The parcel of 1010-1012 State Street was first built upon in 1891 by a man named William Costello, about whom much is unknown. The building is constructed in the Queen Anne style, and features a 6 bay, 4 entry façade plan and a ridge-to-street gable roof. The first known tenant, August Schwermann, moved here in 1891, and ran saloon on the first floor while living with his wife in an apartment upstairs. Schwermann relocated his home and business to West Haven in 1912, and by 1913 the ground floor shops were home to a bakery (owned by Frank O’Connell) and another saloon (owned by Jacob G. Rausch). The tenants living in the upper floor apartments ranged from laborers to a widow to the men who ran the businesses below. In the 1920s and 1930s various individuals and businesses (e.g. an undertaker and an upholsterer, though the shops were mostly vacant in the post-Depression era) occupied parts of the building, until finally, in 1940, the arrival of the 6 member Citerella family and the opening of The People’s Cleaner ushered in a period of tenant stability that lasted around 15 years. Edward’s Lunch opened up shop in the early 1960s and persevered through to the early 1980s, despite widespread vacancies both in the building itself and the neighborhood around.



Interior photo of unit #6 at 1010 State Street Current storefront of 1012 State Street