Hawley Warner, Former Owner Of The ‘Brick Store,’ Dies At 84

Henry Hawley Warner, 84, retired owner and proprietor of the “Brick Store” in Sandy Hook, died November 21 at his home. He was the husband of Margaret (Camp) Warner and lived at 5 Pole Bridge Road, Sandy Hook.

He was born in Sandy Hook December 7, 1914, son of the late Hobart G. and Mary (Hawley) Warner. He was a lifelong resident of Sandy Hook. A graduate of Wooster School in Danbury, he attended Bentley School of Accounting and Finance.

During World War II he served in the 87th Mountain Infantry, 10th Mountain Division, US Army, serving in the Aleutian Islands as a corporal.

Mr Warner was a charter member of the Sandy Hook Fire Department. At one time he served as treasurer of the Sandy Hook Athletic Club. He was a former driver for both FISH of Newtown and Meals on Wheels. He served as treasurer of FISH from 1984 to 1995. He was a former treasurer and sexton of Zoar Cemetery in Sandy Hook. He was a member of the Newtown Horticulture Club.

He was a master gardener through the Cooperative Extension and loved to work with his wife in their gardens.

A longtime member of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown, he had served as warden and treasurer.

In 1982 he joined The Boys Club, a group of retired men who meet once a month for lunch at George’s Pizza and Restaurant. The club was started in 1953, according to Alan Mitchell, the club’s secretary.

Mr Mitchell remembered Mr Warner as being “very active” in town, especially in FISH and at Trinity.

Larry Ermler, a member of the club, remembered Mr Warner this week as “a popular man and a well spoken man.”

“A lot of people in town will miss him,” he said.

On May 7, 1978, Mr Warner was feted with a surprise retirement party in the Sandy Hook Firehouse attended by 250 people.

During that event, Elia Kazan, the famed stage and motion picture director and author, said he had lived in Newtown for 39 years and bought all his groceries at Warner’s, “except maybe English muffins. You could go in and ask Hawley where he thought you could get something the store didn’t stock, and he’d say ‘wait a minute,’ and disappear upstairs. You’d hear crates being shifted around, light switches being snapped on and off, and after a while Hawley’d come down with the damn thing!”

William Glover constructed The Brick Store in 1857. It replaced an earlier wooden structure built in 1835 that was moved across the street.

Hobart Warner, a partner of Glover’s, bought out the business in 1929 and the store became the property of the Warner family from that time on. Hawley Warner bought the building itself in the late 1940s. After his retirement, the store known by then as the Red Brick Store, was sold to Lou Bastos and later the grocery store closed.

Mr Warner is survived, besides his wife, by one son, Austin Camp Warner and his wife, Lorry of Danbury; two daughters, Anne Hawley Warner and her partner, Stuart Cohen of Dixmont, Me. and Susan Mitchell Warner of Nantucket, Mass.; and two grandchildren, Kristen Lorraine Warner and Scott Austin Warner.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, November 27, at 11 am at Trinity Episcopal Church, Newtown, with the Rev Kathleen Adams-Shepherd, officiating. Burial will take place Saturday, November 27, at 1:30 pm at Zoar Cemetery, Sandy Hook. There are no calling hours.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made, in his memory, to Trinity Church Memorial Fund, 36 Main Street, Newtown, CT 06470 or a charity of one’s choice.

Arrangements are by Honan Funeral Home, 58 Main Street, Newtown.

The Newtown Bee   November 26, 1999