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Cool Spaces
These area businesses make hay in structures intended for far different purposes
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Business New Haven
5/14/2001
By: Mimi Houston
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When you take the scenic route to Branford from New Haven, along Route 146, you'll happen upon the picturesque village of Stony Creek, home to the famous pink granite that forms the base of the Statue of Liberty.
You'll stop at the stop sign and see a handpainted “Welcome to Stony Creek” sign. Just beyond is a charming shop that looks like a French country cottage. It houses antiques, gifts, flowers and unusual furniture, among other treasures.
The shop, Taken for Granite, has its origins as a somewhat less glamorous enterprise: a gas station.
“The story is,” begins Michele Ward, owner and co-founder of the shop, “two friends owned the gas station, which was built in the 1930s. One guy did repairs and the other guy handled the gas station. One day they had a fight, and their partnership broke up. So the repair guy built another gas station - right next door.”
To this day that second station operates as Taken for Granite's neighbor. And while at one time the buildings were almost identical, there is very little to suggest the rustic origins of the now-elegant site.
“I bought the building in 1990,” recalls Ward. “Originally I operated the business with a partner, who had a plant shop. I started out with $500 and sold antiques. We opened in 1984 - I was young and had no real business experience. We kind of helped each other along.”
After a few years, Ward was on her own, and her business has evolved just as the building has.
“This space has been so many things,” she says. “It was an energy alternative store - that's why we have the huge ceiling fan. We just moved the wood-burning stove that sat in the corner all these years. We came in after a man ran it as a fish-and-bait store for about a year, and interestingly enough, there was an older man who had the store as an antique and flower shop.”
“'Oh Michele,' he would say, 'you'll do very well here with this business. I always did.' His name was Duke, and whenever the wind blows the door open we all say, 'Here's Duke!' I love that - I really feel his spirit here.”
After the partnership dissolved and the building finally came up for sale (it was still owned by the original gas station founder), Ward used her house as collateral and bought the property, which also includes a house behind the store. She has spent the ensuing years creating a charming site that attracts a steady clientele from as far away as Greenwich.
“The overhead door was still there from the original building, a big picture window and a front door,” she says. “It looked like a typical gas station.
“I've added a front porch, a side addition, a patio and a garden,” she describes. “I do it all at a pretty slow pace, doing only what I can afford at the time. This really forces me to move slowly, and to really think about it. Part of the reason we've been so successful is that we really don't overspend.”
“I feel like a great example of what women can accomplish if they just work hard and have the ambition,” says Ward. “I was newly divorced, had never owned a business. I just had the desire to create things. I also like doing things on my own.”
Clearly her artistic talents have been the driving force behind her success. Ward was a professional sign-painter (remember the “Welcome to Stony Creek” sign you passed on Route 146?), a vocation that stemmed from a calligraphy business. She also does stained glass. Her love of art has helped her to create a one-of-a-kind labor of love.
“We've really become a destination for many of our clients,” Ward says. “Especially those coming from farther away. They come into the store, then head into town, have lunch at the market, take a Thimble Island cruise.”
Along with antiques - still a first love of Ward's, but getting harder and harder to find, she says - the store also sells clothing, jewelry, accessories, flowers and unusual gift items. Most of the distinctive display pieces are also for sale.
But even today the Taken for Granite bears living links to its humble origins. Shop manager Susan Scott (there are three full-time employees) talks about her great uncle, who used to work at that very site. You guessed it, pumping gas.
Architect Rick Wies, of Gregg & Wies Architects, doesn't row his scull to work - but at one time he easily could have. His firm is located at 74 Forbes Avenue, the former Yale boathouse. The brick structure can be easily seen by those avoiding the Q-Bridge quandary and taking the road less traveled.
There are concrete Yale Bulldogs peering out over the water still, if you look carefully enough to see them. While it still offers its tenants spectacular views, much of its siting has been altered.
“At one time, this building was surrounded by water,” says Wies. “There was a just a causeway leading to Forbes Avenue.
“It was built in 1909, and was the crew boathouse until the 1930s,” he explains. “That's when they built a new boathouse in Derby. They used this one for intramural [crew] until the 1950s, and then it was abandoned.”
Throughout the 1960s the building sat empty, then was sold to a private owner and used as the home of Bell Pumps. Two sides of the building's waterfront were filled in for parking lots. Gregg & Wies Architects is just one of ten or so companies that call the boathouse home today.
“It's a beautiful building,” admires Wies. “We have plenty of windows to enjoy the water views on three sides, cathedral ceilings - about 27 feet high, a stained wood ceiling with wood trusses and a walk-in fireplace.”
