Category Archives: Friday Flashback

Friday Flashback #476

Posted on November 14, 2025 | 8 comments

There’s been plenty of talk lately about Parker Harding Plaza.

Should we add more green space next to the Saugatuck River? Or is keeping parking paramount?

Access to the river was an afterthought in the 1950s, when town official Emerson Parker and landscape architect Evan Harding devised a plan to use landfill to create a couple of hundred spots for shoppers, behind Main Street.

Up to then, the river lapped up against the backs of stores on the west side.

(Their sewage was dumped directly into the water — but that’s a different story.)

But Parker and Harding did provide access to the Saugatuck.

(Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

Today, those steps are overgrown. The view below is from Parker Harding; the pedestrian bridge (left in the photo above) is closed.

(Photo/Dan Woog)

Reclaim the steps! Open the river! Access for all!

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Friday Flashback #475

Posted on November 7, 2025 | 12 comments

For 56 years, Westport’s World War I Doughboy statue — J. Clinton Shepherd’s memorial to all those who served in “the war to end all wars” — stood on Post Road East, opposite what is now Pizza Lyfe and One River art school.

Dedicated 95 years ago — on November 11, 1930 — it was moved to a more appropriate location, on Veterans Green opposite Town Hall, in 1986.

For a while, small Veterans Day ceremonies were held on the Post Road median, as traffic whizzed by. This was the scene in 1967:

(Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

Now the ceremony is held inside, at Town Hall. It begins on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

With a much larger crowd.

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Friday Flashback #474

Posted on October 31, 2025 | 13 comments

The Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge performs many functions today.

It’s a major Saugatuck River crossing.

For decades, Westporters have gathered there for political protests.

Every spring and summer, it’s festooned with American flags. Twice a year — on jUNe Day and UN Day — they’re replaced by those of nations around the world.

Back in the day, the bridge was simply utilitarian.

In 1915 — 110 years ago — it looked like this:

(Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

Known then as the State Street Bridge, it carried the trolley — a vital form of transportation.

In the view above — looking east — on the left we see the backs of Main Street buildings. The Saugatuck River lapped up against them, before construction of Parker Harding Plaza in the 1950s.

On the right is the former “Hurlbutt block” (now anchored by South Moon Under). The river wall looks much as it does today.

In the center — beyond the bridge — is the outline of the Westport Hotel. It was torn down 8 years later. The YMCA (now Anthropologie) rose in its place.

What else do you see? Click “Comments” below.

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Friday Flashback #473

Posted on October 24, 2025 | 5 comments

Toquet Hall is Westport’s teen center. The entrance is hidden in plain sight: tucked in the alley between Post Road East and Jesup Road.

Toquet Hall was also the site of 2 recent election events: a Westport Youth Commission-sponsored 1st selectman candidates debate (adults were welcome too), and a League of Women Voters “Meet the Board of Education Candidates” session.

But who was Toquet (pronounced “Toe-kay”)?

Benjamin H. Toquet was born in Paris in 1834, and came to America in 1845. He served in the Civil War, then returned to Westport.

His son, Benjamin Louis Toquet, was born in 1864.

Toward the end of the 19th century the younger Toquet — now a respected businessman — built an opera house on Post Road property inherited by his wife, Nellie Bradley. The first town meeting was held there on April 2, 1892.

For the next 17 years, all town meetings and assemblies were held there.

The original Toquet Hall (left). Check out the horse and buggy, watering trough, hoop-skirted woman and trolley. Those were the days! (Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

The older Toquet died in 1913, a successful entrepreneur. He headed the Toquet Motor Company, which developed carburetors for Fords.

B. Lewis Toquet had a daughter, Vivienne. His family — and his father — lived at 10 Avery Place. As of 1946, he was still living there.

In 2025, Toquet Hall plays a different role in town.

Rock bands play there. Hip hop artists, comedians and magicians perform. Teenagers put on plays. Political candidates meet voters.

The only thing missing is opera.

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Friday Flashback #472

Posted on October 17, 2025 | 8 comments

Once upon a time, Halloween was a kids’ holiday.

