Hamilton House
Ms. Whittemore set up safe houses for single and widowed women in the borough. The most notable is the Hamilton House.
As with the rest of the Whittemore family, Gertrude was a champion of education. She was the force between the 1906 Naugatuck Truancy law which guaranteed education up to 8th grade. She joined the Working Women’s Club, which taught young working women in Math, English & Literature. She also purchased the old Naugatuck National Bank Building for use as the Children’s Library.
Naugatuck’s history is full of strong, innovative women. Gertrude Whittemore, daughter of J.H. Whittemore, was one of those women.
With the help of other notable Naugatuck women (Mrs. Harris Whittemore, Mrs. Alice Warner, Mrs. Charles Spencer) Ms. Whittemore helped start the first daycare in the borough, the Naugatuck Day Nursery. The women were inspired by a story of a young daughter of a widowed factory worker that narrowly escaped death in a kitchen fire that started while she was cooking dinner for her working mother. Ms. Whittemore also set up safe houses for single and widowed women in the borough. The most notable being the Hamilton House.
As with the rest of the Whittemore family, Gertrude was a champion of education. She was the force behind the 1906 Naugatuck Truancy law which guaranteed education up to 8th grade. She sponsored the Working Women’s Club which taught young working women in Math, English & Literature. She also purchased the old Naugatuck National Bank Building for use as the Children’s Library.
Images of America - Naugatuck & Naugatuck Revisited Dana J. Blackwell and The Naugatuck Historical Society (November 1, 1996) Ron Gagliardi (August 25, 2004)
Hamilton House
The Hamilton house location today. Home located where the two newer houses are in lower right. The house in the postcard background is the 3rd house on Elmwood Street.