In fact, Wies keeps an old wooden rowing scull fastened to the trusses after having been brought in for winter storage - 11 years ago.
“I have another one I use that's much more transportable,” he laughs. He is fond of rowing solo through the Thimble Islands.
To keep the open feeling of the original building, the firm has partitioned off only a conference area and coffee room. The rest of the space, housing seven employees, remains open. The partners, Glen Gregg and Wies, have an area for themselves partitioned off with glass.
“It's a wonderful space,” Wies says, and we've done quite a bit over the years, like the built-in book cases, the conference room.”
The firm of Gregg & Wies has called the building home for a dozen years, but is looking now for another space as the boathouse is scheduled to be moved to a new location on New Haven Harbor within two years.
“They're pouring a new foundation and moving it over to Long Wharf,” says Wies. “It will be filled with a restaurant and some shops.”
So some day not so far away, he'll have to bring that old wooden scull out of storage and try it out again. Meanwhile, Wies and his cohorts have a big job ahead of them trying to find a space that will be as inspirational as this one has been.
In the 1960s, George Morgio, partner with Michael Yuhas of Farm River Antiques in North Haven, organized and played in his band at mixers in an old, empty volunteer firehouse near North Haven Center.
“He was a founder and lead guitarist of NAIF - North Atlantic Invasion Force,” says Yuhas, speaking for his partner who is away on business this day.
Little did Morgio know that 30 years later he and Yuhas would own the building and house their business - Farm River Antiques - at the very same site.
“This is a beautiful building,” says Yuhas, “and we've really tried to keep to its original look.”
The partners bought the firehouse 19 years ago. They were winners of an open-bid sale, and were thrilled when they learned it was theirs.
“We wanted this building,” recalls Yuhas. “We changed our bid three times. Three times we had to go back to our lawyer, have all the paperwork changed and resubmitted. But we wanted to be sure we were offering enough because in an open bid you only get one shot - it automatically goes to the highest offer. We knew what this space was worth, and we didn't want to risk losing it.”
Their instincts paid off. The partners were the highest bid by only $5,000. Suddenly, the building they'd always admired was theirs.
Then they showed up for work - and reality hit home.
“It was a mess, “ laughs Yuhas. “It had been built in the 1930s, during the Depression. At the time it was an example of state-of-the-art, modern construction. It was used for only 20 years as a firehouse before the new one was built across the street. Then it was used by the town for recreation. There is a stage in the main space that was used for, among other things, high school graduations.
“North Haven had no high school then, and sent its students to area schools. Then they would all come back to graduate together.
“Then, in the 1960s Morgio, and his band would organize mixers here on Saturday nights. They'd hire a policeman to guard the door, sell tickets and get a huge crowd. All the area college students came - and they made great money,” laughs Yuhas.
The building was eventually closed to public use and served as storage space for the North Haven Board of Education. By the time Morgio and Yuhas bought it, it needed a lot of TLC.
“We worked full-time for five months to get it ready for business,” says Yuhas.
“All the original inside brick walls were covered in layers of paint that had to be removed. We hired someone to lay down new flooring over the section that housed the trucks - a very difficult job because the original concrete floor is sloped toward the center so that the water would drain out from washing the fire trucks.”
The floor was covered with wide plank wood flooring that looks as though it's been there since the building's inception.
Two great glass windows enclose the openings where the trucks entered the garage that the owners now use as primary showcase storefronts. Passers-by along the busy road - Broadway- can peer in to see the latest treasures the shop has to offer.
Now in its 28th year, Farm River Antiques, formerly located in a much smaller space in Northford, specializes in high quality Victorian antiques. Customers from around the country - indeed, around the world - have come to rely on the store to provide them with just the right pieces for serious collectors.
“We have a log of customers in this area,” says Yuhas. “If they're working on furnishing a home, we might work with them for one to two years, sometimes longer.
“We had someone from Japan here recently who purchased an entire office suite of furniture,” he says. “And we have quite a few English customers coming in, purchasing pieces, and bringing them back to [the UK],” he smiles.
The pieces they deal with are mainly large, ornate and intricately carved. Most come from private owners.
“We have a bedroom set that is rumored to be from the Chrysler estate,” says Yuhas. “We can't verify this - we can't really verify most claims since there are no written documents to prove them - but it does have the Chrysler wings carved into the design of each piece.”
Yuhas and Morgio display their pieces in grand style, with ample room to showcase them. Yuhas says the extra, attractive space has definitely helped their business grow. Cathedral ceilings with original steel trusses provide a natural setting to view the pieces, with plenty of room for potential buyers to appreciate a potential purchase.
