City of Waterbury, CT - City Historian

Waterbury’s Municipal Historian

Philip V. Benevento, Jr.

Chase Municipal Building

c/o Silas Bronson Library

267 Grand St.

Waterbury, CT 06702

Phone 203-574-8222

	Philip V. Benevento, Jr. Chase Municipal Building c/o Silas Bronson Library 267 Grand St. Waterbury, CT 06702 Phone 203-574-8222

Biography

Phil Benevento was born in Waterbury, CT. He attended local schools and matriculated at Russell Grammar School and graduated from Kingsbury Grammar School and Crosby High School. At college, he majored in English and minored in history and education. He has a B. A. and M. A. from the University of Connecticut (UConn) and C. A. S. in literature from Wesleyan University and a certification in administration and supervision from Southern Connecticut State University.

Phil taught English for 34 years at his Alma Mater, Crosby High School, and retired as English Department Chairperson. He also taught courses at Mattatuck Community College and put in a semester at St. Margaret’s-McTernan’s (now Chase Collegiate). He also taught a film and literature course at the summer institute for teachers at the Taft School in Watertown.

Activities: Phil is a member of the Waterbury Hall of Fame, a member of the Silas Bronson Library Board of Agents since 1989 and has served as president of the board for more than 7 years. He has been historian for the City of Waterbury since July, 2004 and is a member of the Big Read Committee of Waterbury sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). He is a member of the Oscher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UConn Waterbury and serves on the OLLI Council and recently taught a course there, “America Finds its Literary Voice.”

Role as Historian

Phil has developed a slide show on the history of Waterbury which he has shown more than 100 times to different civic groups, neighborhood groups, charitable and fraternal associations. He has led walks of downtown Waterbury discussing its history and architecture. He has written articles for the Republican-American newspaper in Waterbury. These articles were often written to mirror an event of the moment with a similar event from Waterbury’s past.

For example, when the beautiful Cass Gilbert City Hall building was deliberately flooded, Phil wrote an article on the deliberately set fire in 1912 of our first city hall by an arsonist, Bernard Murray.

City Hall designed by Cass Gilbert stands on Grand Street and was dedicated in 1915.

As a fund raiser for a neighborhood group, he recently led a group of 100 on a tour of Waterbury’s Riverside Cemetery which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The old City Hall built on West Main Street in 1865 and burned down by Bernard Murray in 1912. A view of West Main Street on the south side of the Waterbury Green around 1900 (old city hall can be seen).

Crosby High School when it opened at the corner of Maple Street and East Main Street in 1896. It was call Waterbury High School originally and was renamed in 1897 when Superintendent of Schools, Minot Sherman Crosby passed away. It stood where the Waterbury Police Department now stands.

Phil may be contacted through the office of the Silas Bronson Library, 267 Grand Street, Waterbury, CT 06702 (tel.: 203-574-8222). You may also obtain help directly through the Silas Bronson Library's Reference and/or Local History Department by calling 203 574 8225, emailing the Reference Desk [ sbl-refdesk@waterburyct.org ], OR e-mailing dlucisano@waterburyct.org ( the librarian who specializes in Local History ).

Phil has developed a slide show on the history of Waterbury which he has shown more than 100 times to different civic groups, neighborhood groups, charitable and fraternal associations. He has led walks of downtown Waterbury discussing its history and architecture. He has written articles for the Republican-American newspaper in Waterbury. These articles were often written to mirror an event of the moment with a similar event from Waterbury’s past.
For example, when the beautiful Cass Gilbert City Hall building was deliberately flooded, Phil wrote an article on the deliberately set fire in 1912 of our first city hall by an arsonist, Bernard Murray.
		City Hall designed by Cass Gilbert stands on Grand Street and was dedicated in 1915.

As a fund raiser for a neighborhood group, he recently led a group of 100 on a tour of Waterbury’s Riverside Cemetery which is on the National Register of Historic Places.


The old City Hall built on West Main Street in 1865 and burned down by Bernard Murray in 1912.		A view of West Main Street on the south side of the Waterbury Green around 1900 (old city hall can be seen).

Crosby High School when it opened at the corner of Maple Street and East Main Street in 1896. It was call Waterbury High School originally and was renamed in 1897 when Superintendent of Schools, Minot Sherman Crosby passed away. It stood where the Waterbury Police Department now stands.