Planning & Zoning Approves Plan For Former DePaolo Furniture Site

PETER PROHASKA PHOTO

The Southington Planning and Zoning Commission had a busy agenda for its first meeting of 2026. Following the appointment of Republican alternates Zach Foti and Dennis Bougie and Democrats Katrina Caird and David Scott, the Commission moved through the scheduled items.

 

Former DePaolo Furniture Site Approved For Mixed-Use

After nearly a century in business, DePaolo Furniture closed its doors permanently in 2024. The main building located at 83 Center Street was originally built in 1880, according to Town records, but has been sitting vacant since DePaolo’s closure. A plan by local developer Luke Florian’s Freedom Property to renovate the space gained key approvals at the January 6 meeting.

Project engineer Stephen Giudice, who represented all of the evening’s applicants, walked the Commissioners through a plan for mixed-use renovation along with new construction. Freedom Property intends to add three residential units to the rear portion of the ground level and six units to the second-story. There would also be four new townhouse units on the Liberty Street side, where an existing structure has already been removed from the half-acre lot.

The developer is also seeking a commercial tenant, although Giudice stated that there is not a tenant in place at this time.

PROPOSED SITE LAYOUT BY COLE CIVIL + SURVEY

The four townhouses would feature patios, driveways and garage parking. Additional parking would come in the form of a parking lot for tenant use only.

Commissioner Robert Britton expressed concern about controlling unauthorized parking, but Giudice felt that “residents will police it better than any of us and keep people out of there if they don’t belong.” He went on to say that people are necessary for a “vibrant downtown,” joking, “When we can’t find a place to park downtown, that’s a good thing.”

Commissioner Caleb Cowles asked for additional clarification on parking and whether the number of spaces would suffice. Assistant Town Planner David Lavallee replied that with the diminished retail presence, the developer had met the requirement “and then some” by including the garage spaces.

As for the building’s external appearance, Giudice said it is Florian’s desire to keep much of the brick facade, while making the three buildings differ in appearance. Images shown during the meeting included a preliminary mock-up of the Center Street façade:

SCREENSHOT FROM STEPHEN GIUDICE'S SLIDE PRESENTATION

New Manufacturing Buildings

 

The PZC approved the construction of a new building on the eight-acre lot at 170 Spring Street. The site is home to the Gordon Corporation, a manufacturer of steel basement doors. The company has been in business for over 60 years, according to its website, but was in need of new facilities.

The PZC also gave the go-ahead to another local business, AGA Architectural Millworks, for the construction of two new buildings on its lot at 201 Newell Street. Kris Kolodziejczyk, the company’s president, explained to the PZC that his principal business involves manufacturing high-end wood pieces such as cabinets, desks and other features for clients that include businesses and schools. However, many pieces are of a size that requires more storage capacity. The plan, he said, was to lease the pre-existing buildings to help defray costs for the new ones.

AGA Millworks further asked for an additional subdivision of the property in order to facilitate loading operations, a request that was also granted.

Historical Property Purchase Recommended

Along with those approvals, the PZC made an official recommendation (known as an 8-24 recommendation) that paves the way for the Town to acquire a small piece of property near 821 South End Road with historical significance.

The Curtiss family farmed in Southington for generations before conveying some of their land holdings for conservation and public use. Recent research from Christina Volpe, Director of the Barnes Museum, as well as the Southington Historical Society, led to the discovery that a root cellar on the farm was used as part of the Underground Railroad, which helped enslaved people reach freedom.

Per the recommendation of the Town’s Open Space Committee, the property in question, about one-eighth of an acre in size, would remain in public hands at a cost of $15,000 drawn from the Open Space fund. Committee chair Jennifer Clock listed in a letter some reasons why the PZC should recommend the purchase. These include recognizing Southington’s pro-abolition history; preserving the integrity of the Curtiss Open Space parcel by including the cellar; and protecting against the loss of this historical feature.

