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July 2021
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2013
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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The 3rd Annual Firemen's Field Day at Brookvale Park
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From 1964 until the mid-1970s, Hamden Fire Department career and volunteer personnel, along with their families, joined together in some friendly competition in the Annual Firemen's Field Day at Brooksvale Park. Usually held on the second Sunday of June, the field day was a relaxing afternoon of hot dogs, hamburgers, and soda that included some spirited events like the bucket brigade, hose laying, ladder climb, midnight alarm and horseshoes. The wives and ladies' auxiliaries participated too. Trophies were awarded for first, second and third place in all events.
The annual field days lasted for about ten years. Years later, one final field day for the career and volunteer companies was held at Quinnipiac College in conjunction with the May 1986 Hamden Bicentennial Celebration.
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The photos below are from the June 12, 1966 field day, when all participants were treated to an unexpected final event, for which no trophies were awarded.
Posted 6/7/13
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| Sunday, June 12, 1966 - One of five events was the Hose Laying Contest. Engine 5 and Rescue 2 can be seen in the background. (Photo by Ed Doiron, Sr.) |
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| June 12, 1966 - The Bucket Brigade. The object was to fill a 55 gallon drum until the inflated ball inside floated over the top. (Photo by Ed Doiron, Sr.) |
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| June 12, 1966 - The "paid" department's old Platoon One was well represented, too. L-R: Capt. Francis Leddy, Ff. Jerold Bradbury, Lt. Joe McDermott, Ff. Bill Davin (in hat), Ff. Russ Smith, and Ff. Ed Doiron. (Photo by Stan Brown courtesy of Joe McDermott) |
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And then, just as the festivities were winding down . . .
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| From the New Haven Journal-Courier, Monday, June 13, 1966. (Courtesy of Gil Spencer) All color photos by Ed Doiron, Sr. |
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| New Haven Register, Tuesday, June 14, 1966 |
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| Advertisement for the Connecticut Doughnut Company from the 1965 edition of "The Venture," yearbook of Hamden High School |
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| Today, the General Rental Center at 3800 Whitney Avenue, and Smokey's at 3810 Whitney Avenue, both occupy the site of the old Connecticut Doughnut Company building. |
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| CLICK to enlarge |
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This is how Station 3 looked on June 9, 1978, when it was not quite eight years old. Engine 3 occupied the left bay, Truck 2 the middle bay, and Car 30 (now Car 3) the right bay. At the time, Car 30 was a red 1977 Plymouth station wagon. The Red Cross boat, acquired by the Department in 1948, can be seen behind the ladder truck.
The original front of the building was encrusted with small pebbles. About ten years after this photo was taken, the front of the station was rebuilt following an accident that took down the pillar between the left and middle bays. For several months thereafter the apparatus exited through the rear bay doors. A new facade made of brick featured a larger middle bay opening, which allowed the station to accommodate the two tower aerial ladder trucks that were stationed there from 1991 on.
Posted 6/7/13
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40 Years Ago!
Before the HFD organized a Mountain Rescue Team in 1976, would-be mountain climbers still had to be rescued off the Sleeping Giant. Forty years ago this week, Sleeping Giant Park ranger Tim Steele, who was also a member of Volunteer Co. 5, rescued a 12-year old from the quarry face without benefit of the sophisticated gear used today. Ff. Ed. Doiron of Engine 5 is pictured in the lower photo below, leading the boy to level ground.
Posted 6/7/13
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| New Haven Register, Sunday, June 3, 1973 (Courtesy of Gil Spencer) |
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| Hamden Chronicle article courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society |
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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR FALL 2013
Have fun while making a difference. Experience Corps needs people age 50+ to tutor literacy in Hamden and New Haven elementary schools 10+ hours a week starting in October. Training is provided. Volunteers also participate in fun community events to encourage reading. A small stipend and college tuition/loan help for a child or grandchild provided. You must have a high school diploma or GED and be able to pass a background check via fingerprints. Interested? Call Sheila at 203-752-3059 x2900 or email volunteer@aoascc.org
Experience Corps - Greater New Haven is a program of the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut and a proud member of the National Service Network. For more information, please visit www.experiencecorps.org
Contact information:
Sheila Greenstein, AARP Experience Corps Program Manager
Agency on Aging of South Central CT
1 Long Wharf Drive
New Haven, CT 06511
Fax: 203-752-0048
Posted 6/7/13
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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June 14, 2013 - The week marks the fourth anniversary of the Hamden Fire Retirees' Association's website. Thanks to the generous contributions of photos and stories from dozens of HFD retirees and other fans of the website, we have published hundreds of photographs and scores of articles about past and present members of the Hamden Fire Department. We are always looking for more photos and articles about life in the HFD.
