Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.373.1, Connecticut Historical S ...
St. Anthony's Chapel, Norwich
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.373.1, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

St. Anthony's Chapel, Norwich

Subject (Cape Verdean)
Date2006-2012
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.373.1-.9
Description2015.196.373.1: Image showing the reconstructed St. Anthony Chapel in 2006.

2015.196.373.2: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent viewing St. Anthony Chapel nearing completion in 2006.

2015.196.373.3: Image showing the reconstructed St. Anthony Chapel with its door open and Cape Verdean flag mounted in front in 2006.

2015.196.373.4: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent.

2015.196.373.5: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent holding the crucifix that is placed in the Chapel.

2015.196.373.6: Image showing Roberta Delgado Vincent holding a photograph of the original Chapel, while speaking to a group, possibly at the "Our State Our Stories" conference organized by Connecticut Humanities in June 2012. CCHAP organized a panel featuring Roberta and other community scholars.

2015.196.373.7-.9: Images showing people gathered at the Chapel for an event, possibly the first Feast of St. Anthony held on June 9, 2007, at St. Mary's Church in Norwich where the Chapel is situated.
NotesSubject Note for St. Anthony's Chapel: A Capela do Santo Antonio, St. Anthony’s Chapel on Talman Street was built by Joseph C. Delgado in his backyard as a result of a dream. The Chapel was baptized July 4, 1926. Joseph Delgado worshipped there every day, and the Chapel was open to all who wanted to pray, regardless of what day it was. Many Cape Verdeans made pilgrimages there from far away, and the family held weddings there for two of Joseph Delgado’s granddaughters who were married by a justice of the peace. In 1977, the Santiago Society of Norwich, led by Roberta Delgado Vincent, a granddaughter of the chapel’s founder Joseph Delgado, restored the church, which was rededicated by the Bishop of Norwich. The original Chapel, a symbol of pride to the Cape Verdean immigrants who settled in Norwich, was razed on October 29, 2004, by new owners of the property. The unfortunate circumstances of the Chapel’s deconstruction led to careful and intense salvage, planning, negotiation, and fundraising for reconstruction. The dedicated group of Cape Verdeans who united to take on these tasks forged sensible alliances with the Norwich Historical Society and the city. Since then, Roberta has spearheaded the successful campaign for the preservation and reconstruction of the Delgado Family Chapel, resulting in its placement on the State Register of Historic Places on August 6, 2003, and its dedication and blessing on April 9, 2006.

Roberta’s efforts led to the chapel being rebuilt on the grounds of St. Mary’s Church in Norwich. Her goals have been to preserve and promote the history of St. Anthony's Chapel, protect its structure and restore the Chapel's artifacts, and to relocate St. Anthony's Chapel in order to provide better access to all Cape Verdeans, Norwich residents and tourists. She also aims to foster understanding of the Chapel as a symbol of the arrival, establishment, and settlement of Cape Verdeans in the City of Norwich through education and cultural awareness. Her work also pays homage to the memory and legacy of Joseph C. Delgado, who first envisioned the Chapel in a dream and built it according to the picture which was presented to him at that time. Roberta raises funds for the Chapel preservation projects through activities such as the creation of the St. Anthony's Chapel Custom Ornament.

The Chapel and the community history it enshrines speaks volumes about Cape Verdean immigration, traditions, and enduring sense of place. Relatively few historical structures built by African Americans remain on the Connecticut landscape today, and fewer still represent a close-knit community’s values and spiritual practices the way the Chapel does. Using the story of the Chapel as a theme, one could narrate a Cape Verdean chronicle covering movement to America through whaling, settlement in Norwich for industrial jobs, social and ethnic difficulties of assimilation, continuing immigration from the islands because of economic hardship there, maintenance of cultural traditions and language in diaspora, and Cape Verdean contributions to American society that continue today.

