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Redding,
Connecticut 1930-1940
Population
1930: 1,599
Population 1940: 1,758
Increase:
+159
School Budget: $22,000
First Selectman: Benjamin Banks
In
The News 1930-1940:
-
1931- Some
residents having difficulties getting CL&P to furnish
their isolated homes with electricity. Rural electrification
would come in 1930’s.
-
1932-35- Routes
53, 57 & 58 commissioned. *Access to Redding improving;
-
The CT Dept.
of Agriculture states that in 1935 agricultural businesses
are occupying 88% of the Town's total area.
-
November 20,
1938- The Merritt Parkway stimulating interest in real
estate near the new highway.
-
May 5, 1940-
Studio Guild of NYC purchases 65 acres on Pickett’s Ridge
for Country Art Center.
Aerial of New Pond
Farm and the northern section of Umpawaug Road
View of the Gilbert
& Bennett Factory and Portland Avenue
One-Room Schoolhouse
Consolidation was completed in Redding during this decade.
This is the Hill Academy, located where the Town House Building
is today.
In the 1930's you
could have purchased the Marchant Road Stone House with 30
acres for $25k?! The taxes are more than that now!
Georgetown children
enjoying the summer up at Great Pond in Ridgefield
What the Saugatuck
Reservoir used to look like. Aerial from 1934.
1930's
History Spotlight-
Agricultural Businesses are Occupying
88% of the Town's Acreage
This
is important to highlight because in the 1950's, 60's and
70's these large farms would be targeted as "developments".
Forward thinking and activism on the part of Redding's leaders
in this time frame saved a good portion of Redding's open
space for future generations. Land donations (such as Huntington
State Park and Putnam Park) and watershed acreage played a
key role as well.
Example
of activism that helped preserve the "rural" character of
the town :
The
Redding Pilot, July 14, 1967:
“The
Williams Farm on Sunset Hill is being cut up into (60) two-acre
lots, with another development looming on its border. Half
a dozen other large holdings are rumored on the verge of development…if
there is no planning beyond the present two-acre lot minimum,
10,000 acres could go into a tangle of subdivisions…the
moment of truth has arrived…the more open space we can save,
the lower our future taxes will be, and the pleasanter the
town.”
-
Stuart Chase
View Next Decade Redding, Connecticut from 1940-1950
(coming soon)
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