USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Meriden > Years of Meriden 150: published in connection with the observance of the city's sesquicentennial, June 17-23, 1956 > Part 11
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Mementoes of the Spanish War are in various parts of the city. A shell received from the War Department, as the result of efforts by the late Thomas L. Reilly, who was mayor of Meriden and later congressman and sheriff of New Haven County, was placed in City Park. There also is a large granite stone with a nameplate in honor of Capt. Bowen. In the club room of the organization is a bronze tablet, made of metal taken from the wreckage of the battleship Maine.
But the most striking memorial of the services of the Spanish War veterans is the Hiker Shaft on Memorial Boulevard, Broad Street. On November 13, 1940, Francis R. Danaher, then mayor, received a request from Past Commander Edward B. Hall, memorial chairman of the Bowen Camp, for $3,000 of city funds to be applied to the erection of this monument. Dr. Ernest W. Spicer, adjutant of the camp, supplied a list of 206 names to be inscribed upon it. The list was compiled by the late William G. Hiller. The monument consists of the bronze figure of an infantryman holding a rifle across his body. The figure is eight feet high, and stands on a Barre granite base. It was placed on the second green of the boulevard.
When the Hiker Memorial was dedicated, November 23, 1941, the event was marked by a parade containing units of all veterans groups and sons and daughters of veterans, with ceremonies held
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THE SPANISH WAR
afterward when the monument was unveiled. At that time, 18 members of Company L were alive, but the number has dwindled since.
During World War II, on October 8, 1942, the Bowen Camp contributed to the scrap drive then in progress one of its cherished mementoes, the cannon "Asaltador," which had helped to defend Morro Castle on Havana Harbor.
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Street Railways
WHILE THE battle of the "short lines" was moving toward a climax through the extension of interurban railroads set up to compete with the New Haven, Meriden was entering a new phase of transportation within the city limits.
The street railway system began with the horse as its source of motive power. The Meriden Horse Railroad started operations in 1886, with lines along the principal streets of the city. The growth of population and the spread of local industry assured its success almost from the start. Horses, although slow, were reliable, and riding the cars was a great improvement on walking to and from work. For two years, the system did well - until the great fire of January 10, 1888. The Pratt Street barns, where the horses were stabled, burned to the ground with the loss of 79 horses, and total destruction of property valued at $43,000.
This disaster did not put the road out of business, but it did result in its electrification. On February 26, 1888 the Daft system was adopted. Daft was an appropriate name for it, in view of the defects of its design. Two sets of small wheels ran on parallel overhead wires, the current from which was drawn through a pole attached to the roof of the car. These wheels were often dislodged, and the car's crew had to put them back into place. The jiggling poles were a strain on the car's roof, and leaks developed. In rainy weather, water poured down on the heads of passengers. The new system went into operation July 11, 1888, and the troubles began amost at once. After several months, the company decided it had had enough of Daft, and went back to horses.
On September 17, 1892, John W. Coe and C. W. Cahill, both connected with the Swift packing interests, bought out the horse railroad. They owned it until October 18, 1893 when a Phila- delphia syndicate purchased it, and set plans in motion to electrify it. The electrification was successful. Overhead wires were used as before, and the current was carried through poles in the same manner, but the connection to the wires was firm, and the cars
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proved reliable in service. Nine new cars were put into operation in January 1894. The horses were sold. One hundred of them went to one purchaser.
A party of officials took the first trip over the line and attended a gala performance of "Pinafore" at the Meriden Opera House.
The first accident to be recorded occurred January 6, 1894, at Wallace's bridge, when one of the cars hit a wagon, but the only damage was a broken axle on the wagon.
The Meriden trolleys ran until 1932, when all street railway service was abandoned here, and the buses of the Connecticut Company took over the assignment of providing public transpor- tation within the city limits and to the suburbs.
The trolley rails were removed in some places and covered over in others. The routes in service while the system was in full operation included Colony Street, Britannia Street and Griswold Street as far as Cambridge Street, with turn-outs opposite the Bradley Home, then the residence of Clarence P. Bradley, and near the center, about opposite Mosher's Drug Store; also the length of East and West Main Streets, with cars running as far east as Pomeroy Avenue. A branch line served Curtis Street and adjacent streets. Another line ran up Pratt Street to Broad, and through cars followed the old route through Brookside Park, across Broad Street and on to Westfield. There was also electric car service on Hanover Street and to Hanover Park, which flourished as an amusement park through the first quarter of the century, although its heyday was probably in the "gay nineties."