The Town Council will consider whether to approve the expenditure at its January 12 meeting, according to the agenda.

The next meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled for January 20.

The Curtiss farm house and adjacent open space land, with open space marker in the foreground. PETER PROHASKA PHOTO

A Visit To Southington’s Great Unconformity

Paul Sulzicki inspecting Southington's Great Unconformity ERICA BOVINO PHOTO

There is no path to Southington’s Great Unconformity. Instead, visitors must tread carefully over boulders and through stands of oak and mountain laurel until they come to the edge of a steep ravine. There the ground drops away to reveal Roaring Brook splashing over mossy rocks, forming a series of small waterfalls on its way to the valley below.

One cold Saturday morning in late December, a group from the Southington Land Trust made a journey to this ravine. The view and the hypnotic trickle of the water were charming enough - yet that was not all they had come to see. On the far side of the stream rises a rock formation that looks like two different types of cake stacked on top of each other. The upper layer is more rusty in color with horizontal bands, while the lower one is grey and juts up vertically like a row of blunt teeth.

This rock formation, the Great Unconformity, was the goal of their visit.

Many residents know that Southington has an ‘unconformity’ – it is even mentioned on the town’s Wikipedia page. But what is it, exactly?

A Short History of a Long Past

An ‘unconformity’ is any place where two masses of bedrock that differ radically in age and origin touch, without any layers from the time in between. Most unconformities lie deep underground, covered by topsoil. They only become visible when some natural force, like Roaring Brook, cuts a channel to expose them.

These junctions have a story to tell about earth’s deep past. The story of our town's unconformity begins with the lower layer of rock, which is the older of the two. It dates to a time about 400 million years ago when the highest forms of life on earth were fish and plants. At that time, all seven of the earth’s current continents formed a single giant landmass called Pangaea. A massive mountain range stretched across its northern parts as tall as the Alps and twice as long – a range that survives to this day, in diminished form, as the Appalachian Mountains.

WIKIPEDIA CREATIVE COMMONS IMAGE

The land that today we call Connecticut was located just south of the center of that range. The grey rock one finds in the Unconformity and elsewhere on Southington Mountain once belonged to these mountains. For the most part it is a mix of whitish quartz and glittering mica:

PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTO

Now the next chapter in our story unfolds. About 200 million years ago, just as dinosaurs were beginning to take over the earth, an enormous crack developed in the middle of Pangaea, just east of the mountain range. It grew and filled with seawater, splitting Pangaea into the separate continents of North America and Africa. Eventually that gap would expand to become what we now call the Atlantic Ocean.

WIKIPEDIA CREATIVE COMMONS IMAGE

Around the same time, a set of smaller cracks opened in the middle of future Connecticut. There the earth sank down to form the Connecticut River Valley, which stretches through the middle of the state from New Haven to Windsor Locks, and includes most of Southington. What started as a marine inlet eventually filled in with sediment washed down from the surrounding mountains.

In time, this sediment was compressed into a soft, rust-colored sandstone known as arkose. Most of the bedrock in the middle of Southington is a layer of arkose resting on the grey rock below, like a mud pie in a stone bowl.

Over the next hundred million years, the floor of the valley slowly tilted, with the western half rising and the eastern half sinking. (You can still see this tilt when you are driving on I-691 in Meriden, in the slanted cliffs under Castle Craig.)

When the western part rose it lifted the valley floor. The rock formation at the Unconformity is a part of that floor - a place where a piece of mud pie touches the bowl. In short: compacted marine sediment above, and the remnants of an ancient mountain range below.

The Unconformity And The Southington Land Trust

Southington’s Unconformity is a rare natural wonder, not unlike the dinosaur footprints that are the pride of Rocky Hill’s Dinosaur State Park. However, rock masses are not quite as universally beloved as dinosaurs, and for most of the town’s history, no serious effort was made to promote or protect the site.

