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JANUARYE H
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Whydotbelieve‘inNoi-walk! 1/ ‘
. I am no seer or prophet, and consequently can speak of Not-
. awalk’ a future only from reactions obtained from our tompeople
and those who have come here from out of town and ham: busi-
“w noes interests here. These reactions would forecast a remarkable
, growth of our city.
. Before considering them, however, it must be granted that
f :‘ geographically we are ideally situated, located as we are on the
* man: has of a large railroad system, with the Danbery line in
, addifiOn, with the Boston Post Road cutting directly through
. '21,; .‘ our city, with the advantages of a fine neutral harbor, with the
., pleasures which a location at the beach {rout affords. Geo
. graphically we have an excellent start without any assistance—
. from our local people.
Our townspeople are not very wealthy, neither have We any
great poverty, and at we are said to have more home owners than
on) community 0 its size in the state. It usually happens in
'. - an} orporation, and a city is a muniexpal corporation, that where
. ' "the, are a great number of stockholders, there is a very broad
.: . . - .am" ively interest in the welfare of the corporation. I believe
. » , ‘ wit. so many stochholdrs in the municipal corporation of Nor-'
wall; as represented by the large number of home owners, there
must be a lively interest in our town’ 5 affairs, and this 1111 been
evidenced by the citizens of this community at municipal elec-
tions in which one party or the other has been returned by .ery
' narrow margins.
_ There has been a decided increase of a healthy nature in home
, building, and other kinds of building locally over the period of
.. . the last few years.
we are gradually obtaining the requisite schooling facilities
fOI children. Our manufacturing is diversified so that slumps 111
11111 particular industry do not materially affect the business life
of our community. Due to this, as well as to the common sense
, .. temperament of the people of our community, we have never gone
1‘- ‘- ' ' ‘ -' ' ""' “to‘high peaks of success nor to depth of depression, and in this
. ' _‘ .. , -" nature of our townspeople I have supreme confidence that \\ 11h
" our grou th any movement for the betterment of the community,
which is sufficiently explained, will ultimately receive the up.
proval of our citizens.
Mistakes of policy may have been made 111 connection with the
tin so or four big ventures that have been accomplished within
my recollection but the main object of the ventures are now gen-
erally conceded by all to have been to the general advantage of
the comniunity. Some of them came only after intensive cam-
paigns of education and explanatiou. I refer to consolidation, the
. construction of the Washington Street Bridge and the acquisi»
a. . tion of Calf Pasture Beach.
In this connection, there are those among us who believe that
zoning would be beneficial,\ who believe that the acquisition of
.a civic center is desirable, in view of our increasing post-office
1 ' . needs, the possibility of locating a federal court in our cofnmunity,
. and the always desirable benefits to be derived from small parks
in connection with civic centers. To have West Avenue a busi-
ness street £10m the first to the second district Would be of ex»
u
'V .THE REASONS EDWARD J. QUINLAN, PRESIDENT OF THE KIWAN IS CLUB, GIVES ARE THE REASONS THAT ACTUATE THE
W and could be M about by the proper loca-
tion 0 a civic center I have in triad that at no far distant date.
the distnctmllbeteedtotherestotthecitybyabr
located either 111 relation to the civic centu that is most talks
viz: the Matthews estate, or at any rate at some place almost0 a
center bet-wan the first and second districts
‘ This would be useful not only in unifying our community, -
but handling the increased traffic which recognized experts predict
will be occupying our ts within five _,years and these pro-
dictions are not based on guesses or conjecture but on positive
analysis of figures and traffic. 1
‘ So far I have referred to thereutions that have come to
“ me from local sources, and I shall now make reference to those
coming from outside sources. The Connecticut Light & Power
Company is a large corporation and usually does itacon‘struction
work with reference to engineering surveys of territory and oi
population, and I cannot believe that they have cénslructed the . T
New Canaan Avenue power plant without the ‘carefullest cousirl-
oration and an actual knowledge that Norwalk will bring a large
return to the company by reason of a decided increase of popula' , ' -
tion. I cannot believe that the New York, New Havenand Bar
ford Railroad Company would be electrifying the Danbury line, as
it is now doing, without some confidence in the territory bemoan
here and Danbury. I cannot believe that chain stores‘operating in .
the largest cities of the country would be falling over one another
to obtain sites in our city for retail stores, which sites are alwa ya
chosen upon actual clocking of passing pedestrians and vehicular
traffic if the business were not here. 3.
