Haven area. So we have an add here for "Candy, Soda and Semons Ice Cream."

A Closer Look

This 1925 photograph of East Haven Green facing East reveals some interesting features under a magnifying glass.

Number One- the billboard to the left of the picture is an advertisement for Chevrolet and states: "Quality at Low Cost" "A Dealer Near to Serve You."

Number Two- the signposts nailed to the light pole- the top one states "Momaguin,Short Beach" the bottom states "Branford, New London."

Number Three- the placard states at the top: "East Haven."
It would be interesting to know what the listings were below it.

Local Content and Community Reserve

The library is participating in Overdrive's Local Content and Community Reserve program which allows libraries to offer digitized documents, audio and video materials, in download formats.

So far, we have submitted three items--

A pamphlet on the 1911 dedication of the Soldier's Memorial on the East Haven Green, a ca. 1917 photograph of East Haven Boys prior to shipping out to serve in WW I, and a memorial pamphlet for the first boy killed in WW I from East Haven.

Below: East Haven boys serving in WW I

The library will be participating in the Local Content and Community Reserve program through OverDrive, a distributor of audio and e-books.

Archival material will be sent from the Hagaman Library in PDF form then changed into Adobe ebooks. Patrons will be able to browse, check-out and download these materials from the Hagaman website OverDrive link.

This will give patrons further accessibility to archival documents and information.

East Haven Photographs on Connecticut Treasures

It was gratifying to see some of the photographs from Donald V. Chidsey's Old Houses of East Haven up on the Treasures of Connecticut Libraries site. We look forward to seeing the entire work up on the site.

http://cslib.cdmhost.com/ctlibs/home.php

Treasures at The Hagaman

Here is another Civil War era treasure. A letter from Winfield Scott at West Point to A. Clark at Brevoort(?) House, N.Y. Again, we have an item of mystery. The text of the letter reads-

West Point, Sep. 10, 1864

Dear Sir: I thank you for your note.
I believe I have engaged apartment [sic] higher uptown.
Yrs. with esteem-
Winfield Scott

A. Clark, Esq.

Treasures at The Hagaman

In keeping with the Connecticut Treasures Project (see the 12/18/09 post) and the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the library has some treasures of it's own to present on this blog.

Below is an 1863 letter calling up Hiram Jacobs of East Haven to military service.

It will be interesting to see if any further information on this individual can be found in either the library or the Historical Society.