Continuing our Friday Flashback series of old aerial photos, Richard Jaffe sent this fascinating view of Westport before the mid-1950s, when I-95 slashed through town.
The image — looking west (at the top) shows Saugatuck on the right, between the railroad and Cribari bridges — without the highway in between.
The Bridge Street/South Compo Road/Greens Farms Road intersection looks quite a bit different — and as does Greens Farms Road itself (curving, near the center of the shot).
Some parts of town have plenty of trees. Others have none.
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That’s fascinating. Those parts without trees look like they might be farmland. Onion fields, maybe? Was Saugatuck El built yet? Are the open spaces below Greens Farms Road ball fields for the school?
Railroad station on the westbound side only. How the heck old is this photo?
Describing this photo as “before the mid-1950s” is a bit misleading. This is Early Photography from a Plane – maybe the Teens or Twenties. But I don’t see a lot of houses and buildings that I thought were older than that.
much older than the 1950’s. Vani Court does exist on this map, and those houses were built not long after the war. There is a small building visible on the short stretch of Compo road between its junctions with Bridge Street and the old Greens Farms Road. I think that is the original Montgomery grocery store before it moved to Old Mill Beach.
It seems that the original Bridge Street School—and not its replacement (Saugatuck Elementary School)—can be seen in the photo. If I should be right about that, then this picture would be from the 1920s or earlier because Saugatuck El was built or opened in 1931.
The cottage the Fitzgeralds summered in I believe can be seen in this picture too.
How can the curve in the middle be Greens Farms Road? It is on the south side of the railroad tracks. Isn’t that Compo Road? Compo Road still bends like that.
Dan, Please tell Mr. Jaffe I would happily volunteer to copy the original photo and restore as best possible.