The man who planned and laid out the Overlook section of Waterbury was born in Thomaston, Connecticut on December 10, 1849, one of four children of David and Miranda Cables.

 Cornelius Cables spent his boyhood and youth in Thomaston. At twenty years of age, he went to Toledo, Ohio where he spent two years working for the banking house of Raymond Segraves and then returned to Thomaston where he became a farmer. Although his farm was small, only twenty-three acres, he seemed to earn an adequate living from it, enjoying a reputation for fairness in all his business dealings.

  Four years after returning home, Cables married a New York girl, Martha Corner, in 1875. They had five children: Edith, Bessie, Frances, Cornelius, Jr., and Norman.

    Finally, in February, 1892, Cables left the farm, where he had been raising vegetables and berries, and came to Waterbury. He was able to purchase several tracts of unimproved land on "Burnt Hill," until he had 148 acres in all.

Related Links: Overlook History | Overlook Architecture | Street Names

Next, he began to build his ideal residential area. He managed to secure the passage of the trolley line through the area, plotted the tract, and placed the lots on the market. According to a contemporary biographical record:

"It has met popular favor, and a number of houses, costing about $12,000, are already completed and occupied. Building restrictions and choice of customers are making this the high-grade part of the city. Mr. Cables has built water works, beautiful drives and boulevards, and the city has erected an expensive school house near this property. It is a broad and comprehensive scheme, and has met with considerable success."

 To say that the project met with "considerable success" may have been an understatement. Cornelius Cables, thanks to the success of Cottage Park, Highland Park, and Columbian Heights, became one of the most prominent realtors in Waterbury. By the early part of the 1900's, he had built two office buildings on Center Street, had become the owner of the Kingsbury Hotel, also on Center Street, and owned the Cables Apartment House, which stood for many years at 45 Prospect Street. In addition, he still had income from sales of property in Overlook. These sales continued until well into the 1920's.

  Cables was a strict temperance man (in fact, no alcoholic beverages were served at the Kingsbury Hotel) and this shows up in his choice of street names for the Overlook section. Bidwell,Fisk and Demorest Streets and Yates Avenue were named for noted Temperance lecturers of the day.

  Cables probably had a feel for history too, since Lexington and Concord were named after the Revolutionary War battles and Lincoln Street, of course, after President Lincoln. No doubt, Cables was acquainted with Dr. Joseph Anderson, for it was Anderson who named Farmington Avenue in honor of Waterbury's mother colony near Hartford.

Cables may have traveled a bit in his youth, or at least had a yen to travel, and this may be reflected in two more street names. Oakland Avenue, for instance, is named afler Oakland, California and Euclid Avenue was named after the street of the same name in Ohio, Cleveland's Euclid Avenue.

Cables continued to live in Thomaston during the early years of Overlook's development. Then, in 1900, he moved into a house at the corner of Lincoln and Fisk Street (probably No. 310) where he lived until 1916 or 1917. Around that time he moved into the Kingsbury Hotel, which he owned, with most of his family including two daughters, Frances and Bessie, who were teachers in Waterbury, and both sons, who managed the hotel.

  Cornelius Cables died on October 15, 1930 in Waterbury. He is buried in the family plot in the Lower Summit section of the Hillside Cemetery in Thomaston, Connecticut.