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
Notes of a Spacious Era
THE THREE decades which closed the nineteenth century and the opening decade of the twentieth century were an era of spacious, leisured living. During these 40 years, plus a few extra for good measure, Meriden was growing up. A pattern of industrial growth had been established. The city was pushing ahead, but the pressure applied was easy and natural. It was the difference between shaking the reins over the old mare's back and cramming a heavy foot upon the accelerator that lets loose the power of 200 horses.
There was probably never a time before or since when the average citizen could get so much fun out of life with a minimum of nervous strain. The so-called horse-and-buggy age was also an age of bicycles, open-sided trolley cars in summer, basket picnics for the whole family, band concerts, firemen's parades, special excursions on the railroads and the short lines, Turner festivals, Saengerbund conventions, and boating under the moon over Hanover Pond.
There was roller skating at the Meriden rink on Hanover Street, near the corner of Randolph Avenue, with instruction for patrons who needed it, and music in the evenings. Exhibitions of speed and fancy skating were held weekly. Roller polo, a game for agile assassins, who banged at one another as much as at the puck, provided added excitement. Roller polo leagues were pro- moted for profit, and some of the individual stars gained a statewide reputation. It was a game as fast as hockey, but even rougher. Masquerade parties were also held at the rink. The German-American Society sponsored some of the largest of these events.
From the 80's on, the carriage horse had a mechanical rival that brought individual transportation within the reach of almost everybody. It was the bicycle, which multiplied the possibilities of the leg muscles for getting from place to place. The bicycle, originally called a velocipede, had been designed as far back as 1865. A velocipede, ridden by a Frenchman named Lillement, appeared in New Haven in 1871. The front wheel was enormous,
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but the back wheel was about the size of the wheel of a baby buggy, and it was all too easy to take a "header" over the handle- bars. Nevertheless, there were plenty of young men in Meriden willing to take a chance with one of these contraptions.
Meriden came in early in this sport, largely because of the Meriden Wheel Club, organized December 18, 1880, when there were only about a dozen local citizens who had ever ridden a bicycle. At first the club met in the office of Dr. T. S. Rust, dentist, but in 1882 moved into quarters in the Palace Block, which it occupied until after its 25th anniversary, when the group was disbanded.
The organization charged only 25 cents a year dues and gained a membership of about 200. It was the oldest and easily the most active of the wheel clubs of the state, exerting a powerful influence for legislation favorable to cyclists. Henry T. King, state representative, later to serve as Meriden's World War I mayor, was secretary. With J. E. Brainard, president of the club, he was instrumental in the organization of the Connecticut Federation of Cyclists. They took the lead in drawing up, intro- ducing, and supporting bills for the regulation of bicycle traffic and the improvement of roads for the benefit of bicycle riders, promoting the construction of graveled bicycle paths paralleling the main highways. Other outstanding members of the club were Dr. Rust, Max E. Miller, William Collins, Frank A. Stevens, Reuben J. Rice, Wells McMasters, Joseph Hyde, E. J. Pooley, Harry A. Stevens, Albert L. Stetson, John W. Lane, and C. Win King.
The League of American Wheelmen held their national con- vention here one year in the old city hall that was destroyed by fire in 1904.
The local pioneers of bicycling were soon joined by many others, both men and women. Introduction of the safety bicycle, with wheels of the same size, popularized the sport with women. When tandem bicycles came along, husband and wife, boy and girl friend could go far into the country on Sunday afternoons, with other companions or just as a twosome. The more zealous cyclists took part in "century runs," covering a hundred miles or more in one trip.
Some even went touring on their vacations astride of wheels. A party consisting of A. H. Wilcox, W. H. Squire, J. E. Brainard,
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L. C. Evarts, the Rev. J. W. Logan, W. F. Hutchinson, Arthur E. Hall, G. N. Shepley, Charles Bryant, and George Brown took a trip by wheel from Meriden to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 1894. They covered more than 500 miles on their bicycles, traveling the rest of the way on boats and trains.
