Skull and Combs (Straus-Mower House)

Located on the western side of State Street, between Pearl and Clark Street, the Straus-Mower House is a modest, multi-family, Queen Anne home that was erected during the beginning of the early 20th century in a neighborhood that is now characterized by its residential, commercial, and industrial architecture. Over the last century, this building has not only housed dozens of families, but also nurtured the entrepreneurial dreams of small business owners. Today, the passerby peers into the storefront, sees the artistry of a Skull & Combs hairdresser, but, quickly becomes distracted by the buzzing activity of I-91 and the aromas of De Legna’s kitchen.

1907 – Samuel A. Mower, superintendent at the H.G. Thompson & Son Company (5)

1925 – Richard Lewis, painter (6)

1930 – Elizabeth Baker; Margaret A. Sullivan, on-site beauty shop specialist; Aniello Vegliante, on-site shoe cobbler (7)

1940 – Aniello Vegliante, on-site shoe cobbler; L. Markoff, tailor; S.J. Potonies (8)

1951 – Joseph C Gillette, owner of Gillette Department Store (9)

1960 – William P. Chetoka; Mitchell J. Rozycki, real estate agent and owner of the on-site Rozycki Travel Agency (10)

1965-1970 – Mitchell J. Rozycki, real estate agent and owner of the on-site Rozycki Travel Agency (11, 12)

1981 – T. Jankun; Mitchell J. Rozycki, real estate agent and owner of the on-site Rozycki Travel Agency; Zozislaw Samsel (13)

1990 – Rozycki Travel Agency; Steven Pupa, owner (14)

2014 – The Serene Spot, therapeutic massages and bodywork (15)

2017 – Skull & Combs Co., hair salon (16)

The lot that this building currently sits on was owned by Joel W.S. Peck during the late 19th century. In 1889, Mr. Peck sold the lot, which had been undeveloped, to Max Straus. Mr. Straus would build the house that now exists there around 1900 before selling the property to Annie Elizabeth Mower in 1907 (1).

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, State Street developed so to include a conglomeration of wharves, shops, and wealthy merchants’ houses. In the 1840s, the new mobility offered by the railroad caused a shift in the residential and retail spaces of the city, thereby propping up the State Street area as the first wholesale district. By the end of the 19th century, this area was dotted with residences, second-hand furniture stores, and numerous Italian markets (22). Around 1900, Max Straus built the building that can now be found at 832 State Street on an undeveloped lot that he purchased in 1889 from Joel W.S. Peck. Mr. Straus rented out 21⁄2 stories of this building before selling it to Annie Elizabeth Mower in 1907 (1). Mrs. Mower and her husband, who worked as the superintendent of a saw company known as the H.G. Thompson Company, lived in the home through the first decade of the twentieth century (5). During the early 1910s, another resident, Aniello Vegliante, added a storefront to the building (19). This new addition to house offered Mr. Vegliante the opportunity to practice his craft as a shoe cobbler. In 1925, Mr. Vegliante welcomed a new tenant, Richard Lewis – a painter (6). By 1930, Margaret A. Sullivan joined Vegliante in the storefront, where she would set up shop as a hairdresser (7). Ten years later, Mrs. Sullivan moved out, which created space for Mr. Markoff, who was a tailor (8). After 1950, most of these tenants relocated and Joseph C. Gillette moved into the house. In making use of the storefront, Mr. Gillette ran and operated the Gillette Department Store (9). A decade later, the new property owner, Mitchell Rozycki, transforms the storefront into the Rozycki Travel Agency (10). Mr. Rozycki, who was also a real estate agent, lived in this house with his family between 1960 and 1990, during which a number of other tenants moved in and out (11, 12 and 13). By 1990, the property was signed over to Steven Pupa (14). Shortly thereafter, the Rozycki Travel Agency closed for business. More recent records show that the storefront was occupied by an enterprise known as “The Serene Spot,” which offered therapeutic massages and bodywork (15). Today however, the building’s commercial space is occupied by a successful hair salon that has ingeniously been named, “Skull & Combs Co.” (16).

As the passerby walks along State Street, this building will appear on the street’s western side, between Pearl and Clark Street. Situated across from it is the Citizens Television, Inc. building. Both of these structures are in a neighborhood that is characterized by its residential, commercial, and industrial architecture. Most notably, the building at 832 State Street is in walking distance of a number of New Haven’s most celebrated restaurants, including Modern Apizza, De Legna’s, and L’Orcio.

This plain, Queen Anne house stands 21⁄2 stories atop a brick foundation that has been painted over with ruby red. The exterior of the building is currently accentuated by beige vinyl siding and trim, which was installed between 2008 and 2011 by Zofia Pupa (4 and 17). In re-siding the house, Mr. Pupa replaced the aluminum siding Mitchell Rozycki installed back in 1959 (18). Today, as the passerby’s eyes wander up the structure they are met by sashed windows that have been stripped of their shutters. Ascending, the passerby’s gaze comes across the plain bargeboards, which are tucked under the lip of the steep, cross gabbled roof. The passerby’s gaze descends from here and is met abruptly by the first story commercial storefront that masks what would have been the houses original front, which looked similar to the neighbor’s house at 834 State Street. This addition to the building would have come around 1914, which records show is when Aniello Vegliante filed for a permit to carry out a brick extension to the storefront (19). Approximately three decades later, Nicholas Vegliante remodels the storefront with carrara glass and extends the brick wall on the store’s side in order to enclose the front steps of the residence (20). Further improvements to this storefront are done in 1965, when Mr. Rozycki files a permit with New Haven City Hall so that he can erect new brick base aluminum veneer (21).

1. New Haven Historic Resources Inventory, Phase 3, Volume 7, (New Haven: The New

Haven Preservation Trust, 1982).

2. City of New Haven Zoning Map,

https://newhavenct.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=ac40cc5bf4c 6495093c8515c4a93adfe

3. Permit no. BP-2006-0093, submitted by Zofia Pupa to New Haven City Hall, January 30, 2006.

4. Permit no. 08-00002784, submitted by Zofia Pupa to New Haven City Hall, October 10, 2008.

5. 1907 New Haven City Directory, print

6. 1925 New Haven City Directory, print

7. 1930 New Haven City Directory, print

8. 1940 New Haven City Directory, print

9. 1951 New Haven City Directory, print

10. 1960 New Haven City Directory, print

11. 1965 New Haven City Directory, print

12. 1970 New Haven City Directory, print

13. 1981 New Haven City Directory, print

14. 1990 New Haven City Directory, print

15. Google Maps, https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3129852,- 72.9138986,3a,25.6y,325.96h,100.46t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s2tpJ34cNwJeGYNXa- amcOQ!2e0!5s20140901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

16. Google Maps, https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3129695,-

72.9138679,3a,75y,329.22h,95.77t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHU0vCs7ZoQXK2_8HBbnK8 w!2e0!5s20170701T000000!7i13312!8i6656

17. Permit no. B-11-57, submitted by Zofia Pupa to New Haven City Hall, April 1, 2011.

18. Permit no. 60136, submitted by Mitchell Rozycki to New Haven City Hall, April 8, 1959.

19. Permit no. 8744, submitted by Aniello Vegliante to New Haven City Hall, July 24, 1914.

20. Permit no. 26949, submitted by Nicholas Vegliante to New Haven City Hall, January 2,1942.

21. Permit no. 72403, submitted by Mitchell Rozycki to New Haven City Hall, November 9,1965.

22. Brown, Elizabeth M. New Haven: a guide to architecture and urban design. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1979.