My grandfather came here and he used to do peddling of dry goods.... He used to have a horse, ...but my earliest [memories] were when he’d have the back of his car piled up with goods. He wasn’t the best driver in the world, but he knew where he was going, he knew who he was seeing, and he knew each person by his first name. -Milton Kadish

Ad from the 1902 Waterbury City Directory (Collection of the Mattatuck Historical Society)

Many of the earliest merchants arrived in Waterbury as peddlers, selling their wares from wagons that covered a local neighborhood or a territory in the region. Some, like the Albert Brothers, built upon this peddlers network to establish large enterprises in modern manufacturing.

 

[My father] came to America fully equipped to be a locksmith.... Of course, $2.70 is not enough funding to set yourself up in the locksmithing business, [so he went into] the business of selling oranges, two for a nickel [and] he soon had enough to start a locksmith shop.... He took on a sideline, which quickly became probably the first line, that of bicycles. -Ray Leopold

From art shops to grocery stores, saloons to furniture stores, Jewish merchants have prospered in Waterbury. Jewish markets were located in the North Square before World War II, and many clothing stores on Bank Street were owned by Jewish families in the middle of the 20th century.

M.A. Green Opening on Bank St., 1936 (Collection of Robert Green)

Michael Roosin during the Spanish-American War (Collection of Vera Robin)

My father (Michael Roosin) opened a store on Center Street [where] where he did upholstery and repaired mattresses [for the Walzer’s company and for local families].... [Then] he opened a store on Bank Street [where] he did upholstery in the basement and he sold luggage.... He had nails in his mouth while he was working. -Vera Roosin Robin

In those days you had people window shopping. And he had beautiful, beautiful window displays.... On Thursday nights, Waterbury stores were open and they were so busy that customers had to walk in the gutter. There wasn’t enough room on the sidewalks on Bank Street and South Main Street and on Sundays if you didn’t have anything to do, you would go downtown and go window shopping. And you’d pick out and say "Oh well, maybe I’ll come back next Tuesday and try that dress on." ...And so it was a social thing to do. -Mollie Cooper Birenbaum

The Rose Shop was a department store. So everything from ladies’, children’s, men’s.... Actually, my father had eight stores at one time.... If they couldn’t pay, my father gave them [credit].... That’s how he made a living. They kept coming back and back. The working class people. They used to call in the middle of the night. If somebody died, he’d open the store and outfit them for the funeral. They needed clothes, black clothes. Lots of times. He took care of them. -Natalie Bram

The Rose Shop on South Main Street (Collection of Natalie Bram)

The Fulton Market on the corner of Willow & West Main Streets, 1931 (Collection of the Mattatuck Historical Society)

My father’s brother Martin ultimately owned the Fulton Markets, which was a small chain store.... My father had a store right across from the Green. It was the Home Meat Market.... He had a meat counter going the length of the store and on the other side he had a grocery in the back and fruit in the front. -Morton Greenblatt