Any advice for antiques lovers?
“We really preach condition,” says Yuhas, son of a cabinetmaker and lifetime lover of fine furniture.
“It's better to wait and save your money to buy a piece that's in very good shape. You also have to be flexible and have a lot of patience,” he warns. “If you're looking for a dining-room set and really want a table first, you might come upon a beautiful breakfront and it will cost you what you've saved for a table. But you will probably never find one like it again, so you have to know when to shift your priorities. Buy the breakfront first, then start searching again for the table when you are able to.”
The partners share office space upstairs, which used to be the living space for the firemen. Morgio and Yuhas knocked down interior walls, creating a fairly large open space which they furnish it with antiques they'd become personally fond of. But they admit these pieces can come and go.
Beside one desk rests a guitar in its case. Beside the guitar is an old black chair that looks like an antique barstool.
“This is my partner's desk,” says Yuhas. “That stool was said to be the doorman's at the Dakota [Hotel] in New York. It is rumored that John Lennon sat there,” he smiles.
Public Artist Sheila DeBretteville's studio is housed in a structure that offers plenty of inspiration each day. Also her home, the building was once New Haven's public water tank.
“It was built in 1906,” says DeBretteville, of the large, round tank high atop a hillside straddling the New Haven-Hamden line. “But New Haven was growing so fast they didn't use it very long. It just wasn't big enough for the town.”
The building was abandoned, and sat unused for 70 years. “The neighbors - because it is in a very residential area, viewed it as sort of their pet,” she laughs.
But one day, while out walking with a friend who lived in the area, DeBretteville spied the looming structure which commands arresting views of the city and far beyond.
“There it was,” she remembers. “It was such a beautiful site, I thought, 'I could be here.'”
But the building was privately owned by someone who had paid a very large amount to the city for it. He subsequently lost his funding to develop it, and five years after she first saw it, the tank became available again, this time FDIC-owned. Sheila and her husband Peter moved to New Haven from Los Angeles, and still had not found a place to call home.
“I was looking for an industrial, big, open-plan space on a lively street in town,” she describes, having been accustomed to city life, “and just couldn't find one.”
So they took the plunge and bought the water tank - a concrete cylinder that measures 50 feet in diameter. It took her husband (an architect, fortunately) two years to design a home and studio space that takes full advantage of some spectacular views. “We can see Long Island Sound, and the trees are so beautiful, especially in the fall or when the snow is falling,” DeBretteville says.
Working with colleague David Dixon, the couple transformed the tank into a gracious space for both living and working. Windows were cut in all around into reinforced concrete that is 20 inches thick.
“Each time we made a window, we made a window seat,” she laughs.
“Three walls in the house are two-story bookcases,” DeBretteville explains, “and I have my big table in the middle, my computers, and that's my office space. Typically I'll have my drawings strewn about the table, unless we're having a large number of people for dinner. We're having a dinner on Sunday, so they'll be out until sometime Saturday afternoon,” she smiles.
DeBretteville's work is a part of the landscape across the country, in New York (an underground subway project in Flushing) in Los Angeles, Boston's central artery project, Rhode Island, Tennessee - even New Haven. Take a stroll through the recently renovated Ninth Square, and you'll see her stars imbedded into the sidewalks there.
“I had just moved here from L.A. where the celebrity culture is full tilt,” remembers DeBretteville. “That area of New Haven was really empty then, there were just no people, and I sought to fill that emptiness with tributes to those who had made contributions to the area over the past - 300 years, really.”
The stars reflect the mixed races of the contributors to Ninth Square throughout history, including Asians, Latinos and African Americans.
DeBretteville explains that four new stars are slated to be added each year, and hopes that tradition will continue to enrich the area.
“My work is all about feelings, people, ideas and ways of being that can be captured permanently,” she explains. “I try to make valuable words and images available to the public, so that you don't have to go to museums or to galleries to see art. You see it in your daily life.”
DeBretteville says she likes her work to honor the people of a community who have helped to shape it. Frequently that work is a part of a major renovation and transformation of large public spaces, so she tries to make reference to what's been lost through that transformation. Ultimately the work must “decorate the neighborhood, and tell the story that needs to be told.”
Besides her work as a public artist, DeBretteville also teaches graduate students at the Yale School of Art, and is the first female professor to earn tenure there. She passes on to them the philosophy that is ingrained in her own work.
“We're helping our students get the critical and technical skills that allow them to create projects,” she informs. “To be able to identify what needs to be done - to be working artists.”
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