The gentlemen riders, who took it easy and managed to survey at least part of the countryside, were sometimes forced off the road by the speed demons known as "scorchers." These were the equivalent of the more reckless "hot rodders" of today. Wearing loud caps and tight-fitting jerseys, they bent low over the handle- bars, and made the dust and chickens fly.
There were real speed artists, the genuine article, who competed in regulated contests. Meriden had a number of outstanding wheelmen in this class, among them Arthur M. Curtis, who held the New York to Boston record, and Daniel J. Canary, who became world-famous as a trick cyclist as well as a fast rider. He traveled all over the United States, in Britain and the countries of Europe, giving exhibitions of his daring and skill.
Some local sportsmen liked to stage impromptu contests for side bets. Arthur Curtis was once induced to take part in a novel race with a running horse owned by Charles H. Cheeney as his competitor. The race started from the corner of Cook Avenue and Hanover Street, and the finish line was at the post office in Yalesville. The horse was hitched to a sulky. Curtis was paced by the tandem team of E. K. Brainard and W. L. Barnard, which dropped out at Walnut Grove cemetery. By that time, the horse was out of sight. But the cyclist put on an extra burst of speed and caught up to the rig at the culvert in Yalesville. A little farther along, he passed the horse, and crossed the finish line as the winner by a considerable margin.
Tennis, often called "rackets," was becoming popular here in the late 90's. At the old courts on Lincoln Street, some of the well- known young business and professional men of the city liked to play in the late summer afternoon. Abiram Chamberlain, presi- dent of the Home National Bank was reported to be "no mean adversary." Willis J. Prouty, of the high school faculty, was another staunch contestant. Robert W. Carter, Dr. E. W. Pierce, James P. Platt, A. B. Mather, John W. Coe, and Buell Goodsell were among the regulars of the period. The Meriden Lawn Tennis Club was formed in 1887, and promoted the sport
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vigorously for a decade or more.
Golf had its beginnings here a little later than tennis. The Meriden Golf Club was organized in 1898 at the residence of Dr. E. T. Bradstreet. A golf course in those days was known as a "links," because the holes were laid out like a string of link sausages bent into some peculiar shapes. The first golf links was on North Colony Street, just beyond the railroad underpass. It consisted of nine holes, hewn roughly out of cow pasture. Gutta percha or "feather" balls were used, with a range, for the best players, of 50 to 60 yards. When a new ball was invented that would carry 150 to 175 yards, some of the players objected to it because it could be lost too easily.
The second golf course was in Bradley Park, a nine-hole layout which was in use for a dozen years or more. The former club- house is still standing.
The Highland Country Club in Westfield was built in 1915. In its early days, the membership was divided between Meriden and Middletown residents. But the Middletown members with- drew to found their own course in Cromwell, and the burden of supporting the club eventually became too heavy for the Meriden membership. The 18-hole course, a most picturesque layout, was owned by the Wilcox Realty Company, which also owned the clubhouse. After the club disbanded in the 30's, the course was allowed to revert to its natural state, and few traces of it remain. During World War II, the clubhouse was converted into apartments for war housing. It was demolished after the war.
But golf was an exercise for the few during its early period. The majority of residents took their exercise in other ways, including baseball. Many baseball teams were promoted here, and some excellent players were developed. Thomas L. Reilly, mayor at the time of the Centennial, and Cornelius J. Danaher, when he was an aggressive young attorney, were two ardent promoters of the sport.
In Meriden and near its outskirts were several popular amuse- ment resorts. Hemlock Grove and Terrace Garden drew crowds in the summer evenings and over the week ends. But Hanover Park, offering a greater variety of pastimes and more space in which to indulge them, was the principal center of attraction. There was a merry-go-round, with a double circle of animals, almost life-size, and a mechanical source of music, powered by
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Winter Scene on Colony Street, circa 1890
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Meriden Freight Depot and engine in the 1860's
Meriden, Cromwell & Waterbury Railway Locomotive
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The Meriden House after the Blizzard of 1888 Corner of Colony and West Main Streets
Locomotive at Meriden Railroad Station, same storm
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Meriden's Railroad Plaza in 1956
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Corner East Main and State Streets when location was known as "Paddock's Corner"
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Meriden's Business Center
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"The Loop" before 1880
Perkins Street, looking east. Crown Street in background
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Parade on East Main Street in the 90's
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Meriden Y.M.C.A. on Colony Street Building stood on present site of Boynton's, Inc.
