BLOCKS - 3

This week, we’ll finish our look at the blocks on Church Street. A 1911 newspaper article said that there were plans to build “a large brick building on Church Street in front of the Murphy Brothers Livery Stable. Herbert Clark planned to raze several horse sheds and a barn and to build four stores that would be “one story in height, of brick mill construction with a gravel roof and a plate glass front. The new Clark Block at 51-65 Church Street became home to a bakery, an outlet store and a ladies shop. In the ‘60s , L.R. Olin’s Wallpaper store, Melo’s Beauty Salon and Dineen Studios were located there. Clark also built a two story brick structure in the rear of 51-65 Church Street. Having finished our look at Church Street we’ll return to northeast corner of Main Street and the actual Turner Block. According to Tom Beardsley, “Many will recall that a fine large building, once a hotel, stood on the Liberty Bank site on Main Street. It was originally  known as the Commercial Hotel (later the “Windham House, the Plaza Hotel and then “The Irvin House”), but was better known as the Turner Block and it was built in 1877 to take advantage of  Willimantic's growing rail traffic. The block also housed a large number of stores, and its rear portion still stands on  Church Street.” The earliest tenants on the Main Street side of the block were the H.L. Hunt Company which sold men’s clothing and Apothecaries Hall which moved to the Church Street side. To the right of the Turner Block was the equally impressive Commercial Block which had been built by J.G. Keigwin in partnership with Allen Lincoln and Edwin Burnham. Keigwin owned the east half of the commercial block and opened a crockery and stove store. Alford’s Hardware Store was on the left of Keigwin’s. Gleason’s Photo Studio and O.A. Session’s store took up the rest of the Commercial Block’s ground floor. Sessions was an undertaker and also dealt in pictures and picture frames. In 1910, the buildings were occupied by the Grand Union Tea Company, Towne Photographers, Bowman’s Tailor Shop, Yonclas Confectionary, Danahey’s Barber Shop, Dondero’s Pool Room, Hunt’s Clothing Store and Giles Hardware. The Commercial block had always been divided between two owners and was known as the “Yonclas Block (west side) and the Lemieux Building (east side)” in 1968 when it was destroyed by fire. The stores in it were the Sherwin-Williams Paint Store, the Lincoln Shop, Superior Electronics and Hurley’s Prep Store. The Mustard Insurance Agency Building was at the east end of the bock and was destroyed as well. The Turner Block too was badly damaged. It had been home to the Church Reed Company since the early 1920s more recently to the Country Squire. The Mustard Building had been part of the Commercial Block from the beginning. It also was the first address listed as being on Union Street. A building that began as a block and had both Union Street and Main Street addresses. “The Cushman Block”, was originally erected by J. Ellsworth Cushman, a local businessman who owned several other pieces of property at the Main and Union Streets junction and conducted a furniture store and a coffin making business in the new building. In 1874, John C. Lincoln purchased the building from Cushman and conducted his well-known furniture business from that location. In August, 1936 people were shocked to learn that the now-called Lincoln Block, sitting in the midst of the city’s business district, was going to be razed and the block “put to some other use”. That turned out to be the Gulf Station that many of us still remember. The station and four other buildings that comprised the beginning of the Lincoln Square area were the first to be razed in the redevelopment project. Today’s photo is a combination of two sections of an app. 1910 panoramic view of Main Street. The tall building on the left is the Turner Block (the Hotel was called The Irvin House at that time. To the right is the four-store Commercial Block and a small attached building. Main Street and Union Street branch off at what became known as Lincoln Square. The building pictured is Lincoln’s Furniture Store and was originally built as The Cushman Block. If you’d like to see many more photos of the places mentioned over these three weeks, go to threadcity.us and check out the galleries named “Blocks”, “ Buildings” and “Main Street Pics”.  We’ll continue our look at Willimantic’s Blocks in a few weeks.