As Westporters debate the future of Parker Harding Plaza, we’re frequently reminded that until the 1950s, the Saugatuck River lapped up against the backs of Main Street stores.
We sometimes forget that the bridge over the river is relatively new too.
In this bird’s-eye view from the 1950s — posted to social media by Christopher Maroc — we see how narrow it once was.
That’s National Hall on Post Road West (then called West State Street) at the bottom center of the photo, with the Hunt & Downes (Stephen Kempson tailor/Arezzo restaurant) building to its right.
And there — at the top — is the Saugatuck River, before the parking plaza was constructed from landfill.
The building closest to the Post Road bridge is the original Westport Library. The addition that contains Starbucks was also built in the ’50s.
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Could you add more landfill then pave it for additional parking?
Not unless you want an EPA law suit, Tom.
Just kidding 😎🇺🇸
Thanks. I do not remember the bridge being that narrow but then again, those were my walking days. Indeed, after the hurricanes of ’52/’53, the town decided to create Parker-Harding Plaza for flooding was terrible. Downtown merchants used to toss their garbage out their back door into the river. Nasty smell at low tide.
The bridge was replaced by an arched bridge sometime after the photo was taken and then again by a girder bridge.
Please abide by the rules of this blog, Von Eric.
Where’s my buddy Scoooter?
According to his sister-in-laws’s cousin’s nephew, Scoooter passed away last night after suffering a massive heart attack watching the Giants lose.
I remember the hurricane, but I thought it was 1954. Anyway, my father went out and bought a $2,000 dollar generator after that hurricane. That was a lot of money in 1954 since 10 years earlier you could have bought a house on Bauer Place for $3,000 dollars.
Back then we had hurricanes every year. It was so bad in ‘55 we went to Maine.
We moved to Westport in the summer of 1952 and endured a hurricane within two weeks. Less than two years later, another hit. Basement was like a swimming pool.
Hurricane Connie in 1955 flooded the basement of the Y. In Norwalk, it took down a building in downtown, leaving the remaining building with the side of the old building with the paint of the various rooms on its side–that remained as an eyesore for quite awhile. It also took down a bridge on the Merrit Parkway, then the only interstate, over the Norwalk River, and the Pittsfield branch of the New Haven RR by the Armstrong Tire plant. A temporary wooden bridge was installed, like the emergency bridges used in WW2 while a new bridge was installed requiring sharp curves to access, from which they could remove the temporary wooden bridge. They seem to have wooden signs a mile on either side of the approach of the wooden telling cars to slow down. Once that was replaced, they removed the curved portion. I wonder these days if they would have to go through all of that?