History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 4

Main Street 1963

In the early mourning of Valentines Day 1968 a report came into the fire department of an explosion at the Sherwin-Williams paint store on Main Street  It was investigated but nothing was found but within hours, fire had erupted with 40,000 gallons of paint providing the fuel for one of the most extensive fires in the history of the city.  After a day the fire was extinguished leaving four buildings gutted and  several others smoke and fire damaged including the First Babtist Church.  .   In all nine businesses were effected: The Prep Shop, Sherwin-Williams, The Lincoln Shop, Mustard Insurance Agency, Superior Electronics, Church- Reed, The Country Shop, Gay's Florist and Archembeault's Barber Shop.  Twenty families were homeless.  The even served as a springboard for the urban renewal  proponents to pressure HUD to approve the grant application.  Mayor Stanley Kososka in response to the event stated  "the ruinous  fire that ripped through two downtown blocks ... could have been avoided by faster federal action on a request for urban renewal funds.  We have a overcrowded situation with people living in obsolete and dangerous structures. 

Coincidentally, these building were in the target area, prompting  a renewed effort to get the program off the ground.  Although funding did not arrive for another year, the city took action.  Petitions were signed and plans evolved.  A badly deteriorated building at 14 Union St.,also in the target area, was condemned and razed.  The last remaining of the Holland Silk Mill building on Valley Street was acquired along with the Amvets building.  These were demolished and a new state courthouse was built in there place.It did not seem to matter that the new building occupied only a fraction of the parcel cleared  for it.  People saw old, obsolete buildings replaced by newly constructed ones,  and there was beliefs that things were changing.

On June 25, 1969 it became official.  In a telephone conversation with WRA commissioner Earl McSweeney,  Lawrence Cox of HUD confirmed the approval of a grant reservation for $6,155.000 which represented 75 per cent of the estimated cost along with $277,000.00 planning advance. The grant approval was contingent on the state and municipality committing to the remaining 25 per cent share of the cost  Urban renewal  had come to Willimantic.  To the people that had made it happen, this meant the acquisition and the demolition of every building within the already defined target area and the rebuilding a new prosperous Willimantic. Blinded by the promises of a healthier community,  it is likely that few people took  a hard look at the proposal and the potential consequences.

The first activity was to conduct a search for a full time, community development professional to administer the program.  On September 9, 1969 , Betty Lou Williams  was selected by a vote of the WRA commissioners to assume the position of executive director effective October 1, 1969.  If Byran & Panico were the architects  of Willimantic's urban renewal project, then Betty Lou Williams  with a single minded sense of purpose, administered the plan and oversaw every detail.  Her credentials as executive director of Rockville urban renewal efforts  seemed respectable on the surface.  One wonders however if it made a difference to if they knew she earned the moniker "Bulldozer Betty for her indiscriminate clearance of Rockville's architectural past

In 1970 and 1971 the groundwork was laid for executing the project.  Windham Heights was completed: it was a privately built apartment complex in anticipation of the need for low-income, subsidize housing which would result from urban renewal.  This gave the WRA the compliance they needed with the HUD requirement that replacement housing be available for displaced people..  In 1971 a public referendum was held for the final approval of the urban renewal project and overwhelmingly passed as did bond issue to cover the city's contribution to the cost of the project.  On February 15, 1971, the loan and grant application was formally filed for The Central Business Renewal Project, Conn R-119.  An examination of the application reveals that it closely adhered tothe Byran & Panico recommendations of 1965. A study almost casually drawn up at a cost of a couple thousand dollars with very few changes, the primary design for an eleven million dollar project that forever altered the city.

History:Willimantic Redevelopment

Peter Crowley Photo

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

An eight part series


History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 1
History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 2
History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 3

History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 4
History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 5
History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 6


History: Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 7
History, Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 8

History:Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 3

Peter Crowley Image

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

History:Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 1

Peter Crowley Image

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

Part 1 of 8

It started quietly for Willimantic, Connecticut on June 13, 1966, the Common Council voted to create the Willimantic Redevelopment Agency.  It ended with a crash on Oct.21, 1976when, among  protests, demolition began on the Hurley- Grant building and the Union block.When it was over much of Willimantic's downtown  business and residential district including ten acres in the city's center was gone.  In its place a handful of new public buildings three parking lots and vacant land  At this point the city fully expected thar private developers to come in and rebuild a shiny and prosperous new Willimantic and some did.However 15 years later most of this land remains vacant and many people are wondering how this could have happened.  The reality is that Willimantic had the same experience as countless towns and cities across the nation:: the promise of urban renewal  often turnout to be dreams.  Instead of creating new retail centers new housing and new jobs, instead of revitalizing   the economic well being of the municipality and the quality of life of its residence urban renewal left Willimantic with broken hopes and little else

The primary agrarian roots of the United States resulted in an anti-urban bias that persists to this day .Although cities grew and population shifted as trade and maufacturing began to dominate the economy, a natural distrust of urban centers developed.  As industries grew, cities attracted immigrants and rural poor seeking jobs and housing: ethnic and cultural differences caused further divisions.  By the end of the nineteenth century cities had become economically strafed with poor in the ghetto and the wealthy in exclusive neighborhoods and the middle class seeking refuge in the outlaying areas. Initially cities absorbed these areas as populations grew, but by the 1920s this practice ceased when political opposition to it grew.  Suburbs resulted as retreats to the middle class.

