Re-discovery of the Jackson Street "Dog’s Nest" in Waterbury, Connecticut: The First-Generation European Immigrant Experience in New England’s Brass City

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Byways to the Past: An American Highway Archaeology Symposium" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Section 106-mandated review associated with two recent transportation projects—one a City-driven US Department of Transportation TIGER grant program designed to stimulate economic development through local road improvements, and the other a Connecticut State Department of Transportation (CTDOT) undertaking involving construction of a temporary bypass to support repairs to a freeway interchange—resulted in re-discovery of a forgotten first generation immigrant community along the Naugatuck River near downtown Waterbury, Connecticut. Situated in a less-than-pristine location between the city’s famous brass mills, a railroad yard, and a coal gasification plant, this neighborhood was home to hundreds of predominantly Irish, and subsequently Italian, immigrants between 1850 and 1911 attracted to the labor opportunities provided by the many industrial plants comprising America’s ‘Brass City’. The cultural resources consulting firm NV5 was tasked by CTDOT with determining what remained of this neighborhood and investigating its historic significance and material integrity through both documentary and archaeological efforts. The resulting investigations have brought to life the trials and tribulations of first generation European immigrants to the United States during the late 19th/early 20th Century, and shed light upon the people who lived in this rough and tumble neighborhood once referred to as "The Dog’s Nest."

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Byways to the Past: An American Highway Archaeology Symposium   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23478