People of Naugatuck
John Howard Whittemore
John Howard Whittemore & Harris Whittemore were instrumental in the construction of Westover School.
John Howard Whittemore was the first to buy stock in the school and was the first president of the Westover Corporation and the first president of the board of trustees. He would often ask Mary Hilliard “are the girls happy?” Along with his father, Harris helped secure the parcel of land that Westover sits on. Harris also became president of the Westover Corporation (after JHW’s death in 1910).
Community Contribution
An interesting, if not somewhat sad find; being that it's an obituary announcement, but it's for one of Naugatuck's most (if not the most) prominent citizens.
It's still amazing to this very day how much money and time/effort John Whittemore put into improving his adopted town. Naugatuck would not be what it is today if not for his philanthropy.
Under Whittemore’s direction, the famous firm of McKim, Mead and White designed eleven incredible buildings in town, including the library, and the Naugatuck Bank, the first two buildings to define what would become the downtown green. Whittemore’s goal was to provide form and coherence to the town’s growth and also to employ men who were jobless in the face of an 1896 recession.
The firm also designed Salem School, which was the first school in Naugatuck to have modern heat and electricity, and Hillside School, which at the time was the original Naugatuck High School.
Whittemore also donated land to the Congregational Church on the green, as well as several important buildings in Waterbury and Middlebury, notably the Buckingham Building and Whittemore’s own summer home on Lake Quassepaug. He also built several private homes and commissioned a parkway from Naugatuck to Middlebury; that road is now a portion of Route 63.
Of note in this obituary, are the mentions of John's holdings in Chicago and other cities, which I was never really aware of, but demonstrates the great level of wealth and success he achieved.
As one author stated about John and his son Harris: “I think we should all be grateful to the Whittemores for their enlightened example. They took the money they made and used that fortune for the benefit of the communities they lived in.”
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John Howard Whittemore
Birthdate: October 3, 1837
Birthplace: Southbury, Connecticut
Death: May 28, 1910 (72)
Place of Burial: Naugatuck, Connecticut
Immediate Family:
Son of Reverend Williams Howe Whittemore and Maria Whittemore.
Husband of Julia Anna Spencer Whittemore.
Father of Arthur Harris Whittemore; John Howard Whittemore Jr.; Gertrude Buckingham and Julia Whittemore.
Brother of Williams Clark Whittemore; Edward Payson Whittemore and Emma Parsons Bacon
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John Howard Whittemore
Harris Whittemore
Mary Hilliard
May 29, 1910
Marble bust of John Howard Whittemore, in the collection of the Naugatuck Historical Society. The black specks are from the fire in the Whittemore mansion, October 1972. The bust was heavily stained with soot and was painstakingly cleaned by NHS volunteers. Source: Ken Hanks