While St. Anthony is a great favorite of the Italian people, he was actually from Portugal and is a patron saint for the people of Cape Verde. The Cape Verdean community celebrates this feast of the Chapel’s patron saint annually in early June with a Mass and a lunch in honor of St. Anthony at St. Mary Church where the restored Chapel is situated. The Cape Verdean choir from St. Patrick’s Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts attends to sing and play music. After Mass there is a rededication of St. Anthony Chapel as well as food, fellowship, and music. St. Anthony Bread, a bread of thanksgiving for blessings received through the prayers of St. Anthony, is distributed.


Subject Note for Norwich Cape Verdean Community: The Cape Verdean Santiago Society Inc., a Norwich-based social and cultural organization incorporated on June 6, 1939, was housed in a building at 84 Talman Street in the heart of the Norwich Cape Verdean community. Norwich today is home to more than 1,500 Cape Verdeans, descendants of immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa as well as newcomers from the islands. The population continues to grow as Cape Verdean-Americans save money to bring their families from the islands in order to provide a prosperous life for them in America. Many older Cape Verdeans and the new arrivals speak the language Krioulu, a blend of African and Portuguese dialects. Norwich Free Academy has several Cape Verdean students attending.

Retired whalers, stone masons, and builders from the islands of Fogo, Brava, and Sao Nicolau settled in Norwich in the late 19th and early 20th century. Census records show that many of these immigrants lived in neighborhoods close to the Norwich harbor and were employed as coal shovelers for railroad and steamship companies as well as continuing their original occupations.

The main Cape Verdean neighborhood in Norwich developed on the hilly east side, along Talman Street, anchored by the social club, and continued through the Laurel Hill area to Sunnyside Avenue. The close-knit community maintained traditional ties of kinship and reciprocity. The Santiago Society long served as a focal point for the community, offering social and economic assistance. Named after the island of Santiago, whose city Praia is the capital of Cape Verde, the Norwich Society developed out of the local branch of a mutual aid association in Providence. In 1939, the Santiago Society established the social club on Talman Street and organized activities every weekend, providing a place of contact where new arrivals could mix with other Cape Verdeans, giving them a sense of belonging to a community and helping to ease their homesickness. The social club also hosted wedding receptions, baby showers, fund raising events, and other celebrations. Members would engage in the traditional games of bisca and ouril and share stories. A deeply religious group, Cape Verdeans often held traditional wakes at the Club. Women would chant the choroguiza, crying and talking about the deceased in communal mourning. Afterwards members distributed food to the bereaved family. Generations of Norwich Cape Verdeans made the Club the heart of their community, but unfortunately the Club burned down on January 23, 2007, and has disbanded.

Cape Verdeans everywhere have a gift for music, and in Norwich there have been two popular bands playing Cape Verdean and American styles of music: the Santos Brothers Band and the Delgado band. Descendants of these families still live in the area today. Two Cape Verdean families in Norwich produced popular bands. The Santos Brothers - Abel, Matthew, Antonio Sr., and José, along with their sister Lena on vocals - played Cape Verdean dance music on the radio in Norwich in 1947 and at clubs and dances all over New England until the mid-1970s. When their parents hosted kitchen dances, the brothers watched the grownups to learn how to play the viola, mandolin, and guitar. They have passed their musical ability onto the next generation - Antonio Sr. has formed a band, The Santos Family Band, with son Antonio Jr. and daughters Wendy, Leona, and Lisa. They were inspired by the Delgados, a well-known quartet (later a sextet) who played Krioulo music together as boys starting in the late 1920s. (Some members of the Delgado family spell the name differently). Later with their sister Mary as singer, the group performed jazz, ragtime, and popular tunes at speakeasies and clubs, appearing with Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong, among other jazz greats.

Several Cape Verdean leaders have visited Norwich: General Consul Maria de Jesus Mascarenhas and Cape Verde Ambassador José Brito attended a celebration of the reconstruction of St. Anthony's Chapel held at the American Legion in Norwich on October 30, 2005. Cape Verde Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves and his delegation visited Norwich in 2007; a special reception in his honor was held by the community.

