I shared this a while ago, but I thought Id share it again in case some may have missed it. More on our interesting history of Torrington... Customers often ask us what the Southworths Furniture store building was before it was a Furniture Store. Ive heard a number of theories including an Old Airplane hanger to some sort of a Farm storage building, and Im sure there are a few conspiracy theories out there that have to do with Aliens too -lol!. So I thought Id take a moment and explain the history of this unusual structure weve called home for over 60 years! Now dont quote me on exact dates because its information that has been passed down to me over the years. Originally Southworths Wayside Furniture was a large Red Barn where Jim Southworth sold furniture and lived next door with his family. One Christmas Eve back in the late 40s there was a fire that started in the Barn! The Fire Department was called and rushed over to try to put the fire out. Across the street from the Barn is Travis Pond, and the Fire Department had hoses running across the street to the Pond. Everything was going well until one little thing happened. The hoses that ran to the pond happened to be laid over train tracks, and lo and behold here comes the Train, cutting all the hoses and any chance of saving the barn. Long story short, the barn burned to the ground that night. After that Terrible night, Jim had to think of the most feasible way to put up a replacement building for the Furniture Store. Now remember this was post World War II, and there were tons of Quonset huts that werent being used anymore. Jim was able to locate 6 Huts that were originally on the Hudson River in New York and had them Shipped here to Torrington. A little clever carpentry and the 5 huts were built around the center building faning out in all directions! And thats how it came to be. Most customers are surprised at how big the store is once they come inside because you can only see the 2 forward stretching Quonset huts from the road! One thing that a lot of people dont realize and you might have been asking yourself....didnt he say that Jim purchased 6 Huts from New York, but he said that 5 huts span out from the main building? Well, you are correct, the far back hut is actually two huts attached together spanning a whole hundred feet long. A long time ago the second half was actually the stores warehouse, but now we have a separate warehouse behind the store that holds 5000 square feet of furniture. Now you know. One Torrington Mystery solved!
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 15:04:49 +0000
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