Lupi's Bakery

Lupi’s Bakery building sits on the corner of Washington Avenue and Cedar Street, diagonally across the street from Amistad Park, a small green space amidst the storefronts, parking lots, and Yale medical buildings in the immediate area. The lot on which the bakery lies is one acre in size and borders the two streets mentioned, as well as Gilbert Street to the north. In addition to the one story brick structure that houses the bakery and its storefront, the lot also includes a stand-alone wooden structure that serves as a small warehouse and storage space for the company.[1] There are private spaces for parking, and at the back of the building, there are 8 sets of double doors in front of which the company’s delivery vans park. Except where the storefront meets the sidewalk on Cedar and Washington, the lot is completely fenced in. The lots to the west down Washington and across the street are Yale-owned parking lots (most likely used for the medical school community); the bordering buildings on Cedar and Gilbert are also owned by Yale as part of the medical school community. The surrounding area is a mixture of influences: the large, multi-story Yale medical buildings and parking garages grouped on one side of the bakery, and the somewhat older, more residential multi-family homes, storefronts and community centers to the south and west.



The physical structure that houses Lupi’s bakery is a one story brick masonry structure with a corner storefront with entrances from both Cedar Street and Washington Avenue. The storefront windows only extend a portion of the way up the building, and otherwise, there are virtually no windows, besides three long, skinny slat windows with metal screen coverings facing Washington Ave. The retail store takes up a small fraction of the interior of the building, which has high ceilings and is constructed largely of stone.  A majority of the building is used for housing the large baking machinery and for carrying out the operations of the bakery on a wholesale level. In fact, much of the baking equipment in Lupi’s is original machinery brought over from the company’s previous location on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, CT, where they operated for over 75 years previous to their move to Washington Avenue in 1983.[2]



Due to the influence of industry over the years, as well as the development of the Yale medical community, the area around Washington Avenue has changed a good deal over the course of the 20th century. Though some older structures do remain, what is currently Lupi’s bakery is actually a fairly new building. Fred Sgro, who owned the Marchigiano/Boston Model Bakery a few lots down Washington Avenue (this baking company shows up as early as 1937 in the City Directory, under various owners previous to Sgro, who takes ownership around 1951)[3] applied to City Hall for a permit to erect a one-story masonry structure to serve as a bakery in November 1977.[4] Under agent Richard Ramadi, contractor Roger Ricard and a New Britain, CT-based private engineering firm A.N. Vendola & Associates, the building was completed and approved as a bakery in December 1979 at a $150,000 cost.[5] In 1983, William Lupi bought out Boston Model Bakery, taking over the current brick structure and changing it to Lupi’s Bakery. As mentioned, Lupi’s Bakery had a long history in Connecticut, and today they sell to well-known local establishments like Yale’s Durfee’s store and Mory’s Association.[6]



Contextual Note: The area surrounding the Washington Ave and Cedar Street corner was, throughout time, a generally low-scale commercial area, with a variety of stores, smaller manufacturing plants, and some residential amenities, including a schoolhouse on Cedar and Gilbert that shows up on Sanborn maps from 1886 until 1924.[7] The current site of Lupi’s bakery went through many address changes, and for most of the 20th century until the late 1970s was listed as 151 Washington Avenue.[8] Starting in 1913 (first documented City Directory), this property was owned by Albert Quinto, whose family owned several properties, both commercial and residential, in the nearby area. From the 1910s-1970s, this corner lot housed a confectionary, a variety store, and various groceries, and at times it was vacant. It was not until 1977 or 1978 that the corner lot on Washington and Cedar became 169 Washington, coinciding with the construction of the current brick structure (Lupi’s) on that site[9]. Many of the lots nearby were paved over by the New Haven Redevelopment Agency in these years[10] and made into parking lots or turned over to Yale for the medical school, which dominates a great deal of the built environment in the area today.



1. Peter Lupi, interview by the author, 2010.



2. Ibid.



3. “169 Washington Avenue” (New Haven, CT), City Directories 1913-1989, New Haven Historical Society.



4. “169 Washington Avenue” (New Haven, CT), City Hall: Building Records Office, 1919-1987.



5. Ibid.



6. Peter Lupi, interview by the author.



7. Sanborn Maps Company, [New Haven, CT Index] 1886-1973. Yale University Libraries Map Collection, New Haven, CT.



8. “169 Washington Avenue” (New Haven, CT), City Directories 1913-1989, New Haven Historical Society.



9. Ibid.



10. “169 Washington Avenue” (New Haven, CT), City Hall: Building Records Office, 1919-1987.



Bibliography



“169 Washington Avenue” (New Haven, CT). City Directories 1913-1989. New Haven     Historical Society.



“169 Washington Avenue” (New Haven, CT). City Hall: Building Records Office. 1919       -1987.



“169 Washington Avenue, New Haven, CT.” Digital Map Image. From          http://maps.google.com.



Lupi’s Bakery. Photographs by author. 2010.



Peter Lupi. Interview by the author. 2010.



Sanborn Maps Company [New Haven, CT Index] 1886-1973. Yale University Libraries   Map Collection. New Haven, CT.