From schools to housing, tracing the legacy of William Hotchkiss Warner

Who was William Hotchkiss Warner (1858-1928) and how did his name come to be attached to the elderly housing complex on Lucy Street in Woodbridge? Let's assemble some clues to see what we can learn. Turning first to the book 'Historic Woodbridge: An Historic and Architectural Resource Survey, Second Edition' (which can be purchased from the Woodbridge Town Clerk), we see that William and his wife Mary Eliza lived at 131 Beecher Road in a house built about 1852. According to the write-up for their home on page 51:

"...this house is significant for its long association with the Warner family, particularly William Hotchkiss Warner, who was a prominent citizen in the late 1800s. Although there may have been an earlier house on the site, the present building was constructed for, or purchased by, his father, William A. Warner (1824-1903), about 1852, the time of his marriage to Hannah Elizabeth Hotchkiss (1826-1893). Hannah was a daughter of Hubbard Hotchkiss [died 1849] and Hannah Alling Hotchkiss [died 1856]. The house passed to William Hotchkiss Warner (1858-1928), their eldest son, who was one of four children. In 1876, he married Mary Eliza Tucker (1856-1902), a daughter of Mark Tucker [1820-188] and Martha [Roberts] Smith Tucker [1826-1898] (see #152). William and Mary had one child, Mary Helen Warner (1879-1932), who married Sidney Rutherford Dickenson [1876-1955].

William H. became a teacher and worked in Woodbridge schools from 1873 to 1875, and for three years after that was principal of Seymour High School. For a short period he was employed as a bookkeeper by the Diamond Match Company from 1880 to 1885. Although after 1888 he was employed as a salesman with Bennett, Sloan & Company of New York, Warner was continuously active in town affairs, serving as a school visitor for 16 years (often as chairman of the school board). He also was a justice of the peace, tax collector, and in 1879, the Town Clerk. He also held the office of Town Treasurer, beginning in 1897. A charter member of the Woodbridge Grange, Warner was elected an overseer of that organization in 1890. He also served as Woodbridge’s Representative to the Connecticut General Assembly from 1902-1907, an office his father had previously held, from 1869 to 1870. This property left the Warner family in 1934 when it was sold to the Arnolds, parents of the present owner and his wife.

A description from the introductory essay of Historic Woodbridge recounts how our local school system developed over the years and was centralized with the opening of Center School and the closing of the smaller one-room school houses throughout town.

Center School was a brick Georgian Revival built in 1929. When it was completed, all the one-room district schools were closed and only one other school remained open, Warner School on Lucy Street in the Flats. When Warner School finally closed in 1956, Center School had to be expanded. More schools were built when the population skyrocketed after World War II, including a regional high school in 1954, serving Woodbridge, Bethany, and Orange. Since 1905 this age group in Woodbridge had attended high school in New Haven.

In an entry on the Center School building (on page 107) there are further details related to the Warner School:

...this well-preserved Georgian Revival grammar school modernized and centralized the public educational system in Woodbridge. Except for the Warner School on Lucy Street, all the district schools closed at that time. Students attending high school went to New Haven on a tuition basis, an arrangement that had started in 1905. In 1952 a regional high school was proposed for Woodbridge, Bethany, and Orange and it was built in 1954 in Woodbridge on Newton Road. Within a few years the Amity Regional District built junior high schools in both Bethany and Orange and after 1963, Woodbridge students attended the school in Bethany. By the 1970s Center School, which was expanded after the Warner School closed in 1956, was no longer adequate to meet the demands of a growing school population and students in grades three through six were moved to Beecher Road School, which had been built in 1963 and was added on to several times since then. At first Center School continued to be used for K-2, but in 1977 all students were shifted to Beecher Road School, and this building was converted to community center use.

By visiting Simon Donato's excellent local history resource online, History of the West River Valley, we can read further about the Warner School, including some personal memories shared by people who attended the school when they were children. Simon also shares the complete text of an article from the New Haven Register published on June 26, 1960, which describes the history and closure of Warner School.

That New Haven Register news article recounts how before 1911, children in the southeastern part of town attended “the middle district school, a one-room schoolhouse located on Amity Road across from the intersection of Center Road.” It goes on to describe that with the ensuing population growth near the New Haven line in the opening decade of the 20th century, a new school district was created, and a one-room schoolhouse opened on Lucy Street in 1911. The article then recounts how by 1915, a two-room brick building, named after education leader William H. Warner, was built to accommodate yet more students. Over time, that school expanded with additional rooms, and by 1923, all rooms were in use. Warner School served up to eight grades until 1954, when seventh and eighth graders were transferred to Amity Regional High School.

