Ferraro's Market

Ferraro’s Market is one of many buildings on New Haven’s Grand Avenue commercial strip. For many residents of the Wooster Square neighborhood, Ferraro’s Market is a community center packed on the weekends with families buying groceries for the week ahead. The street is reminiscent of the neighborhood’s early 19th century immigration, sprinkled with old-fashioned mom-and-pop Italian bakeries and Polish delis. Ferraro’s is one such family-oriented business. Featuring an impressive meat selection, selves of fresh produce, and a unique history, the Ferraro name has been a New Haven staple even before the market was established at its current location.



Ferraro’s Market started out in 1953 as Mohawk Market, originally located on 406 State Street. Salvatore Ferraro co-owned and ran the meat counter at Mohawk before investing in the Grand Avenue property that would become Ferraro’s Market in 1973. In the 50’s, several grocery stores opened on State Street. However, the early 60’s brought changes in the family dynamic that, in turn, called for a change in the way businesses are run. As more and more stay-at-home mothers joined the workforce, small stores with limited selections became inconvenient. Residents no longer had the time to carefully peruse through the shelves of novelty items on their shopping trips; instead, they opted for larger, more impersonal supermarkets that contained all of their needs in one place. In order to counter the loss of local business to larger chains, two other State Street tenants—Rosner’s Market (382-386 State St) and Gambardella Brothers (400 State St)—merged with Mohawk Market in 1968 to create a larger, more convenient supermarket that still provided the personalized service inherent to smaller shops. Rosner’s rare specialty goods, Gambardella’s fresh produce, and Mohawk’s famous meat counter would together catch the attention of the shifting market.



Salvatore Ferraro, Anthony Gambardella, and Irwin Rosner were optimistic about their new joint venture. They invested $10,000 in constructing a parking lot to accommodate the growing number of family-owned cars in New Haven as decentralization moved families further from the commercial strip. When asked about whether urban renewal will take him out of State Street, Ferraro (now ironically) promised: “Oh, no, we’ll stay here. We might move into a newer store, maybe across the street, but we’ll still be here on State Street, all of us, where our customers will easily be able to find us.” The now-defunct Rosner’s and Gambardella stores on State Street were torn down as part of the State Street Redevelopment Project in the late 60’s.



Only four years later, Salvatore Ferraro left Mohawk Market to pursue a solo project on Grand Avenue. The current Ferraro’s Market property was built as part of the Wooster Square Project to rejuvenate the stagnating neighborhood. To combat the proposal of building I-91 straight through the commercial center, the New Haven Redevelopment Agency seized deteriorating properties along Grand Avenue, displacing businesses and constructing newer buildings to eliminate blight. One such seized property was 686 Grand Avenue, home to a grocery store called Rosner’s Cash and Carry in the 50’s and Rosner’s Grand in the 60’s. This shop was also owned by Irwin Rosner, the same businessman who partnered with Ferraro and Gambardella to form Mohawk Market.



Rosner’s inability to rebuild parts of the building that were clearly in dire need of maintenance forced the Redevelopment Agency to claim the property in the late  60’s. The Redevelopment Agency approved Mohawk Market’s plans to transition onto Grand Avenue in 1972. The land was sold for one dollar per square foot. A true family affair, the new Ferraro’s Market was represented by Ferraro Reality Corporation and the new contractor was Ferraro Contractor Corporation. They hired architects from Carlin and Pozzi Architects, P.C. to design a new building that was completed and opened in 1973. The original Mohawk Market location on State Street was taken over by the Southern New England Telephone Company as office and equipment space.



In 1984, Ferraro experienced its first renovation, which added a one-story brick addition to existing store for the expansion of a work and sales room. In 1990, Ferraro’s erected a one-story masonry addition to the rear of the building for a workroom and for storage. In 1993, contractor Joseph and Phillip Ferraro of Ferraro Enterprise Inc. constructed new footing and foundations. They also expanded upwards with a two-story masonry addition. They maintained the fire separation, exit sign, emergency light, and fire alarm system. All the new features are handicap accessible.



The modern Ferraro’s Market still features an open porch area as the building’s entrance, as well as the two-story attached office area for the market’s internal affairs and storage. As the car was and still is the most common form of transportation in the area, Ferraro’s has owned a 40,000-square-foot private parking space since its early days on Grand Avenue, paved in the adjacent vacant lots that once held Rosner’s Grand. After owner Salvatore Ferraro died in 2012, his son Peter took over the family business and has been running the supermarket ever since.



Exterior 1: concrete/cinder



Exterior 2: brick



Interior 1: minim/masonry



Interior 2: plaster/drywall



Floor: asphalt/vinyl



Roof: tar, gravel/rubber



Area: 20,261 sq. ft.



Past Tenants: Rosner’s Grand Inc. (1940’s-1972)



Owner: 664 Grand Avenue LLC (12/29/2004-present); Salvatore Ferraro (3/3/1978-2004)



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Sources:



http://www.historicwoostersquare.org/woostersquarehistory.html



http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nhregister/obituary.aspx?pid=157503086#fbLoggedOut



http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/cho/id/13356/rec/10



http://data.visionappraisal.com/NewHavenCT/findpid.asp?iTable=pid&pid=10586



New Haven Museum Directories



The Dana Archive (New Haven Register articles and Sanborn Map)



New Haven Building Department (permit records for renovations and additions)