We are staying connected and preserving our past.
Posted 6/14/13
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June 14th is FLAG DAY.
Fly the flag today, and every day.
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IMPORTANT!
Two members of the HFRA and HGSRA contacted the website regarding this column by David Walker, published recently in USA TODAY. Please read:
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Hamden and North Haven considering
consolidation of emergency dispatch centers.
Is "Regionalization" in the future?
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| 1963 - Ff. Wilbur Baker, Chief Dispatcher |
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| 1982 - Disp. Marge Gambardella Yacano |
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| 2012 - Disp. #317 Brian Esposito |
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June 13, 1939 - New Pumper
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| June 13, 1939 - (L-R) Commissioner Albert Ruwet, Commissioner Thomas Miller and Chief Charles Loller. (Photo by I.A. Sneiderman from HFRA Archives) |
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74 years ago this week the Department accepted delivery of a 500 g.p.m. pumper built on a Diamond-T chassis by the Woods Engineering Service of Topsfield, Massachusetts. The pumper was placed in service at Headquarters and remained there until it was replaced by the 1954 Maxim that was purchased with the help of a grant from Civil Defense.
This was the second of five Diamond-Ts that served the Department. Earlier the previous year, Hamden accepted delivery of the 1938 Diamond-T Emergency Squad.
After 1954, the 1939 Diamond-T served as Engine 6 and Engine 7 before being sold in 1977 to a private buyer.
Posted 6/14/13
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The nose of the 1939 Diamond-T can been seen at the far left in the October 1965 photo below. Hamden school kids gathered at the old Stop & Shop parking lot adjacent to St. Ann's Church during the annual Fire Prevention Week display of fire apparatus. With the recent delivery of the 1965 Mack, and the resulting shuffling of apparatus, the '39 Diamond-T had just been assigned to Volunteer Co. 7.
Fire personnel, left to right, are Lt. William Hines, Dep. Chief Everett Doherty, Lt. Daniel O'Connell, Chief V. Paul Leddy and Dep. Chief Training Officer Daniel Hume. In the background, between Lt. O'Connell and Chief Leddy, is a very youthful Jim Wetmore of Volunteer Co. 7 beside their 1935 Dodge.
Posted 6/14/13
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| (Photo by I.A. Sneiderman from HFRA archives) |
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Standing (L-R) Asst. Chief August Ball, Asst. Chief Thayer Jones, Asst. Chief Raymond C. Spencer, and an unidentified member. Seated (L-R) Commissioner Thomas Miller, Commissioner Leroy Jackson, Commissioner Albert Ruwet, Chief Charles Loller, Asst. Fire Marshal Thomas Pender.
Posted 6/14/13
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| June 15th 1978 - Couldn't resist reposting this photo taken by a bored firefighter sitting watch 35 years ago. |
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HFRA Honorary Member Lucyann Roth
It is with deep regret that we announce the passing on June 9th of honorary HFRA member Lucyann Roth, widow of our brother retiree, Vincent Roth, who passed away in 2007. A mass of Christian burial was celebrated in Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church on Thursday, June 13th at 10:00 a.m. Interment followed in All Saints Cemetery.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Lucyann's family:
CLICK HERE: View Lucyann Roth's Obituary by New Haven Register
Revised 6/13/13
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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To Our Website Visitors
This year the HFRA website will be on an abbreviated summer schedule. There will be a regular weekly update next Friday, June 28, but during July and August the website will be updated bi-weekly on the second and fourth Fridays - July 12, 26, August 9 and 23. Regular weekly website updates will resume on September 6th. As always, important interim announcements will be posted above the masthead.
Posted 6/21/13
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The Summer Meeting of the Hamden Fire Retirees' Association
will take place at the Hamden Elks on Tuesday, July 9th at 1 p.m.
Menu to be announced shortly.
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| CLICK HERE to view more photos and newspaper accounts. |
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| Rite Box Co.
