The Terese Furniture Company

879-881 Grand Avenue (demolished)

Teresa DelPreto Falcigno 1940. Photo courtesy of Grace Z. Marriott.

1963 New Haven Register ad.

In 1919 Teresa DelPreto Falcigno went to work for P.J. Kelly, owner of some of the city’s most successful furniture stores, at his Grand Avenue location. When Mr. Kelly died in 1921, Teresa partnered with his son Edward to continue to operate the Grand Avenue store in the same building where P.J. had started. When the Kelly family sold the business in 1937, Edward and Teresa became partners in their own store at 879-881 Grand Avenue. In the 1940s Edward sold his share of the business to Teresa, who renamed it The Terese Furniture Company. It became one of the largest female-owned business in New Haven. It had four floors and sold complete furniture sets, appliances, and carpeting, and included a high-end gift shop. Teresa was a labor force of one, acting as salesperson and bookkeeper, with home deliveries provided by Teresa’s husband and family members. The store closed in 1963 amidst urban renewal and the building was demolished. Its original location is now partially occupied by the modern building at 795 Grand, which has been a karate studio, storefront church, and currently (in 2021) Kiddie Korner Daycare.

Text source: Family history from Grace Z. Marriott; Falcigno, Paul A., The Tapestry of Life, A Eulogy of Mother, Archives of the Italian-American Historical Society of Connecticut, March, 1995.

The Terese Furniture Co. 1957. Photo courtesy of Grace Z. Marriott


Laura Parisi, President of the Italian-American Historical Society of CT explains her family relationship to the site at Ribbon Cutting for the tour, May 9, 2022.