Thomaston

Thomaston, a gateway to the Litchfield Hills and the Berkshires, is situated in the picturesque Naugauck River Valley. This town of Victorian charm grew as local industry developed. Today, it includes a population representing many occupations and nationalities and a mixture of urban and suburban culture. Thomaston reveals the history of this town and its people, including a nineteenth-century priest who is a candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, the grandfather of a Nobel Prize-winning author, and a hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor for valor at Pearl Harbor. The first part of the book is designed as a guide for a walking tour of the downtown area. Written by Joseph F. Wassong Jr., a retired professor of history, taught for thirty-one years at Naugatuck Valley Community College. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College, he is the curator of the Thomaston Historical Society and chairman of the Thomaston Board of Finance. His family has lived in Thomaston for nearly one hundred years. Using photographs from the historical society, friends and acquaintances, and his own collection, he presents an engaging study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century life. Hollywood fashion designer Adrian Gilbert, and the founders of the Peter Paul candy company, makers of Almond Joy and Mounds. Robert Redford spent time here preparing for the movie The Natural, and Senator John F. Kennedy made an early morning presidential campaign stop here on his way to Waterbury. Written by Ron Gagliardi is the former executive director of the Naugatuck Historical Society Museum and is town historian of Cheshire, where he resides. He is the author of Cheshire in Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series. He has compiled Naugatuck Revisited from the archives of the Naugatuck Historical Society and other collections.