Brooklyn

History of Brooklyn
Like most of Waterbury's neighborhoods, Brooklyn was virtually a self-sustaining community with its own stores, soda fountains, Silas Bronson branch, YMCA branch, two churches, taverns, bakeries, movie houses, factories, fine restaurants and schools.

As early as the 1860s, Irish immigrants began settling in Brooklyn, followed by the Polish and Lithuanians in the 1890s. It is home to 114-year-old St. Patrick's Church, the 100-year-old St. Joseph's Church, 90-year-old St. Joseph's School, St. Mary's School of Nursing, Duggan School, Barnard School, and the historic Riverside Cemetery.

Frank Perrella, an Italian-American, attends St. Patrick's Church. The church, founded as Waterbury's second Catholic church on Feb. 1, 1880, is an off-shoot of the Immaculate Conception Church. It was built in this neighborhood where Waterbury's new Irish immigrants lived. Perrella grew up on Charles Street, and his mother, Elida Perrella, still lives in the family homestead. The aroma of food filtering through the air or music clamoring from the homes gave passersby a hint who lived in the home.

"You could tell if you were by a Lithuanian house by the sound of the music coming from the radio," said Butkevicius, a Bucks Hill resident. "I was the only Italian girl attending St. Joseph's School." Butkevicius lived next door to the St. Joseph's Orphanage which closed in July of 1952 after 34 years. It was established in 1918 as a shelter for children of St. Joseph's parish who were made homeless as a result of World War I or by the influenza epidemic during that period. Originally started for children of Lithuanian parentage, it expanded and eventually provided shelter to any child in need, regardless of national origin or religion. Supported by the community and run by the Sisters of the Holy Ghost, the home cared for some 500 children and provided a day nursery for countless other children.

A center of the neighborhood was the former Begnal School which closed in the late 1930s. It re-opened after World War II as the first Waterbury branch of the University of Connecticut. When the college moved to its present site in the 1950s, the building was taken over by the Park Department and turned into the Begnal Recreation Center. The center was leveled during the highway project.

Two years after arriving in Waterbury, the Lithuanian Club formed in 1892 as immigrants who first stopped off in the Pennsylvania coal fields found their way to Waterbury. There were 20,000 Lithuanians in Brooklyn in the years between the world wars. They formed their own parish, St. Joseph Catholic Church and even operated an orphanage. For a time, the Lithuanians had their own bank, the Kazemekas Bank, that failed during the Depression. It became the first branch bank office in the state when it was absorbed into Waterbury Savings Bank.

Start of a decline
"Brooklyn was a great, great place to grow up in," said Perrella, a teacher at Crosby High School. "There was the Porter Street playground, a brick strewn sand lot where we used makeshift things as bases when playing baseball. But it was home."

There's no recreational facility or playground for neighborhood youth now, Perrella said, which is why many just hang out on street corners.
In th e1950s when factories headed south or overseas, the home ground in Brooklyn began changing. The elderly stayed. Their children moved to the suburbs. The 1990 Census roughly shows 2,938 live in the neighborhood named after its New York counterpart because it's located across from a river from the downtown area. Of that figure, 2,376 are white, 170 are black and 630 individuals of Spanish origin. The biggest age group is between folks over the age of 65 followed by the 25 to 29 age group.

By Robyn Adams, Waterbury Republican-American — January 27, 1995

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