Silver’s arrived in Westport in 1951. It was already 47 years old, with previous locations in Fairfield and Bridgeport. Silver’s occupied 2 separate storefronts in Compo Acres (with a brief stint in Sconset Square, after a 1962 fire burned down the shopping center).
Max’s was founded in 1956, on the Post Road. It remained there — across from the Westport Y — until this summer.
Ed Mitchell opened in 1958. It occupied a small building on the corner of the Post Road and North Compo. It relocated to Colonial Green a few years later, then moved to its present Post Road site near Hillspoint Road in 1979.
It expanded to its current size in 1993, the same year the name changed to Mitchells (without an apostrophe).
Of course, Gault is the great-great-grandaddy of all Westport businesses. Started in 1863 — nearly a century before Silver’s first arrived in town — it has morphed from coal and horse transportation through freight hauling, plowing, grain threshing, gravel, mason supplies, barge transport, oil, stone and cement, to its present incarnation as an energy conservation company.
Are there other Westport businesses dating to the 1950s (or 1860s!)? Click “Comments” below to add them to our list.
