Naugatuck loses icon, longtime department store to close Howard ‘Howie’ Rosenblatt is shown a couple years ago with his granddaughters, Ashley, left, and Lily, at Rosenblatt’s Department Store in Naugatuck. –CONTRIBUTED NAUGATUCK — The Rosenblatts have put the “family” in family business for over 100 years — a legacy that was proudly carried on by Howard “Howie” Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt, a pillar of the Naugatuck community and owner of Rosenblatt’s Department Store on Maple Street, died Feb. 15 of cancer. He was 74. Rosenblatt’s Department Store first opened its doors over a century ago in the Union City section of Naugatuck. A family business through and through, Howie Rosenblatt’s grandfather, Morris Rosenblatt, started the store and passed it on to his son, William Rosenblatt.