Concettina T. Birdsey Women and Family Shelter

The Concettina T. Birdsey Women and Family Shelter is a refuge established in Three Rivers by transforming a vacant, two-apartment family house into a single facility. Its creation answered a practical gap in local support: women facing emergencies had no battered-women’s shelter nearby and had to leave town with their children to reach one in Easterly. The change also turned a house bound up with private family history into a resource intended for the wider community.

The need for a local shelter

Before the shelter was established, Three Rivers had no battered-women’s shelter. When an emergency arose, women had to escape with their children and travel all the way to Easterly. The account presents that distance as an immediate burden imposed on families seeking safety, rather than as an abstract shortage of services. The shelter’s stated purpose was to provide a local alternative; the evidence does not specify its intake procedures or the range of services it offered.

From family duplex to public refuge

The project began after the house at 66–68 Hollyhock Avenue had stood vacant for a time. The brick duplex had been built by Domenico Tempesta and consisted of two separate apartments. Dominick Birdsey and Dessa discussed the need for a shelter over dinner with Lisa Sheffer and Monica, with whom they had become friendly. Dominick and Lisa Sheffer then made the case to the zoning board and several state agencies, navigating the approvals needed to repurpose the property.

The conversion was both institutional and architectural. Monica’s company, Womyn’s Work, carried out the remodeling; the staircases were rerouted and the wall dividing the apartments was removed, making the two units into one. The resulting organization took the name Concettina T. Birdsey Women and Family Shelter. The available account identifies the name and the building’s prior history but does not state the naming decision’s specific rationale.

Regional setting and significance

The shelter’s development took place as the first casino revenues were beginning to arrive in Three Rivers. In the broader regional picture, the post–Cold War decline of Electric Boat contrasted with the growth of the Wequonnoc Moon Casino and Resort, which had opened in September 1992. The narrative places the shelter project amid this changing local economy, but does not claim that casino funds directly paid for its construction.

The house’s repurposing connects the novel’s family history to a concrete civic response. A duplex built for domestic life was reconfigured to serve women and families confronting emergencies, while local advocacy and agency approvals made that new use possible. The shelter’s significance lies in that specific shift: a previously vacant private property became a locally situated refuge where none had existed before.