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Y.M.C.A. Clubhouse and Tennis Courts Off Lincoln Street, early in this century
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Looking south from the corner of Church Street, about 1885
NOTES OF A SPACIOUS ERA
steam, in the center of the ring. After the park had been dismantled, one of the big lions from the carousel was borrowed by the Meriden Lions Club and used for the crowning piece on its float in the Tercentenary Parade of 1935.
Vaudeville acts, balloon ascensions, exhibits of various kinds were weekly features at Hanover Park. Some fast baseball games were played on the adjacent ball field. In one of these games, on April 4, 1890, the New York world's champions met the Meriden Resolutes, a semi-pro team made up of local stars. There were many others.
Hanover Park, which comprised 30 acres, could also boast of its boating facilities. The boat house near the pavilion housed 36 rowboats and a naphtha launch in 1895. The sail around the lake and up the Quinnipiac River on this launch, the "Amelia," was available at the price of one dime per passenger.
Roller skating and dancing in the Casino were other diversions. With its numerous concessions in action, the place looked like a small section of Savin Rock. But there were wide lawns and big trees to shelter the families which spread out basket picnics in the shade. The electric cars brought them in swarms when the weather was favorable. Every seat was crowded with adults and youngsters, and some perched precariously on the running boards, where they impeded the progress of the conductor as he edged his way along to collect fares. Smokers occupied the last seat in the car or the rear platform.
The styles in dress, for both men and women, were rather elaborate in this period. In 1890, a fashion article in the Meriden Journal stated:
"The girl of the year will be shaped in a new way. She will have knees. To make knees, a woman has only one resort, which is tying back the dress around the figure just at the line of the knees. If you want to get yourself up to look exactly like the extremely up-to-date girl of the year, begin at your underwear and have it shaped as tightly to your figure as possible. If necessary, wear tights. Have the dress fitted closely around the hips, and have it begin to flare just below the belt in the back. Have the flare set out like a great fan, taking care there is no fullness at the sides."
Many seasons were to pass before skirts would creep upward to the knee line and even above - in the "flapper" fashions of the turbulent 20's. The pancake hat, the peach basket hat, the wide-
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NOTES OF A SPACIOUS ERA
brimmed sailor hat, the pompadour stuffed with a "rat," the Princess gown, the sheath gown and many other vagaries of style were to come and go. The snapshots in Meriden family albums would show a long procession of these styles, all of which appear strange to the modern eye - until they are revived by some couturier claiming an "original" creation.
But the men of the 90's had their vanities, too.
To quote from The Journal of December 7, 1895:
"Is there a break in the front crease of your trousers just above the shoe tops? Well, there should be. Notice the next dozen well-dressed men you meet. If the break is there, they are not only well dressed but correctly dressed, so far as their trousers go. This year's derby has a full crown, brim of medium width and well curled. A silk hat should always be worn with the Prince Albert coat, and of course with full dress. The cutaway is still the thing for business. New styles in cutaways are often worn with waistcoats of contrasting material. The new topcoats are in box effects - very striking."
Meriden business and professional men were careful about their dress. Bankers, lawyers, and doctors wore somber black or gray, but the young bloods of the city broke out in checks and plaids. The derby hat crowned two men out of three during the colder months. The others wore caps. Hard straw hats with wide brims were affected, especially by the younger men, after the weather turned warm. No man went without a hat. Nearly every man had some sort of facial adornment in the form of whiskers. Those without beards grew moustaches trained in handle-bar shapes or allowed to droop at the sides of the mouth. Few moustaches were closely trimmed. Barber shops displayed rows of shaving mugs which were the individual property of their regular customers. The mutton-chop whisker, edging down the cheek, was the special tag of the banker, and at least one Meriden banker sported this type of whisker until his death after the close of World War I.
