Printed page 28 describes the Water Street lumber company, its dockage, employment, and 1939 liquidation.
Evidence, credit & reuse: Public domain in the United States: copyright not renewed, per repository’s Stanford-database check. Authentic printed document, not a photograph of a house. Repository notes photocopied book and irregular pagination. Selected scan leaf visually checked against printed page number; full page retained without synthetic restoration. Original downloaded scan is in originals.
Source: Writers’ Program (U.S.), Connecticut; Church Press, 1940. Scan: Allen County Public Library / Internet Archive.
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Transcribed excerpt from History of West Haven, Connecticut (1940), printed page 28. Source: https://archive.org/details/historyofwesthav00unse/page/n97/mode/1up H. H. Richards Lumber Co. Oldest of the present-day or recent industries was the H. H. Richards Lumber Co., formerly of 37 Water Street, founded in 1849 by three brothers, Edward A., George O., and Benjamin F. Richards. With large dockage facilities on the West River channel leading into New Haven Harbor, this firm, originally capitalized for $10,000, was continuously under the direct management of the family of the founders, who personally supervised both the executive and operating affairs of the company and employed local labor almost exclusively. In the building boom, 1923–27, when a large number of apartment houses were erected in New Haven and West Haven, the company reached its most marked prosperity and employed a yard force of 45 men. Early in 1939, the company was forced to liquidate and the assets were purchased by the Batter Building Materials Company of New Haven.
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Silent Grounds Collective, Main Street Sea Captains’ Homes, SGC-WHSC-032, WHSC-001, “H. H. Richards Lumber Company in the 1940 town history.” Source: Writers’ Program (U.S.), Connecticut; Church Press, 1940. Scan: Allen County Public Library / Internet Archive.. https://archive.org/details/historyofwesthav00unse/page/n97/mode/1up. Research edition, accessed 2026-09-08.