Let's take a closer look at the area of Woodbridge where the Warner School once stood. A series of Aerial Survey photographs of every town in the state, taken in 1938, are available on the website of the CT State Library — here's a view of the entire modern-day Business District in Woodbridge, also known affectionately as 'The Flats' by many of its past and present residents. Keep in mind, this is about a decade before the West Rock Tunnel was dug through West Rock (the summit's Baldwin Drive, built in 1934 as a WPA Project, is visible here as a zig-zagging new road at top right of the first image):

Once the school buildings on Lucy Street were closed, many changes occurred on the Town-owned stretch of this little state road in Woodbridge. Reading from a survey report issued by the Town of Woodbridge’s Commission for the Use of Publicly Owned Property (CUPOP), decisions made by the Town regarding the Warner School property were recounted as follows:

 Acquisition - This property at the William H. Warner School site on Lucy Street and stretching back to Mettler Street was acquired by the Town in eleven deeds dating from 1911 to 1947. The composite property consists of two offset rectangles, one on Lucy Street and the other on Mettler Street, which abut on the long sides in a 70 foot step manner. There are slight discrepancies between the boundaries as outlined in the initial individual deeds and a Report made of the property by A. Robert Parente & Co., Inc. of New Haven on January 19, 1973 [a copy of which was attached to the CUPOP report]. …
The land itself is open and flat within largely built up Residential C and Business 1 zones. On 19 Lucy Street, a one room (36x24) schoolhouse was built in 1911 on the property given to the Town for that purpose by Paul Russo. In 1915, the one story brick and much larger (10 room, 5,220 square foot) William H. Warner School was built at 23 Lucy Street. … A paved yard area surrounds much of Warner School.
Zone - The property falls in two zones which divide along the initial mid-block property lines. All the properties fronting on Mettler Street are in Residential Zone C. The properties on Lucy Street are in Business District Assessed Value - 1981
Land $70,700
Utilization - 1977-1981
The little 1911 old school is not currently used. The former Warner School building and lands are now rented by the Mother Goose Day Nursery School, Inc.

Then, in a recommendation to the Woodbridge Board of Selectmen (BOS) on October 11, 1977, CUPOP states:

If the Lucy Street property in Development District I is to be sold, as now contemplated by the Town, the Commission recommends:
(1) that the portion of the property fronting on Mettler Street and residentially zoned, should be retained by the Town for recreational purposes and not be offered for sale;
(2) that if a sale of the Lucy Street frontage is carried out, a portion of the proceeds should be expended to improve the recreational facilities on the retained open space;

 Later still, on January 31, 1978, COPUP further recommends:

 Recognizing the interest shown in 'Little Lucy' in a petition signed by more than 90 of its former students and the fact that it is least altered of the Town's five one-room schoolhouses, the Commission recommended it be saved either as:
(a) a restored and preserved unit on its site, which could be sold with restrictions with, or separately from, the rest of the Lucy Street property, or as -
(b) moved, if feasible, to another site.

Then, on October 17, 1979, CUPOP reconsiders its recommendation as follows:

THE WARNER SCHOOL PROPERTY - The commission reconsidered the problems of deterioration and vandalism and consequent costs of repair to the vacant Warner School in October. Because the property is the only Town-owned parcel in that busy part of Town and might well, before long, be needed for commuter parking on Lucy Street or other purposes, we recommended that the property be retained. Questions of razing the brick school were tabled, pending final relocation of various Town services. We recommended that ways and costs of moving the most in-tact of the Town's one-room school houses, 'Little Lucy', to the Darling Estate be further explored.

The CUPOP Survey goes on to note parenthetically after the above text:

Subsequently the Warner School was demolished and the Lucy Street frontage offered for sale. The Town Meeting in June, 1980 voted not to sell it. 

By 1981 the property was described by CUPOP as ‘open space’ and it was noted that the agency in control at that time was the Woodbridge Board of Selectmen. Finally, in two entries from 1981, CUPOP recommends:

January 27, 1981 - The Commission recommended that 'Little Lucy', scheduled for dismemberment, moving to, and storage in the Darling Estate barns, be given to the Amity & Woodbridge Historical Society for its care, placement, re-erection, and use.
March 10, 1981 - Lucy Street - Property is too small for recreation. If TPZC decided to change zoning in this area, this property could be considered for use for elderly housing.

Today, William Warner's name is still attached to the parcel where the school named in his honor once stood. In the 1980s the Town of Woodbridge began the process to lease out the land here for the purpose of having elderly housing constructed and now the Warner Elderly Housing complex occupies the property where the Warner school once stood.

We can learn more about how this endeavor contributes to the fabric of our community today from a Housing Data Profile and Analysis that was presented to the Board of Selectmen August 8th 2018 prior to submittal to the state as part of the Town's SustainableCT application (Woodbridge was awarded Bronze Certification in this program in October 2018).

Under the program's category #11 for 'Healthy, Efficient and Diverse Housing' the supporting documentation related to 'Implementation of an Affordable Housing Plan' included in its enumeration of the total number of affordable housing units in Woodbidge a description of the present-day William Warner Housing on Lucy Street, where the majority of these units are located:

In Woodbridge there are 41 affordable housing units, including single-family units in the William Warner Elderly Housing on Lucy Street. Affordable housing is predominantly located in the southeast area of town adjacent to the border with New Haven, where there is access to public transit, jobs, healthcare, shopping and recreation opportunities.