Power Washing Uncovers 50-Year-Old Soda Sign—

Our Green House Finds ‘It’s Got To Be Cott’

By Dottie Evans

When you are the owner of a 70-year-old building in an extremely visible location along a well-traveled highway, any change to the building’s exterior is going to draw attention.

But Mike and Pam Davis, owners of Willow Environmental Testing, Inc, who have just opened a new retail business called Our Green House at 365 South Main, were not prepared for what happened last week when they began to repaint the outside.

As they power washed flaking paint off the modest, one-floor stucco building, they noted that another layer of paint lay underneath.

“We found there had been this big, colorful billboard-type advertisement, and now we sort of hate to cover it up,” Mrs Davis said on Thursday.

The building’s exterior was in the process of being repainted in a light, spring green to match the theme of the new retail business Mrs Davis is managing. It offers a full array of natural, chemical-free products for home and garden, as well as the latest vacuums and dehumidifiers to provide an allergy-free home environment. Her business theme is “Real Life, Naturally.”

Now that the Davises have uncovered the old sign –– which must have been a familiar landmark to travelers going south on Route 25 to Monroe and Bridgeport –– they are not sure what they will do next. Restoration might be prohibitively expensive. The old paint is badly flaked and large areas are missing.

The problem is, Mike and Pam Davis share an appreciation for the past. Before opening Our Green House, they had scoured the flea markets for vintage furnishings to use in the display area. A handsome old copper lined bathtub now shows off soaps and bath products, and a bright, clean white enamel washbasin holds baby products. It will not be easy for them to obliterate this bit of mid-19th Century local history.

Standing back to view the faded sign, a person realizes how striking it must once have been. Created a half century ago, it was typical of the kind of hand-painted advertising that was often done on contract by sign painters on barns and brick storefronts. Such signs have since been labeled folk art worthy of preserving –– for nostalgia’s sake if none other.

One can barely make out the words Cott, and Quality Beverages, written in bold, brush type, outlined by a dark blue background. To the right, a bottle of Cott cream soda or lemonade is tipped at a jaunty angle toward the road, inviting passersby to stop and buy one. At least, they should think about heading to the next grocery store to quench their thirst.

Cott beverages were first produced in Yorkshire, England, in 1871, and the brand originally offered orange, lemonade, and old-fashioned sodas using dandelions and burdock for flavor. Cream soda, or something called “iron brew,” might have been an early version of root beer.

Delivery trucks brought Cott beverages to all the small town grocers and package stores for display alongside the Drake’s or Dugans cakes, Hydrox cookies, penny candy, and Wrigley’s Double-Mint Chewing Gum.

When Newtown was a quiet, dairy town, farmers in their tractors or pickup trucks, or teenagers on their bikes, might have pulled off the old dirt road and stopped in for a Cotts and a box of Cracker Jack.

Longtime Newtown residents might also remember a series of different businesses in that location. First, there was Mary’s Package Store, then Ray’s Liquor Locker, then Art’s Liquor Locker, and later there might have been a bicycle shop.

In 1951, Swamp Road resident Harry Bambino, who was a mason, put up the sturdy stucco structure in the front of his property with the intention of starting a business there that he could run year round –– especially in the winter when it was too cold to do stonework.

Mary Bambino, his wife, who died in February 2002 at age 88, was co-owner of their business –– hence the name, “Mary’s Package Store.”

Ms Bambino continued as proprietor until 1970 and she lived in the family home behind the store, also built by her husband. Today Mike and Pam Davis lease the building from their son, Robert Bambino.

“I’m glad they’re in there. It looks nice, and it’s the first thing you see coming north into town,” Mr Bambino commented.