As the west side of the Saugatuck River is redeveloped — with new office building, and the recently opened Bankside House — and plans for a redesign of Parker Harding Plaza behind Main Street muddle along, I found this illustration from the 1960s.
I don’t know the artist, though it sure looks like Stevan Dohanos’ style.
It shows the Famous Artists School — of which he was a founding member — and the adjacent Famous Writers School.
Across the river are the backs of Main Street stores. Parker Harding — built on landfill a decade earlier — is barely visible.
To the left is the Victorian house that stood on Gorham Island. It has since been replaced by a large green and gold office building.
In the distance is Bedford Elementary School (now Town Hall) and the spire of Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.
What stands out to you? Click “Comments” below.
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50 Years Ago This Week:
A Westport News editorial urged the town of Westport to buy a 9.1-acre parcel at the corner of Greens Farms Road and the Sherwood Island Connector.
Among the reasons: “…by purchasing the property, Westport will then have ample time to change the zoning so as to accommodate a new and smaller corporate headquarters…”
It is unclear whether that land is now the town’s transfer station (with part of the property belonging to private Sherwood Farms Lane), or the parcel across the Connector that is the I-95 Exit 18 commuter park-and-ride lot.
The “smaller headquarters” refers to Westport’s first corporate headquarters: Stauffer Chemical (now Bridgewater Associates) at Nyala Farm, a few yards south on the Connector.
The transfer station and park-and-ride, on both sides of the Sherwood Island Connector.
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That’s definitely a Dohanos piece. In fact you wrote about it on 3/16/18!
Thanks, Pat. I’m at the stage when I can’t remember what I wrote about this morning!
I remember the Famous Artist’s School very well! Made several trips there to pick up the various course books. Probably made that trip in my Triumph TR-3A, such as that pictured in the left foreground — only mine is white (still have it).
What also stands out is the black vintage car — possibly a Duesenberg SJ — parked up next to the building. I may very well have worked on that car when I was working at Jim Hoe’s garage in Weston. Great memories from a time long gone.
Hi Brad………………I worked at Hoe Sport Car also. It was about 1963/64. Jim Hoe and Gayle Smith were the best mechanics ever!
First thing that caught my eye was the Ford Country Squire station wagon with genuine fake wood side panels. Those things were ubiquitous in 1960’s Westport, although many of us aspired to someday have a TR-3 or a similar sports car.
I can’t place the tall brick building on the far right.
Love that scene of our little town. I remember that my father got so mad when they put up the building on Gorham Island. The beginning of big changes.
Thank you for sharing the picture. 🌻💛
Artist’s license?
‘Famous Artists’ would even advertise classes on matchbook covers with their ‘Draw Me’ campaign,,,you’d make a sketch, send it in, and some anonymous group would send you an evaluation.
Parking Harding Plaza was built after the’52/’53 hurricanes which rocked the town. Merchants on Main Street used to just dump their garbage out their back doors into the river. As to the Nyala implementation, remember everybody was getting the hell out of NYC then. Stamford was really built at that time. But Founding Father Herb Baldwin thought “light commercial businesses” would keep the tax rate down. He did not want Westport to be a town of just rich folks. Turning in his grave now.