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. 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. A final move into heating oil expanded the “House of Dodd” even further. Martin B. Dodd is one of the many Irish-American residents of Norfolk whose stories are chronicled in this summer’s exhibition at the Norfolk Historical Museum.

Ann Havemeyer

Photo copyright Norfolk Historical Society