In the 1920s suburbs experienced tremendous growth.  The nation appeared economically prosperous and as more families owned automobiles, the commute to the cities and jobs became more convient  This was followed by an even bigger explosion of suburban growth following WWII.  Again this was primarily a middle class movement.  Several factors contributed to these population shifts'  The federal government began building modern highways.  New people not only could easily commute to the cities for their jobs but could easily escape at the end of their work days.  As commuter towns grew so did the services: doctors, lawyer, shopping malls and eventually manufacturing and offices.  People began to have fewer reasons to travel into the city.

Concurrently, populations shift from south to north, from the center to the coasts and from rural to urban areas.. The overwhelming reason for this was a declining agricultural economy which prompted the rural poor to give up farming and seek employment opportunities available in the cities. Coupled with this movement was unrepresented immigration . In the 1950s, 28 million people immigrated to the United States and 85 percent settled in urban areas.

These newcomers crowed into the inner cities and further pushed the middle class out .If they needed additional incentives two other factors encouraged their movement.  One was blockbusting , where disreputable realtor would connive to get minority families to buy homes in all white neighborhoods They would literally go door to door attempting to create panic of the prospect of a racially changing neighborhood.. This often caused the value of real estate to decline.  Established neighborhoods were thrown into turmoil and property owners, fearing a total loss would sell their home at deflated prices.  The realtors  would then  inflate the price and sell to minorities or convert them to multiple family units and rent them.  While illegal this practice flourish.  The other factor was the FHA and VA loan guarantee program which offered liberal terms on new housing for newly married couples, preferably with children.  They required only minimum earnings and good credit histories.  This new housing was being built in the outlying areas close to the ciries in what became known as suburan tract housing.  With there older housing the cities were left to the poor, the elderly and the minorities.  It was at this stage that urban renewal began.

History:Willimantic Redevelopment, Part 2

Peter Crowley Photo

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

Part 2


Urban renewal, the seizure and wholesale clearance by the government of blighted and and decayed properties in low income section of cities to be replaced by privately developed buildings had sparked debate and controversy in every community it has touched.  Its purpose as stated in the title 1 of the housing act of 1949 was "the realization  as soon as possible of the goal of a decent goal and suitable living environment for every American family."  Through the clearing of slums and "the reconstruction of blighted areas,"  Congress sought to eliminate substandard housing and community development sufficient to remedy the post- war housing shortage.

Immediately,  Congress authorized $100 million for the purpose and within one year, planning had begun on 124 nationwide.  By 1953 the amount  had risen to$400 million with planning begun on 260 projects. A federal court was asked to rule on the constitutionality of private property be seized for the purpose of selling to other private interest.  The court reaffirmed and earlier ruling ,"that the taking of property of selling or leasing  it to others is not within the scope of government power." And the stated objective in this case did not constitute a public purpose.

In 1954 the decision was appealed in the U.A. Suprem Court in what turned out to be a pivotal year for the urban renewal program.  After hearing arguments,  the court overruled its earlier finding, stating that "the concept of public welfare is broad and inclusive....Once the question of public  purpose has been decided, the amount and character of land to be taken for the project....rests in the discretion of the legislative branch." Although the courts were repeatedly asked to review this ruling they  never overturned it  "on the theory that the primary objective was slum clearance, not the seizing of property of one individual and turning it over to another.

The same year Congress  passed the Omnibus Housing Act which had a clause that extended urban renewal for the first time to commercial property.  So with the constitutionality question
settled and residential restrictions lifted, money was readily forthcoming.  By 1954 Congress had actually begun.

Like Eastern Connecticut, Willimantic's prosperity rested on the textile industry.  Cotton and silk mills on Bridge Street, Valley Street , Church  Street, the largest of these, the Willimantic Linen Co. later restyled as the American Thread Co. became one of the largest thread manufactures in the world,  As the mills  grew so did the economy. Housing was built and a downtown business district was established. The railroad came and with it more grouth. commercial blocks, municipal  buildings, hotels, theaters, churches, train depot and opulent Victorian style homes  were erected making Willimantic  one of the showplace communities of Connecticut. Before the 1929 stock market crash, Willimantic was considered  a regional finical and cultural
center boasting one of the highest standard of livings in the region.