In 1972 the question of preservation became an urgent one when a developer named Gerald Griffin purchased the land near Roaring Brook in order to build there. The members of Southington’s newly-formed Conservation Commission tried to see what they could do to protect the site. Griffin, while unwilling to donate the land outright, was lured by the promise of tax incentives to grant an easement for the lot containing the Unconformity. Under the terms of this easement, the stream and the rocks would remain untouched in perpetuity.

All that was needed to seal the deal was an entity to hold the easement. And so one was formed: a nonprofit corporation called the Southington Land Conservation Trust. The trust was headed by Luis Lozano, the Commission's chair, and officially recognized by the IRS in 1974.

Today the Unconformity lies on private property; a chain-link fence, dense shrubs, and ‘no trespassing’ signs serve to discourage unannounced visitors. However, the Trust continues to be responsible for inspecting the property, to make sure it remains undeveloped and has no issues with trash or invasive species. To fulfill this obligation, members visit the site twice a year.

Land Trust member Theo Smigelski and President Val Guarino look over the ravine. PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTO

A Family At The Rocks

On the day of the visit, Paul Sulzicki, a Land Trust member who lives on Mt. Vernon Road, brought his whole family – wife Erica Bovino, father-in-law Severino, and their children Jack, Stella, and Hazel - to enjoy this rare opportunity.

“We were here many years ago, before the kids, and we thought this was a great opportunity for them as well to learn about history and nature, so we can protect it and be a good steward. Here we all are, from seven years old to eighty – what is it, Dad?”

“82,” said the elder Severino, smiling.

“Seven to 82. Just so appreciative of what’s around us. The monumental forces at play, that created this, are just amazing.”

Severino Bovino pointing out the rock formation. ERICA BOVINO PHOTOS

Erica noted that there is more to the site than geological history: “When we first came through here years ago with the owner’s permission, we saw a bobcat lurking in the shadows over there. There are plenty of bears too - and deer, and turkeys.”

The family spent their visit inspecting the stream and the rocks, sharing recollections of wildlife (including flying squirrels that they spotted in their own back yard), and taking it all in.

Seven-year old Hazel summed up the experience: “It’s really cool. I like the rock, it’s amazing. The waterfall too.”

Stella, Jack, Hazel, Erica, Severino, and Paul

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Let's Retire The Phrase "Lady Blue Knights"

PHOTO COURTESY BILL MCKERNAN

Regarding the December 3, 2025 Southington Outsider article, “Southington Adds Girls Golf as CIAC Sanctioned Sport,” I would like to raise an important issue related to how we refer to our female athletes. I am writing to respectfully ask our school community to reconsider the name of our high school girls' athletic teams, the "Lady Blue Knights." While I admire the girls' prowess and the history of our programs, the name reinforces a subtle but persistent linguistic bias that marks our female athletes as secondary rather than equal. Currently, the boys’ teams are simply the "Blue Knights," the unmarked and more powerful default. The girls, however, are assigned the qualifier "Lady Blue Knights."

We do not refer to the boys as the "Gentlemen Blue Knights," yet the female team is required to carry a prefix. This suggests that the female form is a secondary version or an exception, rather than an equal standard.

The most compelling argument against this practice comes from history itself, where strong women have always embodied the spirit of the knight without needing a qualifier. Figures like Joan of Arc led armies to victory, functioning as a commander and general on the battlefield. Noblewomen like Matilda of Tuscany held military command, and elite women were formally inducted as "Ladies of the Garter," showing that high status and power have long included women.

There is a growing trend in collegiate and professional sports to adopt a single, powerful name that unites all athletes under the same banner. The clearest and most powerful statement we can make about true equality is to give all of our athletes the most potent title possible: the Blue Knights.

Let us recognize that our female athletes are not just female versions of knights; they are powerful, skilled competitors who deserve a name that conveys strength and achievement. Adopting one unified name would affirm to all young athletes that in Southington, excellence has no modifier.

Sincerely,

Bill McKernan