SAVITT, WILLIAM “BILL”
PRESIDENTS AWARD
In 1919 Bill Savitt, a young man fresh from Springfield, Massachusetts, was employed at a jewelry store in downtown Hartford. A watchmaker also working in a store was interested in starting his own business and asked him to check out a site on Park Street which was for rent. Savitt had never before seen the area and was surprised at what he found. “I saw this beautiful street,” he recalls, “and it was as busy as any shopping mall is today.”
The store which Savitt went to see was not for rent after all, but he stumbled upon the second-story office of dentist Dr. Goldberg, an acquaintance. He stopped in for a visit. While he was there, a man came to see Goldberg about renting a small store on the first floor of the building which the dentist owned with a partner. Savitt asked to see the store. “It was an alley with a roof over it,” he remembers.
Nevertheless, Bill Savitt asked to rent the space at 628 Park. He put down a $15 deposit and for $35 a month the store was his. Savitt Jewelers was born.
Two years later Savitt moved his business to downtown Hartford, but he fondly remembers his Park Street days. Bill Savitt remains one of Hartford’s biggest success stories.