This familiar building with a handsome touring car parked in front was Dodd’s Garage. The son of an Irish immigrant farmer, Martin B. Dodd (1881-1944) was an early and very successful entrepreneur in the automobile industry. He began quite simply in livery, hanging his shingle in an old blacksmith shop with one car available for hire. Riding the wave of popularity for the jitney, his business grew as customers who would have taken the railroad for out-of-town trips began to hire motor cars. In 1918, Dodd expanded his business to include automobile repairs and built the stone garage pictured here, now home to Alfas Unlimited. Repairs quite naturally led to sales, and Dodd became county distributor for Studebaker, Packard, and Ford with additional facilities in Canaan and on Rowley Street in Winsted. Soon the northwest corner of Connecticut was dotted with a chain of attractive Dodd service stations designed by architect Alfredo Taylor in the English cottage style. Look for one still standing on the south side of Route 44 in Canaan and now housing the Curtis Insurance Agency.

—Ann Havemeyer

Photo courtesy of the Norfolk Historical Society.