By Dan Shine
Voice Columnist
West End Market
In 1932, the intersection of Kelsey Avenue and Main Street was a far cry from what we know today: In those days before traffic signals, a rotary existed there, and the roads were all unpaved. A stream drained the marsh that lay behind the old armory, and its contents ran under Main Street, through a back yard, under Kelsey Avenue, through the Rocklen property (now Teddi and Archell), and on into the Cove River.
And on that same street corner, there still stands a three story house that once was home to a family business known as West End Market, and founded in 1932 by Matteo and Antoinette Consorte.
According to their son, Frank Consorte, who was born that same year, his father left his job as a foreman at the G&O Manufacturing Company, and with no business experience, opened up a brand-new grocery market during the depths of the Great Depression; somehow, he achieved success, and sustained the family and the community for decades.
This was during the era of the mom and pop store: Around West Haven, everyone walked to the market that was closest to their home; few had cars, and most people traveled about by foot or by trolley. And everyone was poor. “Many of our customers worked over at the Armstrong factory, one block away,” says Frank Consorte. “We knew them all by name.”
The original market was on the first floor of the building; it had a front porch where people sat and ate the lunches that they had purchased inside the store. Along either wall were shelves that were filled with staple foods. In the back was the meat cooler, which was chilled with blocks of ice. At lunchtime, there would be a line out the front door, as people purchased their sandwiches and drinks. On weekends, the store was packed with soldiers from the West Haven Armory, just across the street; according to Frank Consorte, “They were all young men with big appetites!”
The second floor of the building served as home to the Consorte family. Eventually, the third-floor apartment became the dwelling place of a young man named Harry Peschell; from this association came a lifetime friendship.
Long before the days of Peapods, Frank Consorte made grocery deliveries to homes in West Haven and Orange: first on foot, then on a bicycle, and then as a young man, using an International Harvester Panel Truck. “It was nice to be located just across the street from Rocklen’s; if my bicycle got a flat tire, Sherm Rocklen took the time to fix it right away so that I could make my deliveries,” says Frank. “We had a big delivery business throughout West Haven and Orange. My mother started taking telephone orders at 6:00 AM, and the phone rang all day. We knew who was calling, just by the items that they ordered—it wasn’t necessary for the callers to identify themselves.” Customers had a running account with the market, and they “settled up” on payday.
He grew up working in the West End Market’s meat department, working alongside his father, Matteo. Meanwhile, his brother Joe was responsible for ordering the staple grocery items, and mother Antionette handled the produce items. Brother Lou handled the checkout and the bookkeeping.
The close-knit family loved their work, and being together. There were no vacations, but they didn’t miss them. There were no sick days, because “you felt a little bit guilty leaving other family members to do your job if you were out,” according to Frank.
By 1950, the business and the family had grown to the point that it was necessary to move the market. A new building was constructed at the corner of Elm Street and Wagner Place, right next to the workplace for their biggest customer base: the Armstrong Rubber factory.
And there it remained for decades, supplying the needs of hungry factory workers and an entire neighborhood.
But life is change. America’s growing love affair with the automobile in the 1940s and 1950s foretold the end for the tradition of the “corner store.” The closing of the Armstrong factory in 1983 was the next blow. And eventually, increasing pressures from the large chain stores made a decision inevitable: West End Market closed in 2001. Ultimately, the store was demolished to make way for redevelopment.
Today, West End Market, like many icons of Old West Haven is relegated to our past, and lives on only in our fond and wistful memories.