2317 Whitney Avenue
Thursday, June 20, 1963
Rite Box, a Hamden company that manufactured cardboard boxes, was located off the east side of Whitney Avenue, south of Dixwell Avenue, in a complex that housed several other manufacturing concerns. The fire got started in the warehouse portion of the building. The alarm came in at 6:48 in the evening and a second alarm was sounded at 7.
The building was located approximately where Hamden Center One is located now. The company eventually moved to Sherman Avenue.
Click on the photo at left to view newspaper accounts and more photos of the fire.
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This 1965 aerial view confirms that lots of changes have occurred in Centerville since the 1960s. The Hamden Center high rises and a parking garage now stand where Rite Box (#2317 Whitney Avenue) and many other businesses were located years ago.
Posted 6/21/13
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| 1965 aerial view of Centerville - East side of Whitney Avenue, south of Dixwell. Nos. 2305 and 2313 are still standing. Nos. 2311, 2315 and 2317 and the other buildings near them were razed in the early-1980s to make way for the two Hamden Center buildings and a parking garage. CLICK to enlarge. |
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| June 20, 1963 - Photo by Bill Brainard, courtesy of Chan Brainard |
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Rite Box, June 20, 1963 - Firefighters Burt Hillocks (foreground) and Dave Howe overhauling with booster lines. Dave served from January 2, 1948 until his retirement 29 years ago this week. He passed away in 1989. Burt served from September 11, 1950 until he retired in February 1981 at the rank of captain. Burt passed away last September at the age of 91.
Posted 6/21/13
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184 Greenway Street
March 17, 1964
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| Chief V. Paul Leddy and Dep. Chief James Strain (Old Platoon 3) inspect aftermath of house fire at 184 Greenway Street to determine cause. (Photo from HFRA archives - photographer unknown) |
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Ancient communications hardware from Station 5
donated to the Connecticut Fire Museum in Manchester
(No, it's not the Gamewell tape register.)
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| 1953 - Firefighters Jack Laffin and Fred Fletcher with three volunteers on apparatus floor (Gilbert Spencer.) |
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Career Firefighters Jack Laffin (second from left) and Fred Fletcher (second from right) posed with three Co. 5 volunteers in this 1953 photo taken at Station 5.
On the shelf above the Gamewell tape register sits a modern desk telephone for 1953, a Western Electric Model 500 (still manufactured until the 1980s).
On the wall right above the modern phone is a c. 1910 Western Electric 295 walnut subscriber set with exposed gongs (see arrow). Known more familiarly as a "bell box," it was once connected to a Western Electric 51AL dial desk stand ("candlestick") telephone.
The old wooden bell box in the 1953 photo was removed from the wall in the early 1970s during a repaint of the apparatus floor and was fully restored years later.
In 2002, that same walnut bell box was donated to the Connecticut Fire Museum in Manchester along with the same type of candlestick telephone that was connected to it before the more modern telephone was installed.
The old dial desk stand telephone and bell box (below) still work perfectly at the Connecticut Fire Museum in Manchester.
Posted 6/21/13
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| Fully restored bell box from Station 5, with candlestick phone, donated to the Connecticut Fire Museum in 2002. |
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Tracy Ann Tramontano
It is with deep regret that we announce the passing on June 16th of Tracy Ann Tramontano, wife of former fire chief and brother retiree, John Tramontano.
Calling hours will be held Saturday, June 22nd from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the William F. Smart Sr. Memorial Home, Franklin-Tilton Road in Tilton, NH. A committal service will be held Monday, June 24th at 11:00 a.m. at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery, 110 D. W. Highway in Boscawen, NH. Those wishing may make memorial contributions in Tracy’s name to the Hawk Composite Squadron, Civil Air Patrol, Laconia Airport, 65 Aviation Drive, Gilford, NH 03249.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Chief Tramontano and his family:
CLICK HERE: View Obituary for Tracy Ann Tramontano
Posted 6/18/13
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2013
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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NEXT REGULAR WEBSITE UPDATE IS FRIDAY, JULY 12th
REGULAR UPDATES UNTIL SEPTEMBER 6th WILL BE BI-WEEKLY
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UPDATE: June 28, 1:30 p.m.
The FIREWORKS are ON for TONIGHT!
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Please keep Prescott, AZ firefighters and their families in your thoughts and prayers.
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The Hamden Fire Retirees' Association is pleased to be among the many supporters of the 20th Annual Hamden Volunteer Firefighters Independence Day Fireworks display tonight at Town Center Park at Meadowbrook. As always, the event will be a great time for the whole family and our town!
