It’s been 10 years since the Westport Weston Family Y left downtown, for their new building by the Merritt Parkway.
Nearly a decade’s worth of newcomers live in Westport with no knowledge of what that area of downtown was like, from 1923 to 2013.
If you don’t know: the Y’s original Bedford building is now Anthropologie. It looks pretty much the same.
But Church Lane looked very different. The original main firehouse …
… was replaced in the 1970s by an expanded Y that managed to be as cramped and difficult to navigate as it was ugly.
David Waldman’s Bedford Square project took a couple of years to complete. The first step was moving the Kemper-Gunn House across Elm Street, to its present location (as Serena & Lily).
Kemper-Gunn House, at 35 Church Lane …
… and in mid-move. (Photo/Wendy Crowther)
Then came a couple of years of construction.
Church Lane, near the corner of Elm Street. The large structure is the old YMCA.
A fence hid much of the construction from sight. It was decorated by artists, with Westporters as models.
Here’s a view from a construction vehicle:
A construction crane hovered over downtown. Onlookers were fascinated by its many moves, and its length and height.
At Christmas, a tree dangled at the top.
36 Elm Street was the site of several restaurants. The last was Villa del Sol. It was demolished (photo below), and replaced by parking in front of and adjacent to Bedford Square. In return, new stores were built across the street, next to Brooks Corner.
(Photo/Jen Berniker)
Anyone who has moved to Westport since 2015 thinks that Church Lane always looked the way it does now.
Anyone who lived here before remembers a very different scene.
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50 years ago today:
After a snowfall of over 7 inches of snow the night before, Elisabeth F.S. Solomon petitioned the town to build a new school for the disabled on 47 Long Lots Road, adjacent to Hall-Brooke Foundation.
She had taken over the former “sanitarium” — founded in 1898 — in 1964, as its director. A stern leader, she posted guards and guard dogs at the entry to the Long Lots Road property.
The facility had endured scrutiny after one patient fatally strangled another, another set fire to the Compo Inn, and numerous lawsuits were fired for malfeasance.
The establishment eventually fell into disrepair. Under severe government regulation, it was sold to St. Vincent’s Hospital in 2008.
Part of the Hall-Brooke Hospital property.
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