Blickensderfer, William Jacob Davenport, Adelaide Hutchings Davenport, Harriet Grant Chesebrough Dewing, Clark Leonard Dewing, Hiram Duffy, Edward Gildemeister, Clara Parsons Hanrahan, John T. Hoit, Edward B. Hoyt, Joseph Blachley Jones, Cortland Mead Lathrop, The Reverend Edward Lockwood, Judge Charles Davenport Machlett, Raymond R. Palmer, Delos Peters, The Reverend Cyril S. Quintard, Elizabeth Quintard, Mary “Polly” Selleck, Charlotte Gregory Selleck, George Selleck, Harriet Banks Selleck, James Weed Selleck, Captain William Studwell, Theodore Towne, Frederick Tallmadge Waterbury, Captain Marcus Wilensky, Julius Morris Introduction

The Stamford Historical Society Presents

Best Face Forward
Portraits from the Society's Collection
April through September 2009

John T. Hanrahan (1872–1940)

Oil on canvas H. R. Wald C772-5 Gift of Leonard E. Cookney

John Hanrahan was born in Stamford and lived all his life in a house near the Broad Street Bridge. As a boy he attended Stevens and St. John’s parochial schools, following which he worked in his father’s grocery store at Broad and Hanrahan Street. He later went into his father’s company, Hanrahan and Hanrahan Insurance Company, becoming its manager in 1904.

Active in local politics, he filled a succession of positions as town assessor, city assessor, town treasurer, and later served for ten years on the city’s Board of Finance. The pinnacle of his political career came when he was elected First Selectman from 1932-1938. At the height of the Great Depression many residents were without jobs. He worked hard to get work relief programs for Stamford’s unemployed and by late 1933 more public works jobs materialized.

Daniel Hanrahan (Picturesque Stamford, 1892)

Image © Stamford Historical Society