1935 To 1945: Memories Of Growing Up At Fairfield Hills

By C. Douglas Moore

This memoir by C. Douglas Moore, Jr, age 72, of Goochland, Va., is published in two parts. Titled “Doug Moore’s Memories Revisited –– 1930s to 1940,” it was submitted to The Bee along with photos from the time period. The second part including Mr Moore’s wartime memories will be published in next week’s issue.

In 1928, the State of Connecticut acquired five large farms off Queen Street and Mile Hill Road to construct a state mental health facility that included adjoining agricultural property totaling more than 800 acres.

Born in 1931, Doug Moore was between the ages of 4 and 14 when he lived in Newtown on the grounds of what was then known as the State Hospital. His father, Dr Clifford D. Moore, was hospital superintendent during the period 1935 to 1945.

 In the middle of Doug’s ninth grade year at Hawley School, he and his family moved to Stamford where Dr Moore joined a private hospital as medical director.

 

Living On The Hospital Campus

Over the decades I have been proud to mention Newtown as my hometown during childhood and early formative years of long ago.

The large State Hospital…was just starting construction when Dad was appointed to the top administrative position. Times were difficult with the pain of an economic depression still lingering with many who lost fortunes and were out of work, faced with increased shortages of necessities and luxuries.

We lived somewhat comfortably on the grounds of the institution sheltered from a few of the hard times and developing war clouds in Europe. Construction continued at the State Hospital on a priority status at the state level.

Economic depression and overseas war were remote and distant thoughts within the busy, self-sustaining red brick multibuilding complex. There were residential patient buildings, female and male dormitories for staff and physicians and key department head houses, plus support facility buildings for office administration, food shops, fire station, warehouses, recreation, farm, rock crushing machinery, and a railroad siding for coal and supply deliveries.

Coal was the fuel used to generate electricity and central steam heat. Its by-product was cinders. When mixed with gravel produced on site, it was a good foundation mix for the miles of new roads being built.

[I remember] the rock crusher machinery in operation where rocks were crushed into smaller stones and gravel and then trucked away to road building sites.

Some joyful happy memories of the [State Hospital agricultural farm] included sheep shearing. The animals sure looked strange without their wool coats.

Our home was in one of the ten doctor’s family houses so as to be close by when needed. Dad had rejected living on Queen Street, which was more remote from the core campus.

 [Living on campus] maybe seemed to be somewhat isolated. But in reality, it was not that far from Newtown Center and its few stores, [Edmond Town Hall] movie theater, churches, and fun activities with my schoolmate friends.

My family was accustomed to taking long, leisurely drives in the car. Once during one of these excursions, an ice cream stop was to be made. When asked what flavor I wanted, my response was “chocolate or nothing.” So happens that the store was out of chocolate and I ended up with nothing. A tough lesson learned.

Happier memories surround the vacant lot in the doctors’ house oval that was used as a residential Family Victory Garden during the growing season. It was hose-flooded in winter for ice skating. The winter ice skating rink was also convenient to practice skating and to entertain pals during off use hours by the medical staff.

My backyard swing set and sandbox were nice play toys that provided fun for alone time and especially when other playmates came to visit.

The State Hospital was a sizable community institution probably larger in population than the population of the town of Newtown [which was 2,635 in 1930; and 4,023 in 1940.]

Because of the food provided by the farm, the hospital facility did not have to go outside its boundaries for much of anything! At its peak census, several thousand patients plus staff were in residence to run the place.

The massive hospital grounds were well designed and functional with much thought given to green space and attractive landscaping. Under a future administration, the State Hospital was renamed Fairfield Hills.

School Days: Hawley To Huntingtown

I attended all-grade Hawley School to midway through the ninth grade when the family relocated to Stamford. The school facilities were overcrowded by the growing number of kids in some grades, but expansion or new construction wasn’t possible due to wartime restrictions. To ease this condition, an old former one-room schoolhouse way out in a rural area was reopened for the sixth grade. [This may have been Huntingtown School.]

We were bused from Hawley to and from this school each day, and it was a pleasant experience for most of the sixth graders. There were girls’ and boys’ outhouses, and we had hand-pumped well water, and a potbellied wood stove for heat.

Miss Brennen was an excellent teacher. This school year was remembered as being the best! Some of us hoped the return to Hawley for seventh grade was not going to [happen].

In the morning, employees’ children were transported from the State Hospital on the open-sided caged mail truck that picked up and delivered mail to the Newtown Post Office (Box W) located in the Edmond Town Hall.

This vehicle use was considered necessary and a legitimate state service during gas rationing. It was only about a mile or so out of the way.

Going home, we kids had to walk the few miles home along [a dirt road] Queen Street and didn’t mind it a bit. One day I took a shortcut over the abandoned overgrown old road between Franklin Miller’s house and the paved hospital entrance road.

There on a rock was a large snake sunning itself. Not satisfied to leave it alone, I stoned it and became alarmed when it went off in one direction and then turned toward me. Never went that way again!

In the playground behind Hawley School was a small wooden building used for musical instrument lessons. Mr Vaughn tried hard, but I was not to be a clarinet musician. I rejected the piano too! Definitely, music was not one of my strengths.

Hawley Football:

Getting In Shape By Running Uphill

Harold DeGroat obtained early release from [World War II] military service and became physical education teacher and teams coach at Hawley High School.

The school gym was very small and for basketball practices and games, we had to go up the hill to the [Edmond Town Hall] court. In the cold of winter, [Mr DeGroat] led us on the run in shorts and T-shirts up there. This chubby boy liked the downhill run and a hot shower much better.

My first try at organized football was in the ninth grade. Athletic schoolmates were too few to field a regular 11-man team, but the six-position team game was fun. I enjoyed the competition but didn’t make the team this first year. I played soccer though.

After moving to Stamford at midyear in the ninth grade, my school year was completed at Rogers Junior High. Next school year found me in New Canaan at St Luke’s private school.

In spite of a broken shoulder bone (clavicle) in a bicycle accident during the summer, I practiced hard, healed fast, and made the St Luke’s varsity as a two-way starting left tackle in the tenth grade. My football interest continued through the eleventh and twelfth league champion building seasons.

Although Doug Moore did not graduate with his Hawley High School Class of 1949, he returned to attend graduation ceremonies on Thursday evening, June 23, 1949. He has saved the Commencement Exercises program listing the following graduates, most of whom were his friends and former classmates.

Hawley School Class of 1949 graduates: Paul Allen, Mary Louisa Blossom, John Bresson, Mary Pat Carroll, James Crick, Jr, Eleanor Crouch, Marion DiVesta, Millard Goodsell, Irene Hornbeck, Dwight Johnson, Mary Katherine Kearns, Michael Keogh, Ernest Richard Knutson, John Lorenzo, Vincent Mihalek, Franklin Edward Miller, Elaine Oberstadt, Joan Pelletier, Doris Pully, Gertrude Ray, Juanita Reed, Nancy Ann Scott, Gilbert Standley, Laurita Mary Therreo, Joan Weeks, Harry Weiss, Howson Willmore, Audrey Wood, and Rudolph Charles Wrabel, Jr.

 

Next week’s issue: Wartime Memories