Dominick converts the Hollyhock Avenue house into a women’s and family shelter

Dominick’s conversion of the Hollyhock Avenue house into a women’s and family shelter transforms a vacant family property into a local refuge. The change answers a specific gap in Three Rivers: women facing emergencies had no nearby battered women’s shelter and had to travel with their children to Easterly. The project links a practical community need to a house inherited from the family’s past, and turns the first casino revenue into support for a service the town had lacked.

The Need and the Opportunity

The shelter idea took shape over dinner at Lisa Sheffer’s home, where Dominick and Dessa discussed the absence of a local place for women escaping violence with their children. The distance to Easterly made the shortage more than a question of local provision: in an emergency, families had to leave town to find shelter. The conversation gave the vacant house a potential public use.

The project became feasible as the first money from the casino began coming in. The regional economy was also changing: Electric Boat, long an economic backbone of eastern Connecticut, had reduced its workforce, while the Wequonnoc Moon Casino and Resort had opened in September 1992 and was driving an expanding gaming industry. The text places the shelter project amid this changing local economy, where new casino revenue offered resources for addressing an unmet community need.

From Duplex to Shared Shelter

The house had stood empty after the family’s use of it, and Dominick had been undecided about what to do with it. He and Lisa Sheffer brought the proposal to the zoning board and several state agencies, making the case for the shelter. Their effort moved the project from a private conversation to an approved, coordinated undertaking.

Monica’s company, Womyn’s Work, carried out the remodeling. The building had been designed as two apartments; the renovation rerouted the staircases and removed the dividing wall, joining the units into one. These structural changes made the conversion concrete: the former duplex was no longer organized as separate households but as a single shelter.

Naming and Significance

The new institution was named the Concettina T. Birdsey Women and Family Shelter. Its name carries the family’s history into a service directed toward women and families beyond the household. The project therefore changes not only the use of the property but also the scale of its purpose: a family house becomes a resource for people who need somewhere safe to go.

The shelter’s creation is a small-scale example of civic action built through local relationships, public approval, and available funds. Dominick’s wavering over the vacant house gives way to a concrete response to a need identified by Dessa and Lisa Sheffer. By combining the two apartments and dedicating the building to shelter, the project turns an unused inheritance into lasting community provision.