In the past couple of decades, adults have adopted it too.

But the gang at the Brook was ahead of the curve.

This was Halloween 1980, at Westport’s famous gay bar. (Before its demolition in 2010, it was the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the country.)

(Photo courtesy of Jill Turner Odice)

Today, the Cedar Brook Café has been replaced by Patio.com.

And these Halloween revelers of yore are now AARP age.

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Friday Flashback #471

Posted on October 10, 2025 | 6 comments

Our Friday series has flashed back once or twice to the construction of Parker Harding Plaza.

But with the much-disliked-but-also-much-used parking lot (not really a “plaza”) back in the news, it’s time to take another look back.

Parker Harding — named for Emerson Parker and Evan Harding, civic leaders who had a hand in its creation — was built on landfill, in the postwar years when Westport was growing like lanternflies.

From the beginning of Main Street in the 1700s through the 1950s, the Saugatuck River lapped up against the backs of buildings on its west side — first homes, then businesses.

It may have been picturesque. But the sewage pipes that emptied directly into the river were definitely not.

Here is what construction of the then-modern, much-needed parking area looked like:

(Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

John and Mary Kowalsky, watching Kowalsky Brothers equipment create Parker Harding Plaza. (Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

(Photo courtesy of Jim Ezzes)

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Friday Flashback #470

Posted on October 3, 2025 | 4 comments

In 2025, Westport Police cars come in a variety of styles. They’ve got multi-colored lights on top, a computer with access to all kinds of databases inside, and the ability to instill fear in any driver who spots one in their rearview mirror.

In 1968, this was the standard issue Westport cop car:

The officer standing proudly beside it was Ed Audley.

When he died this June in Florida at 87, the 1955 Staples High School graduate had a long history of service. He joined the WPD in 1961, rose to captain, and retired in 1993. He also helped found the Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service.

Here’s another shot of Ed Audley. He’s on State Street (Post Road East) near Main Street, using the special “police phone” to communicate with headquarters, a block away.

(Photos courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

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Friday Flashback #469

Posted on September 26, 2025 | 5 comments

As the Delamar Westport claims its place as Westport’s premier — okay, only — hotel , it’s instructive to look back at earlier eras of lodging.

No, not to the Westport Inn and New Englander Motel. We’ve done that already.

We’ve also Friday Flashbacked the Westport Hotel, located smack downtown before it was demolished to become the original YMCA (now Anthropologie).

Today we remember Deri’s Tourist Camp:

According to James Gray, who sent the 1937 postcard (above), it may have been located at what is now the Westport Housing Authority’s Hidden Brook and Sasco Creek Village.

Those townhouses replaced what for decades was a trailer park.

Deri’s Tourist Camp looks a lot like Mathewson’s Tourist Cabins:

They may have pre-dated Deri’s. And their location has been described variously as the former trailer park, and just west of that, where the Delamar is now.

We doubt any “06880” readers are alive who actually stayed at Deri’s or Mathewson’s.

But if you remember them at all, click “Comments” below.

(Friday Flashback is one of “06880”‘s many regular features. If you enjoy this — or anything else on our website — please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)

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Friday Flashback #468

Posted on September 19, 2025 | 9 comments

The death of Robert Redford earlier this week reminded many Westporters of his long friendship with fellow actor Paul Newman.

Many residents recalled encounter with the pair here, at hangouts like the Ship’s Lantern bar and Tavern on Main restaurant.

But Newman entertained at least one other superstar, as these undated photos posted to social media by Christopher Maroc show.

Paul Newman, in the backyard of his North Avenue home, with Tom Cruise …

… and in the nearby Aspetuck River.

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Friday Flashback #467

Posted on September 12, 2025 | 2 comments

Today, Riverside Avenue is home to a mix of buildings: business and medical offices, an auto body shop, condos, a school, and private homes.

Back in the day though, it was a hub of manufacturing. With easy water access for shipping, factories filled the river side.

This one belonged to the Meek Oven Company.

(Courtesy of Christopher Maroc)

Remnants of some of those buildings remain today.

If only the traffic was the same now, too.

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