Here’s a modern-day photo of a now-forgotten publication: town directories.
(Photo/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)
Filled with details about residents and businesses — who lived and worked where, and who begat whom — they’re as fascinating today as they were then.
Town directories are found in our very modern Westport Library. Plus old newspapers, phone books, Staples High School yearbooks, photos and much, much more.
After nearly 100 years, their spines may be worn and frayed. But they sure beat microfilm.
And opening them up is a lot more fun than searching online.
Would I love to spend a day or two looking through those books.
Yes, and thanks Lynn. I have used these for research on occasion and there was a ton of personal info about residents even in the 1960s. What was fascinating was that even famous persons’ addresses were frequently listed.
Very interesting. I never saw those books. Probably a lot more information that I would like to know now. The other books at the left about Huber’s Ice Cream (!) are curious. I remember Huber’s Ice Cream. It wasn’t quite as upscale as Louis Sherry Ice Cream which we got at Achorn’s Drug Store.