When FDR Came to Town
There was less than three hours notice, but the news spread through the Valley cities and towns like wildfire on June 25, 1934.
Within hours, flags were raised, stores closed and the entire route of today’s Route 34 from the Derby-Orange line all the way to the Stevenson Dam were lined with spectators, gawkers, and the just plain curious.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was going to pass through town, on his way from New London to Hyde Park, via New Haven and Danbury.
The presidential motorcade, escorted by Secret Service, and State and local police, reached East Derby at 12:10 PM, where the President was met with tremendous applause.
The warm welcome continued into downtown Derby, where the motorcade briefly stopped at Main and Elizabeth Streets so Mayor William F. Riordan could welcome the President to the Valley.
The motorcade then proceeded through Seymour and Oxford, many residents waiting out on their lawns to greet the popular New Deal champion who was credited with bringing relief to the Depression-ravaged Valley in the past year.
Throughout the entire route, President Roosevelt interacted with the crowd – waving, occasionally answering brief questions, and flashing generous doses of his signature smile.
It was the first visit time a sitting President has visited the Valley and interacted with its residents (President Woodrow Wilson passed through a few times by train in the dead of night during his administration).
Many seemed to be greatly affected by the Chief Executive’s visit and before the end of the day there was talk of renaming a portion of today’s Route 34 in Derby, Seymour, and Oxford “Roosevelt Drive” to commemorate the visit.
The idea proved popular, and the strip remains Roosevelt Drive to this very day.
You can read how the old Evening Sentinel covered the visit here in the Derby Historical Society’s Valley History Archive.
Robert Novak, Jr. is the executive director of the Derby Historical Society.
