Paul Bass Photo
Lt. Sweeney (right) returns plaque to developer Marathas Thursday.
It took less than 24 hours for downtown cops and an artifacts collector to save an irreplaceable bronze piece of New Haven history.
If it had taken much longer to pursue the pilfery, the plaque marking George Washington’s attendance at a long-gone New Haven church may have gone the way of commemorations of Abe Lincoln’s and Alexander Graham Bell’s famous moments here.
Robert Greenberg knew that could happen. That’s why he swung into action.
Greenberg, who runs Acme Office Furniture on Crown, is the most active collector of New Haven memorabilia and artifacts. He takes a daily walk from Starbucks at Church and Chapel back to his store.
On that walk, he always makes a point to look at the bronze plaque that has stood for almost 80 years at 91 Church St. In 1789 the First Trinity Episcopal Church was at that location. Gen. Washington attended morning services there on Oct. 18, 1789.
In 1900 a new building rose there: a first-floor furniture store with 26-foot ceilings and a story above it. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque by the entrance to the store in 1932 to commemorate Washington’s visit. The bronze has stayed there as the building’s character evolved. Most recently it was New Haven Variety discount store. Then it went vacant; Northside Development is gut-rehabbing it into new upstairs apartments and first-floor retail. (The plan is to divide the current first floor into two floors.)
Greenberg was worried someone would steal the plaque. He knows that thieves have been snatching copper, brass and bronze plaques and fixtures all over town for years now. He had called the cops three years ago when two plaques disappeared from a Court Street AT&T building to mark the spot where Abraham Lincoln had delivered a speech on labor rights. Another two plaques on that block, commemorating the site of Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone exchange, also went missing. They have never been found.
Wednesday, around 1 p.m., Greenberg was taking that daily walk. From across the street he could see that the plaque was gone.
“I went into panic mode. The other four plaques were never retrieved,” he said.
He rushed back to Starbucks. The police department has just reinitiated regular daily walking beats downtown; he had seen Officer Thomas Benedetto there with Lt. Rebecca Sweeney, downtown’s top cop. He told them the story.
They got on the case.
Benedetto checked out the site. Sweeney contacted Alderman-Dow Iron & Metal Co., the city’s most active scrap metal yard. She figured that was the most likely place the thief would turn to cash in on the plaque.
She was right. A man came in seeking to sell the plaque. The company took the plaque, took his name, and gave him $50. Then it called the police department.
Capt. Leo Bombalicki and Officer Brian Pazsak went to the yard to get the plaque and the suspect’s information; then Pazsak went out looking for the thief.
He and Sweeney (both pictured above) also returned the plaque to 91 Church, where Northside’s Alex Marathas was waiting.
Marathas said he’s going to put the plaque aside for a while for safe keeping “now that we know [its security] is an issue.” he noted that four screws had held it up before. Once the building’s rehab is complete, Marathas said, he’ll put the plaque back in its spot — fastened better and protected from theft.
Several feet away, Mor Diagne cheered the plaque’s return. Diagne, who’s originally from Senegal, has sold knicknacks (current selection includes body oils, watches, and cellphone pouches) on the sidewalk there for 18 years. He liked looking at the plaque.
“People come to look at the plaque all the time,” he said. “I was upset [when it went missing Wednesday]. It looked like I’m missing something. I was so upset yesterday, I closed early.”
Both Greenberg and Officer Pazsak said it was essential to track down the plaque immediately before the trail went cold or, as with the Lincoln and Graham Bell plaques, history was irretrievably shredded.
Later Thursday police arrested the suspect.
Greenberg estimated the Washington plaque’s worth at $10,000; he was trying to get a more precise estimate Thursday.
“This is American history. They’re [thieves] equating it to a metal,” Greenberg said. “They’re not looking at ‘George Washington came here.’ They’re looking at, ‘I’m gonna get me some $30 or $40.”