I cannot believe that the large oil and gas companies haxe
paid for actual sites and offered for other sites that cannot be
bought what seems to our townspeople fabulous sums of money, ‘
with the idea of just selling gas and oil and with no idea of the .
future commercial value of these corners to them as corporations. «1 '
at a time when the oil and gas business will be done from some
other place, and those corners either sold or adopted to the pur- -
poses which the increased value or these comers e111 make neces~
Complaint and criticism is sometimes directed to the 111: «'4
comers in N orwalk These new-comers very naturally see the ad-
vantages of this community. Many of them have travelled the
' world over. Others of them have lived in metropolitan disuicts
and have lost opportunities in these districts, which they see being
repeated here locally, and are quick to take advantage of them?
Good things which are under one ’s eyes from birth rarely look a:
attractive to those who have been seeing them as to thosewho hm c . ,
never seen them and come upon them after they have reached «
mature years. These latter see the opportunities and embrace
them and are and can be of very material advantage to any com~
. munity, and Norwalk’ s geographical location with reference to the
metropolitan center of New York city will bring more such citizens
1ather than less. - .
For these reasons, leaving aside all.personal considerations.
i believe that Norwalk will have a phenomenal growth in the next
ten to twenty-five years, with a consequent prosperity and increas~ . ., _
ed tax list making possible some of the inprovements I have
spoken of. . , .
FAITH OF THE UNDERSIGNED IN THE GROWTH, PROSPERITY AND FUTURE OF THIS CITY: ev-
City National Bank Conn. Lt.& Power Co. So. Nor-walk Trust (:5. Central Fair-field Trust Southern New England,
’ so. Norwalk A , (Jenn ' . "'2" . m 11mm (11111; Company ' 7 Telephone Company
. , , ' l I. / . _ . Km ' ‘ . dam. loam Nos-even:
c 1'11..'Lt.&“'Power’Co. mung“ Harris mam Hy, ~ ' ' , A - ~
1110:1211: ‘ rower, coon. “mm '°°»"" Nos-walk m& “92;. f The Sentinel
. ‘ ' ‘ 1 “ * ' ModernGroeeryCo. . publishing (:0,
. g '. . ,1 ‘4 T ’ -‘ . v «R local? 11 I I an. Imam-walk Caulk
Harris '& Gunsm ‘ Wfiat‘m Co. 7 Chas. E. Harris -1 ‘ , ' . .
so Nam”; I I ' mm H ‘ m am. an O . . swat R staurant
, . . , . . . » ._ » y _ ' - ~ 11: e '
11’th Co.
.Crofut E Knapp .
No . ‘, , .. .
SanitaryBakery -
fl‘fim “Bo-Walt. Conn.
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BishopfiLynes P11 7 Co.“
Norwalli Hat Mfg. ‘Co.
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N335 EnglnecrlngCo.
_' 4'0. Nos-walk 48' 501mg. Conn.
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W“ sainuel J. Keeler‘
- Wall Street Real Estate Nos-walk
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. “mam..- gem “9"“ :lo. nus-n: seem name's . cuss. . _ '1 A ‘ .. . Crofutfifnappw‘
eamtewxeeier Norms: Ford Service Thonms Conf . . i was; Engineering Co.
' fizm; ..;;‘*.. 9'5“- ~---‘.‘.-. 11m
more?» nests-sue Kermit
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Norwalk Chronicler