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MERIDEN — Leonardo Suzio was running a bakery, and a retail storefront by the time he started the L. Suzio Construction Co.
The family patriarch who emigrated from Italy to the U.S. in 1887 at the age of 20 had initially moved to Bridgeport before settling in Meriden.
Leonardo Suzio would go on to create one of the oldest continuously operating companies in the city. Today, the Suzio York Hill Trap Rock Co., an offshoot of the L. Suzio Construction Company, is operated by its fourth generation of owners.
“The fourth generation never had any intention of not being in the company,” said Deborah Patterson, Exhibit Curator of the Meriden Historical Sociey. “They do a lot of sweat equity, it’s in the DNA.”
“The Suzio Story: Enterprise, Family, Philanthropy and Service” is on display at the Meriden Museum and History Center at 41 W. Main St. for the remainder of October. The museum is open to the general public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays, and by appointment on Wednesdays.
The exhibit, which celebrates 125 years of enterprise, family, philanthropy and service, “captures the remarkable story of the 21-year-old Italian immigrant, who grew the L. Suzio York Hill Company into one of the most successful and enduring family-owned businesses in Connecticut.”
The exhibition features memorabilia, personal artifacts and photographs from L. Suzio York Hill Meriden headquarters on Westfield Road. Lesley Carabetta, and Patterson retrieved the items from the headquarters, which they described as a museum in its own right. There is also a 60-minute video depicting much of the company history and scenes of Meriden in days gone by.
“What we’ve done over the last few years is feature a display based on an anniversary,” Carabetta said. “This year, when we have this kind exhibit, it kind of writes itself.”
Suzio started working for John S. Lane, who became the founder of the John S. Lane Construction Co. — and later often his chief competition in bidding on state projects.
Suzio worked as a “straw boss” there for a while, then spent a brief stint working for himself before joining Sanderson and Porter Contractors, where he worked on the trolley lines installed between Meriden, Southington, and Lake Compounce before the turn of the last century, according to a 1945 Meriden Record article about the company’s history.
Sanderson and Porter wanted to move Suzio to their operations in Indiana, but he refused, “declaring that Meriden was to remain his home.” So that year, 1898, he founded the L. Suzio Construction Co., builders of high-grade roads.
The company operated with a portable stone crusher that moved from site to site, then moved to a stone plant on Mount Carmel in Hamden, a move that paid off quickly with the following national boom in the automobile industry and related push for paved roads.
The 1945 article reads, “Mr. Suzio, sensing the great expansion that was to follow, went into the road building and stone quarry business in a big way.”
“Later, the company developed quarries in Cheshire and Woodbury, Connecticut, one in Southwick, Massachusetts, and the quarry in Meriden, the one currently operated,” according to a history on the company website.
The display features scale models of cement mixers, trucks, and pictures reflecting the company’s and Meriden history. It also displays a dynamite detonator most of the public have probably only seen on Road Runner cartoons. Family memorabilia and collections are also on display as well as a special tribute case dedicated to Cheryl Suzio, who became the chairwoman and vice chairwoman of the Environmental Safety and Health Divisions and the Safety and Health Committee with the National Stone Sand and Gravel Association. Cheryl Suzio died several years ago at the age of 66..
Back in the early 20th Century, Leonardo Suzio bid on and won numerous state and local contracts for road building. Some of those included laying a concrete road bed on the state road Broad Street between Meriden and Berlin; the concrete work for Griswold and Britannia streets in 1916; and the laying of Paddock Avenue in 1933, which was paid for partially by funding from the National Industrial Recovery Act.
After Suzio’s death and his elder son’s stroke, former Meriden Mayor Henry Altobello took over as president and treasurer of the L. Suzio Asphalt Co., and the L. Suzio Concrete Co. Altobello became a leader in the crushed stone and concrete materials industry. Rising through the ranks, he became the company’s president and later chairman of the board. Altobello’s business acumen led to his appointment to a Presidential Commission which drafted safety regulations for the U.S. mining industry.
He resigned those titles in 1958 and was succeeded by Leonardo Suzio, son of the founder.
The familiy’s philanthropic endeavors are also on display and range from healthcare to the arts and include the Goodspeed Opera House and the Olde Church Acoustic Music Series in Meriden.
Third-generation leader Len Suzio attended the exhibit opening, but the Suzio family has always shunned the spotlight.
“They didn’t brag on themselves, Patterson said. “They did things quietly behind the scenes.”
For more information on the museum display visit the Meriden Museum and History Center site at https://meridenhistoricalsociety.org/. For more information on The L. Suzio York Hill Company, visit https://www.suzioyorkhill.com or contact Ric or Len Suzio at 203-237-8421.
mgodin@record-journal.com203-317-2255Twitter: @Cconnbiz
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