Starting in 2021, a team of Norwich Cape Verdeans and researchers have conducted a project with historian Rachel Carley to compile a detailed community history to research, document, and make accessible the rich history of Cape Verdeans who have settled in the Norwich area and who continue to be an important part of the community today. This project will also highlight the built environment that helped to shape Cape Verdean life in Norwich. For many members of ethnic communities, their traditions have deep roots in history and culture, and are an important source of cultural identity and knowledge. Former Santiago Society Board member Alfred H. Gonsalves states, “If our history is not documented, it will be lost forever. One of our main project activities will be to interview older Cape Verdeans who have a wonderful store of memories and knowledge, so that we can gather this information and pass it on to our young people.”


Biographical Note: Roberta Delgado Vincent has been an advocate for the Cape Verdean community and the Delgado Family in her hometown of Norwich, Connecticut for decades. She spearheaded the successful campaign for the preservation and reconstruction of the Delgado Family Chapel, which until 2004 stood where it was originally built for over 75 years. Knowing that it was a historical landmark that could be threatened, Norwich architect Richard Sharpe submitted a nomination to the State Historic Preservation Office and on August 6, 2003, St. Anthony Chapel was listed on the State Register of Historic Places by the Connecticut Historical Commission. The Chapel, which had fulfilled Joseph C. Delgado’s dream, became a symbol of the arrival, establishment, and settlement of the Cape Verdeans in the City of Norwich. Roberta brought together a coalition of architectural historians, builders, folklorists, and artists to develop an organization whose focus was to save the Chapel as an icon of Cape Verdean history and culture. In 2004, A Capela do Santo Antonio, Inc. was incorporated as a non-profit organization, and Roberta proceeded to organize grassroots fundraising efforts for its preservation. In late 2004, the present owners of the house and land where it stood decided to raze the Chapel, despite an agreement not to do this. With very little warning, they scheduled the demolition. Roberta and her dedicated helpers rushed to the scene to salvage what they could of the precious contents and some of the structural components, and to take precise measurements so that reconstruction could eventually take place. The Norwich Bulletin took notice of these events and wrote an editorial decrying the unfortunate circumstances of the Chapel’s deconstruction and praising efforts to rebuild through alliances with the Norwich Historical Society and the City.

Roberta and her supporters raised $4,500 from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation for the Chapel restoration. She negotiated with St. Mary’s Church in Norwich, which approved the reconstruction to be made in the Meditation Area in September 2005. The restored Chapel - rebuilt by Cape Verdean labor - was blessed and opened on April 29, 2006, by Most Reverend Daniel P. Reilly, former Bishop of Norwich. Roberta hosted a feast for the community that was attended by hundreds, including the mayor of Norwich and local state representatives. In the fall of 2006, the Cape Verdean Ambassador visited the site, and in 2007 the Cape Verdean Prime Minister toured the chapel as part of his visit to Norwich.

The Chapel reconstruction is not Roberta’s only accomplishment as a Cape Verdean cultural activist - she has served the community in many different capacities. She has been a supporter and office holder of the Cape Verdean Santiago Society for over a decade, organizing an annual dinner dance that honored a Cape Verdean community leader each year. This was the Club’s biggest function and grew out of Roberta’s love for music and her heritage as the daughter and niece of the famous Delgado Band. Roberta has an insatiable curiosity about Cape Verdean culture and history, and she attended the 2005 conference in Washington, Connecting the Global Cape Verdean Nation, with her niece. Roberta has authored a piece on Cape Verdean history in Norwich for the Norwich Historical Society’s city history, and she has written for the Diocese of Norwich newsletter. In March 2007, she sponsored a public showing and discussion of Susan Hurley Glowa’s documentary on Norberto Tavares, Journey of a Badiu, at Norwich Free Academy - home of many Cape Verdean students. Roberta and a team including historian Rachel Carley have received a 2021 grant from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation to conduct research documenting Cape Verdean history in Norwich, along with some mapping of places where the community lived, worked, and gathered. This context will help to inform a second grant for updating Cape Verdean National Register district nominations based on Ethnic Heritage as a theme of historic significance.


Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this community.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
    eMuseum
    Copyright © eMuseum