Father Panik Village was a housing project located in
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...
. Ground was broken in 1939, and it opened as Yellow Mill Village, the first public housing project in the state. The Village was renamed in honor of Father Stephen Panik in 1955, a Catholic priest from
Saints Cyril and Methodius Church who campaigned for affordable housing.
As it was built during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the Bridgeport
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
and local citizens rallied for this project to be built in 1939.
Location
The parcel of land abutted Saints Cyril and Methodius Church to the northwest, with Crescent Avenue and the
Metro North train tracks as its northern border, directly south of the former
Remington Arms
Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business is called ''Remingto ...
ammunition plant. The east of the development stopped at the
Yellow Mill River, and the western end stopped at Pembroke Street. Hamilton Street was the southern boundary.
Since being torn down, the property was essentially split into three areas with the northeastern portion of the property becoming the
Water View Park, the western half (the area south of the church) being converted into single and multi-family homes and the southeastern corner becoming
Eastside Park, divided from Water View Park by the Waltersville Elementary & Middle School.
Opening
The 1939 groundbreaking was attended by Congressman
Albert E. Austin
Albert Elmer Austin (November 15, 1877 – January 26, 1942) was a surgeon and Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1939 to 1941 and member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1917 to 1919 and from 192 ...
and Governor
Wilbur L. Cross
Wilbur Lucius Cross (April 10, 1862 – October 5, 1948) was an American literary critic who served as the 71st governor of Connecticut from 1931 to 1939.
Biography
Born in 1862 in Mansfield, Connecticut, Cross attended Natchaug School in Wil ...
, both of whom gave speeches to mark the occasion.
The Village opened in 1940, with 778 apartments in 47 brick buildings set on a site on the east side of Bridgeport. Originally the population was 5,400 people, which would have made it the 51st largest town in the state at the time
["Father Panik Village, Where Dreams Turn To Dust"](_blank)
''The Hartford Courant''. Accessed 1 December 2011. and was the 6th largest housing complex in the country.
["History of the Bridgeport Housing Authority"](_blank)
Accessed 1 December 2011.
Life in the village
The 1940 rent prices were $17–$26 a month, was approximately 20% of an average man's pay where the family included two parents and three children. In 1987 the rent was $516, or approximately 30% of a family of three's income, that family being a single parent and two children.
Progressive for 1940, the development included bathrooms inside the apartments, hot and cold running water, gas stoves, a park and community center with a library, including 600 children's books.
In 1963, a fight at a
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
al party located in Father Panik Village led to the death of Pablo Gonzales, a father of four children. His attacker, Lorenzo Cora, was charged with murder as a result.
Decline and demolition
The Village slowly degraded into a slum and became a centralized point for crime and drug dealing in the 1980s, averaging 4 or 5 of the yearly 150 gun homicides in the state per year. In 1986 the city of Bridgeport razed all but fifteen of the housing units, and completed the demolition in 1994.
In 1987 the population of the remaining Village was 2,500 people, including 816 families. Bridgeport's Mayor
Thomas W. Bucci
Thomas William Bucci (born April 17, 1948) is an American lawyer and former mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party, Bucci ran in 1985 and defeated incumbent mayor Leonard S. Paoletta flipping Bridgeport's leadership ...
stated at that time that "Father Panik Village was in fact one of the worst-managed housing complexes in the nation."
References
*
{{Coord, 41, 11, 02, N, 73, 10, 30, W, type:landmark_region:US-CT, display=title
Residential buildings completed in 1941
Buildings and structures in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Demolished buildings and structures in Connecticut
Public housing in the United States
Buildings and structures demolished in 1986
Buildings and structures demolished in 1994