Stamford Street Rededicated For Fallen Soldier

STAMFORD, Conn. — Forty years after naming Tresser Boulevard after Pvt. Samuel Tresser, the city once again honored the Stamford native who gave his life while serving in the Army during World War I.

The highlight of the ceremony held Thursday was the unveiling of the original plaque, which was first dedicated in Tresser’s honor in 1974 and “liberated” and restored by Allan Sosnowitz. The plaque was mounted on a boulder on the property across the street from the Stamford Government Center, where the former Advocate building was located.

Mayor Michael Pavia approached the Stamford Jewish War Veterans and asked whether the group would save the plaque before the building was demolished. That’s when Sosnowitz stepped up  to get the plaque.

“Somebody asked me to do it, so I did it,” he said. Once Sosnowitz had the plaque, he worked on cleaning and restoring it in his free time when he was not working on old cars and creating his horse. Although Sosnowitz said he was glad to do it, he described it as “work.”

The city’s Office of Operations recovered the boulder, which now stands outside of the Government Center with the plaque back on it.

Tresser was enlisted in the Old Seventh Company, Connecticut Artillery Company, in 1915 and died at 21 during the Battle of St. Mihiel in 1918, a city news release said. He is buried in the American Military Cemetery in France, near where the battle took place, the release said.

Stamford changed the name of the road from Willow Street to Tresser Boulevard on Oct. 2, 1972. 

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