Just as a fast sports car today is a possession for the young in heart, so the fast trotting horse was a property for men with sporting blood and youthful spirit before the automobile came along. During the winters, when there was good sleighing, many a trotting duel took place on the wider streets, some of them spur-of-the-moment affairs; others arranged to draw out side bets.
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During the summer, such activities were transferred to the old trotting park at the north end, near Bailey Avenue. Traces of this layout may still be observed from the air according to persons who have flown over it recently.
Adjacent to the track were the fair grounds, where annual fairs were held for many years. The Connecticut Agricultural Society purchased the property, off Kensington Avenue, in 1890. But the fairs began to wane in popularity not long after that, and were discontinued in 1895.
During the Centennial in 1906, the trotting park was sold by the Meriden Park Company to Albert N. Butler and Leonard Suzio for about $10,000. The purchasers said they intended to subdivide the 56 acres of land, between Kensington and Bailey Avenues, into building lots. They stated also that the building on high land near the grandstand would be retained as a clubhouse to be rented for socials and outings. Much of the tract has been built over, but the structure which once housed agricultural exhibits, baked goods and fancy work, entered in competition for prizes, is no longer standing.
The spaciousness characteristic of the era distinguished the homes which were built by men of substance, and even those in the middle income brackets were able to erect houses of eight rooms or more. The dwelling of the average family was a sprawling affair, with broad verandahs and bay windows on the sides. Usually, there was a cupola to rise about the roof line, and a port-cochere extending over the carriage drive. Inside, the instincts of the period for over-elaborate decoration were given full scope. Furniture in ungainly shapes crowded the living room. Dark draperies hung beside the windows, with lace curtains at the sash. Antimacassars on the backs of chairs caught the pomade which might rub off the head of the over-barbered man. Whatnots, covered with sea shells, little porcelain figurines, and curios of all kinds stood in the corner. The hearth was flanked with screens hand-painted by mother or one of the girls. A French ormulu clock, covered with a glass dome, probably stood on the mantel. The wallpaper might be dark green or red. The woodwork was always dark, and generally of mahogany, cherry, stained oak or black walnut. In such sombre rooms, the life of the family was by no means gloomy or dull, for there were all sorts of parlor diversions.
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Musical evenings, when everyone gathered around the Wilcox & White "pneumatic symphony" or self-playing organ, occurred often. These organs, a much-prized possession in many Meriden homes, were a local product. They could be played by hand, or a perforated paper roll could be run through the mechanism to produce "the most intricate and beautiful music without touching the fingers to the keys." The player piano was a later development of the same company in its factory on Cambridge Street and was manufactured until the concern finally disbanded. The Aeolian Company, at Tremont and Cambridge Streets, also made players and went into the phonograph record business in its later operations here. The parlor organs and player pianos were gradually displaced by the phonograph which, in turn, suffered a decline with the advent of radio broadcasting.
Meriden homes could be and often were well equipped with local products before the dawn of the new century: silverware from Meriden Britannia; lamps and lighting fixtures from a number of companies, including the Miller Company, the Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Company, the Handel Company, the Meriden Bronze Company; table knives and forks from the Meriden Cutlery Company; porcelain and glass novelties from the C. F. Monroe Company; nickel silver specialties from the E. A. Bliss Company; cut glassware from the J. D. Bergen Company or T. Niland & Co .; silver-plated napkin rings and salts and peppers made by Wilbur B. Hall. Some of these names have been all but forgotten, but they represented manufacturers important in the Meriden of that day.
Meriden had its share of total abstainers, whose lips never touched anything stronger than coffee or tea, but there were also plenty of families which served beer and wine sold through local enterprise. The Meriden Brewing Company, an affiliate of the Connecticut Breweries Company, produced large quantities of beer in its plant on South Colony Street, abutting on the line of the Consolidated Railroad. It had a capacity of 100,000 barrels a year. Its "Golden Pale Ale" and "Pale Extra Lager" were in large demand in the 90's, but the business lapsed later. Attempts were made to revive it at different periods, but the old brewery finally fell into disuse for its original purpose. E. J. Burke's tire recapping plant occupies part of the old buildings.
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