Willimantic's Blocks Part 6 by Tom Beardsley 11-4-2023

This week’s article will continue our look at Willimantic’s blocks and is a digest of Tom Beardsley’s extensive research into the history of what was known as “The Mazzola Block”. “In the 1880s, Irish-born Daniel F. Flaherty purchased an ancient Main Street tenement house and barns. He planned to build a fine new business block with apartments in the rapidly expanding city.  In December 1891, a local businessman, Samuel Adams, purchased the barn on Flaherty’s new property and moved it to his High Street lot. In February, 1892, Flaherty commissioned the well-known local builder Michael Sullivan, to erect the Flaherty Block on the site of the old tenement house. A section of the house was taken down and reassembled in the rear of the lot to allow for the excavation of a cellar.  The remaining wooden structures were demolished in March,1892, and construction progressed rapidly. On April 27, 1892, the Willimantic Chronicle noted that “The substantial foundation for Flaherty’s new brick block on upper Main Street .is well advanced by Michael Sulli van.”  On May 24, 1892, it was reported that the “timbers for the first floor in Flaherty Block on Upper Main Street are being placed into position today.” Work on Flaherty’s new business and residential block continued throughout the summer of 1892. In August, Armand Trudeau, a local grocer, rented the new blocks west store. The Flaherty Block was completed in September 1892 and its eight apartments were immediately rented.  The borough authorities renumbered its homes and businesses in late 1892 and the new Flaherty block became 931, 933 and 935 Main St., Willimantic.  The latest addition to Main became the home of varied businesses.  Number 933 was the address of the block’s apartments on the second and third floors. The first tenants in the new building reflected the city’s Irish and French-Canadian population in 1892. Flaherty ran a saloon and pool and billiards hall in the new building’s west store, and in 1894 occupied one of his apartments.  On Oct. 5, 1897, Flaherty sold the block to William Ross of Chaplin, and moved to Hartford.  Ross hired Flaherty's friend, John J. Murphy, to manage the saloon. On July 26, 1905, William Ross sold the Flaherty block to Alphonse L. Gelinas who became the building's third owner. Gelinas owned a highly regarded livery stable and was the proprietor of a saloon at 953 Main St. In 1907 he established a real estate business in an apartment in his recently acquired building. Other businesses in the Gelinas block included a bakery operated by Mrs. Way, William F Pember’s Thread City Laundry and shoemaker Isadore Heller's store. Gelinas hired Louis Belanger to operate the saloon in the block. It quickly became a favorite French-Canadian watering hole. The Belanger Corporation was established on June 14, 1913, with capital of $8,000. For more than six years, Gelinas’ partner operated both a saloon and a beer bottling business in the block. Gelinas was president of the corporation, and Belanger was secretary-treasurer.  Louis Belanger was born in Baltic on Aug. 11, 1871, and came to Willimantic as a child when his parents found work in the city's cotton mills. On leaving school, Belanger worked at American Thread and in Alphonse Gelinas’ livery stable, and in 1907 Gelinas had no hesitation in hiring him to look after his new saloon. Belanger died in 1935. He was described as the “proprietor of a tavern on Main Street,” who possessed “a quiet but engaging personality with many friends. Alphonse Gelinas entered local politics and became a city alderman, claims officer, and appropriations officer. He was also a member of the city's purchasing committee and highway commission. On Oct. 15, 1919, with prohibition looming, Gelinas sold the building to an Italian immigrant, Michele Mazzola and it became known to three generations of Willimantic residents as the Mazzola block. Mazzola became a leading Italian-American citizen in town. Alphonse Gelinas died at home in Windham on Nov. 16, 1931, just three days before his 82nd birthday.  He had been one of the city’s pioneer French Canadian businessmen, a member of the local St. Jean Baptiste Society, Knights of Columbus and a devout member of St. Mary's Church.

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