History:Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 3

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Vacant Lots and Broken Dreams:
Urban Renewal in Willimantic Connecticut
Richard Baber, 1993

Part 3 of 8


With the depression some mills closed.  Although American Thread survived it would eventually phase out of Willimantic and look to the South. Other industries in town did not offset the losses of the mills.  Blue collar jobs began to disappear.  What growth occurred  in the decades from 1940 to 1960  bypassed the town.  Newer housing was constructed on the outskirts and in neighboring communities  Along with this housing appeared strip malls and shopping centers drawing retail traffic from downtown.  Many of the downtown property owners also began living elsewhere leaving the old neighborhoods to the growing unemployed.  Although its former Victorian grandeur was still evident with most of the nineteenth century buildings still intact, the luster was gone from Main St.  The town looked tattered. 

Seeking to reverse economic trends present in the early 1960s and restore stability to the city, the Willimantic Common Council looked to the federal government and the urban renewal  renewal for answers.  A local redevelopment agency was created but in the absence of concrete goals or plans and with no money, it was dissolved after a few years. It was next decided that a plan was needed  and the firm of Byran & Panico was hired to do a study and put forward recommendations.  The results were presented in September 1965 and were a major role in Willimantic's future

The "Comprehensive Panning Program, City of Willimantic. Town of Windham, Connecticut" which contained an evaluation of existing and potential development and neighborhood anaylis definitively reflected contemporary  thinking.  It studies the "serious problems of mixed land use, poor streets, inadequate parking and obsolete building types" in "significant areas of blight, deteriotation and potential decline....concentrated in and around the downtown core of the city."  The area of blight comprised virtually all of downtown from Windham St. to Milk St. and Valley St. to the railroad yards.

In the companion study, a "Comprehensive Panning Program, City of Willimantic. Town of Windham, Connecticut," a series of recommendations were outlined.  Some of these such as the "adoption a building code and zoning for the town and the City"  were overdue.Some of the recommendation were bizarre including the demolition of the historic Willimantic town all and Windham County court house; construction on the site a new government center housing fire, police and and all city and town offices.  Other recommendations that would eventually have the most impact on the city targeted the Central Business District Neighborhood.

Armed with the study, the Common Council on June 3, 1966 voted to re-establish the redevelopment agency and appointed John Wrana, Wilbur Goldberg, Rudolph Pino, Baron Bray, Earl McSweeney as its first commissioners.  On August 10 of the same year approved providing  The Willimantic Community Redevelopment Agency (WRA) with $1000 to hire  a consultant to prepare a grant application based on the Bryan & Panico plan. A target area was established  and funds to implement a comprehensive urban renewal program were requested.
Outside of monthly meetings, however, the WRA was relatively inactive while waiting for funding approval untill February 14, 1968, when an event occurred that served as a catalysis for the program..

Monday, May 14  Part 4 of 8