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To Our Website Visitors
This year the HFRA website will be on an abbreviated summer schedule. During July and August the website will be updated bi-weekly on the second and fourth Fridays - July 12, 26, August 9 and 23. Regular weekly website updates will resume on September 6th. As always, important interim announcements will be posted immediately above the masthead.
Revised 6/21/13
| HFRA Summer Meeting
Tuesday July 9th, 1 p.m.
Hamden Elks' Lodge, 175 School Street
Menu: Roasted Chicken Caesar Salad - $5.00
All you can eat - All welcome
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75 Years Ago!
Ladder Training on Putnam Avenue
It was quite an event for the locals, especially the kids, when the Hamden Fire Department conducted ground ladder training at the Whitneyville fire station in the summer of 1938. There were about 18 paid firefighters on the department at the time. The only department officers were the volunteer fire chief, Charles Loller, and the three volunteer assistant chiefs, Raymond C. Spencer, August Ball and Thayer Jones, all appointed by the Board of Fire Commissioners, and the volunteer captains and lieutenants elected by the individual fire companies. The Town appointed career officers from among the paid men four years later in April 1942.
Photos of this training session were provided to the HFRA by the late G. Donald Steele, an avid fire buff and longtime member of Co. 5, who was in his late teens at the time. Decades later, Don was one of the original state employees with the Connecticut Commission on Fire Prevention and Control who helped to establish various certification criteria back in the early 1970s.
Posted 6/28/13
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Asst. Chief August Ball directed firefighters raising a 40-foot extension ladder, complete with tormentors. The department had such ladders in 50-foot lengths as well. Once the department acquired its first aerial ladder truck in 1958, extension ladders with tormentor poles were used almost exclusively for training.
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| Adults and kids alike lined Putnam Avenue to watch the activities as the cameraman faced west. The back end of the brand new 1938 Seagrave 600 GPM canopy-cab pumper can be seen in the background. |
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The Whitneyville fire station was built in 1927, replacing the wood frame structure that was given to Whitneyville Co. 3 by the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. in the early 19-teens. Co. 3 sold the building to the Town in 1949. It was closed in September 1970 when "new" Station 3 was opened at the corner of Ridge Road and Hartford Tpke.
The former Whitneyville Fire Station Today
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| Old Station 3 - May 2013 |
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| Photo Evoked Childhood Memories With a
Dual HFD Connection
Several weeks ago following the passing of Ricky Kenyon, we posted this December 1969 photo showing Ricky and fellow rookie Bob Chadwick training on Welton Street. Within a few days the website received an email from Lieut. Jeff Pechmann, who wrote:
"As soon as I saw the picture of Ricky Kenyon and Bob Chadwick training I knew where it was even though I was only 6 months old when the photo was taken. The white cape in the immediate background is my grandparents' house. My grandfather (Richie Lostritto's brother) built that house and lived in it most of his adult life. I spent countless hours playing in that field before the houses that are now there were built."
Richie Lostritto, Jeff's great uncle and an active HFRA member, was the department's Supt. of Alarms and Apparatus from 1968 until his retirement in 1985. Thank you, Jeff, for sharing your story.
Posted 6/28/13
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| Ff. Harold Prescher at Station 3 in 1995. Harold was the originator of the first HFD map book. |
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Hamden Fire Department Officer and Driver Roster - 1927-28
From the City Directory
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| Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society |
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| c. 1988 - Station 2 - L-R: Ff. Gary Couture, Lt. Dennis Baker, Ff. Jay Connolly, FF. Bill Davin, and Capt. Mike Ambriscoe. Ffs. Dick Carney and Tim O'Flynn are partially visible right behind Connolly and Ambriscoe. (Courtesy of Dennis Baker) |
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60 Years Ago!
Sixty years ago this week this truck was headed up Ives Street with a load of cutlery from the Fleming Company. It didn't make it. The building in the background, located at the corner of Whitney Avenue, presently houses the Mt. Carmel Wine and Spirit Shoppe. The Mt. Carmel Volunteer Fire Co. was first quartered in a rear wing of that building - now demolished - until the present station was completed in 1926. The Fleming Company, located at Ives and Broadway, burned down 15 years later.
Posted 6/28/13
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| The Hamden Chronicle - Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society |
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2013 Summer Website Schedule: The next regular HFRA website update will be Friday, July 12th.
As always, important interim announcements will be posted immediately above the masthead.
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