Dominick Barberi and Wilbur Strong of Springfield, Massachusetts, signed a three-year lease and built a one-story building on Samuel Foster's property west of the county bridge at Great Brook in Southwick, Massachusetts, in 1924. They named their new business Brookside Inn. By 1929, Chester E. Booth took ownership of Brookside, and in 1932, the Town of Southwick granted him a license to store, use, and sell 2,000 gallons of petroleum in underground tanks at Brookside. (It is unclear if Brookside sold gas before this.)    When Chester and his wife bought the Rustic Haven in Whately, Massachusetts, in 1936, they sold Brookside to William Pope, who, along with Florence C. Shaw and Charles R. Beardsley, incorporated it as Brookside Inc.    The sale included: A beer and wine license A dance hall Living quarters Five acres of land with a picnic grove and trout stream    Things got off to a rocky start for Charles, who managed Brookside's day-to-day operations. In 1937, a disagreement

Some youths hanging around the local ball field on New Road (Granville Road near Loomis St.) in Southwick on July 4, 1927, set up a metal bomb that looked like a firework.   John Battistoni, Peter Monczka, and Stanley P. Brzoska, all of Southwick, had just arrived in Battistoni's Ford. As they were exiting the automobile, the dynamite exploded. The explosion shattered the Ford's windshield, covering spectators in glass. The blast blew off a portion of Battistoni's right leg, which doctors later amputated above his knee. He also suffered significant blood loss, so much so that witnesses thought he would die. The blast blew off Peter Monczka's right hand at the wrist; it, too, had to be amputated. Brzoska's right knee was fractured. A piece of metal tore a baseball-sized hole through his left leg, which was also fractured. He had small holes blown through every one of his fingers on his right hand. When Battistoni's sister visited Brzoska at Noble Hospital, Brzosk

Hearn & Company Furniture Store and Undertaking While fishing in Middle Pond at Congamond Lake on the morning of July 5, 1916, Mrs. William Daniels and her daughter Pearl discovered a man's body floating around ten o'clock; an empty rowboat sat on a bank nearby. Mrs. Daniels notified authorities who brought the body to shore. A medical examiner arrived on the scene to view the body, which had no visual bruises. The man had $13 on him. His watch stopped at 11:47, which indicated that he drowned late in the evening. The body turned out to be Matthew Malone, brother of Deputy Sheriff Timothy J. Malone of Southwick. Matthew was last seen around 5:30 p.m. on the Fourth in Southwick; witnesses said he was at Cannon's Hotel with a companion or two that night, possibly three. At first glance, it appeared that accidental drowning was the cause of death. Therefore, an autopsy would be unnecessary. But several unanswered questions lingered. Authorities wondered how the boat got o

Domenick Gavioli was born in Italy. He arrived in America and settled in Southwick, Massachusetts. He built Domenick's Spaghetti House on Point Grove Road in 1930. On June 28, 1930, around 6:30 p.m., some young men stole a slot machine from Domenick's Spaghetti House. The next day, around 4:00 p.m., they stole a slot machine from the Blue Star Filling Station on College Highway in Southwick. Massachusetts State Police believed the thieves responsible for the Southwick slot machine heists were part of a quartet responsible for automobile thefts, break-ins in the surrounding area, and possibly a list of misdemeanors. Police in Springfield wanted them in connection to a gas station holdup that had gone wrong, with the attendant shot through his right wrist and right shoulder.  A lone patrolman in Westfield, acting off a vague description of the wanted men he learned during roll call, arrested two of the four men after he spotted them walking down Main Street. Later, while at Eva&#

The Southwick Fireman's Association sponsored a carnival in July 1948, starting a tradition that would become cherished and celebrated for decades. (Like most towns, neighboring Suffield, Connecticut, also had a long-standing tradition of a firemen's carnival, theirs dating back to the 1930s.) Central to the Southwick Fireman's Carnival was its parade. Added in 1950, it was more than a display of fire equipment; it was a vibrant showcase of community pride. Fire departments, marching bands, businesses, and organizations across New England participated, making it a regional celebration. Guest judges awarded trophies and prizes to winners in various categories, including Best Appearing Equipment, Most Distance Traveled, Best Appearing Unit in Jackets, and Best Musical Unit. Over the years, parade organizers added new categories and eliminated others. Some years, they had as many as twelve. Hundreds of Southwick residents and those from surrounding towns lined the parade route

The directors of the Southwick Sandlot League held a meeting on July 3, 1961, at which they voted to purchase 13 acres of land off Powder Mill Road, known as the Gardner property, for $13,000 and officially incorporate the organization as Southwick Recreation Center, Inc. (At the time, the land had three baseball diamonds.) The new entity's officers and directors were J. Carl Maloney, William Stacy, Paul Hovey, William Sharpe, Charles Grimaldi, and Edward Connolly. They proposed a membership drive to raise enough money to cover the land purchase price and construct a small building to house sporting equipment and provide refreshments. Adult memberships would be one dollar each, and children's memberships fifty cents. A typical recreation program the directors were starting was estimated to cost $35,000 annually. The directors did not want the burden to fall on taxpayers, so they planned three annual fundraisers: Tag Day, held each May, a membership drive in August, and a card p