Stamford’s long-lost family stores come to life in documentary

STAMFORD — Lou Sabini remembers it all.

When his family’s business, the furniture and appliance store P. Sabini & Company, moved from Downtown Stamford to Shippan, he was just a teenager. Still, he remembers all the shopkeepers on their slice of Pacific Street feeling like family before that move.

He remembers occasionally sharing wares with the other furniture salesmen in the neighborhood in a pinch. He remembers it so clearly that he still dreams of it even now.

“I’m my age now, and I’m with my father, and the store is boarded up — this is after we moved out — and he opens the workshop door, and I walk in, and there’s everybody,” he said in the new documentary.

That documentary, “Remembering The Family Store,” is a tribute to the Stamford of people’s memories, which for many existed from 1945 until 1960.

The documentary, produced by the Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County, pays homage to the pre-urban redevelopment version of the city and depicts a downtown where small businesses reigned supreme.

The documentary premiered earlier this summer at the historic Avon Theater but is slated to return for encore performances on Aug. 24 and 29, two years after its creative team expected their film to see the silver screen.

Sabini and his cousin, David, are just two of the dozens interviewed for the film — all family of Stamford’s old-time merchants. The documentary tips a hat especially to those working on Pacific Street, which many interviewees saw as the hub of Jewish life during the era.

“Remembering The Family Store” executes its mission with a Ken Burns-style flair. The descendants of iconic businesses like Bedford Jewelers, Curley’s Diner and Frank Martin & Sons Clothing Store make up the documentary’s backbone, trading stories on screen about the work ethic and commitment to

customer service they believe their families defined. As they talk, old photos of their family stores — from when Stamford was a different, smaller place — pan on the screen.

The roots of remembering

Before “Remembering The Family Store” was a documentary, it was a slideshow presentation put together by longtime Jewish Historical Society leader Lester Sharlach. Sharlach operated his own family store, Roven’s Curtain Shop.

“He had been collecting photos of family stores for years, and then he decided he would have a

slideshow presentation that he could take around to churches, to synagogues, to the Government Center — all around town,” production coordinator Gail G. Trell said. It was such a hit among the community that the Jewish Historical Society moved to turn Sharlach’s project into a documentary in 2019 using grant money from the Stamford Arts and Culture Commission.

The documentary is dedicated to Sharlach, who died in July 2020.

Since the Jewish Historical Society started working on the documentary with its director Margaret Stapor Costa in 2019, it had originally

planned for the film to air the following year. But, as with everything else in 2020, COVID-19 pushed back the premier.

Amid those early months’ sadness and shock, Costa found an opportunity.

“COVID became somewhat of a blessing because it enabled me to just dig a little deeper,” she said. Families had the time to dive deep into their treasure troves of photos and sent over more material for the film. The extended timeline allowed Costa to conduct more than a dozen additional interviews.

What was lost and what was gained

While the first three acts of the documentary reflect on the day-to-day operations of each of the shops, the second half tries to tackle one of the most complicated marks on Stamford’s history: urban renewal.

When Stamford rebuilt itself through the late 1960s and 1970s, it cleared the way for corporate headquarters by razing large parts of the old Downtown. The little stores became fertile ground for new buildings like Stamford Town Center.

Joel Freedman, who served as general counsel for the Urban Redevelopment Commission, estimated in the documentary that Stamford acquired about 300 properties through sales between owners and the city. Between 50 and 100 more, he said, were clawed from proprietors using eminent domain.

Not every family store featured in the documentary faced the bulldozer directly — some even appreciated urban redevelopment because it brought on new business opportunities — but all agreed that the project indelibly changed the feeling of the neighborhood.

Sabini as a young man dreamed of going into the family business, so urban redevelopment still weighs heavily on him so many decades later. Still, he said, he understands that keeping the company alive would have been more burdensome as the years passed.

Yet, in his memories, everything is still glorious. Everyone is still together and still in the family store, he said.

Contributed by the City of Stamford via the Ferguson Library Bedford Jewelers spent decades on Bedford Street after urban redevelopment forced the business to move from its original home. The jewelry store was just one of many so-called family stores featured in the new documentary “Remembering The Family Store.”

Contributed by The Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County A moving truck from Sabini’s Storage and Moving rolls down the street. Sabini’s existed in downtown Stamford before urban renewal, and later moved to Shippan after the face of the neighborhood changed.