Back in the day, there was a Main Street restaurant called the Townly.
Artist Ed Ashe decorated the wall with a WPA-style mural, showing various characters cavorting in 1930-ish ways.
Eventually, the Town became Klein’s. As the small stationery shop grew into a larger department store — with books, records, cameras, typewriters, office furniture and more — the mural was hidden.
And forgotten.
Not until years later — after Klein’s closed, and the new tenant Banana Republic began renovations — was the lost and long-forgotten artwork uncovered.
To its credit, the large clothing chain kept the mural. It did not fit with the décor, but — hanging behind the registers — it offered a cool bit of Westport history,
In time Banana Republic closed too. Fortunately, Oka — a British clothing store — retained the now-iconic work.
Oka has now joined its predecessors as a Main Street memory. Soon, Sushijin will move in.
Judging from the interior work being done, the new restaurant will honor the original one by keeping the near-century-old mural.
All of which is to give the back story to last week’s Photo Challenge (click here to see).
Thirteen readers — one of whom had actually been inside the Townly, as a child — knew exactly what the challenge showed. Congratulations to Pam Barkentin, Fred Cantor, David Meth, Jonathan McClure, Andrew Colabella, Jane Nordli, Seth Schachter, Diane Bosch, Jennie G. Pickering, Janet Freedman, Janet Albert, Michael Simso and Shirlee Gordon.
Today’s Photo Challenge is a seasonal one. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Ed Simek)
(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
The retail history of Westport is littered with ghosts.
From banks to restaurants, record stores to grocery stores, once-thriving businesses are today only memories.
That’s the way the world works, of course. Westport is no different.
For every Gold’s and Mitchells — businesses nearing their 70th anniversaries — there are scores more that lasted 7 years.
Or 7 months.
Several years ago, Erin Regan made a list of places in Westport that no longer exist.
Some were well-remembered. Others were vague. A few were obscure.
This list is spectacularly incomplete. There are many blanks.
It is also by no means exhaustive. Thousands more places could be added.
And it does not include spaces that have been demolished or substantially altered (for example, Gene Hallowell’s gas station on Main Street which is now Vineyard Vines, or DeRosa’s restaurant and Riverside Barber, which are now a kayak rental and the recently closed Saugatuck Sweets).
But for a walk down memory lane, on a mid-winter day, it will do. (NOTE: The current tenant is listed in parentheses.)
Arnie Place — now Ulta — remains a Westport legend, 40 years later.
The Cedar Brook Cafe — at one time the oldest continually operating gay bar in the country — was a few yards away from both a strip club and the state police barracks.
Chef’s Table, Wild Pear, Java (Mrs. London’s)
Charpentier’s Butcher Shop, Tacos or What? (Border Grille)
Colgan’s, Thompson’s Pharmacy, Ships, Eddie Bauer (Tiffany)
Connecticut State Police barracks (Walgreens)
Dairy Queen, Swanky Frank’s, Woody’s (Little Barn)
Franklin Simon, Carousel, Sam Goody’s #2 ([solidcore])
Hay Day (Maserati of Westport)
Fine Arts I & II Theaters, Restoration Hardware (Barnes & Noble)
Fine Arts III, Matsu Sushi (Basso)
The Fine Arts Theater was a longtime Post Road mainstay.
The Dressing Room, next to the Westport Country Playhouse, was owned by 2 celebrities: Michel Nischan, and the even better known Paul Newman.
Post Cinema, Zany Brainy, Pompanoosuc Mills (Bassett Furniture)
Remarkable Book Shop, Talbots, Local to Market (next: Eleish Van Breems Home)
Rocco’s (Tengda)
Sam Goody’s #1, Alphagraphics, Pierre Deux, Qdoba (Salsa Fresca)
Vigilant Fire House, DeRosa’s Brick Oven Pizza, Neat (Oko)
Schaefer’s Sporting Goods (Dovecote, now closed)
Waldbaum’s, Barnes & Noble (the probably-never-opening Amazon Fresh)
Westport Bank & Trust (the recently departed Patagonia)
Westport Public Library (Domain, HSBC, Guess, Pop’TART, Freshii (Starbucks and Bond Vet)
Ye Olde Bridge Grille (Mar Silver).
Click “Comments” for additions, corrections, and — of course — memories.
(“06880” is your hyper-local source for news — and nostalgia. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
A few decades later, Susan Malloy created this “Main Street 1960” map for the Westport Historical Society.
Brown Harris Stevens reports that 42 houses closed in February in Westport — the most for that month since at least 2014.
The average closing price was $1.8 million, up 50% from the same period last year.
Supply was down. On February 28 there were 138 houses on the market, 52% fewer than in February 2020.
Prices for the 68 houses pending — properties with signed contracts — ranged from $565,000 to $6.3 million. The average list price was $2.1 million.
Weston has seen a 76% increase in home sales for December through February, compared to a year earlier. The average closing price was $1.09 million, up 46%. (Hat tips: Roe Colletti and Chuck Greenlee)
This gorgeous home on Hidden Hill, off South Compo, is listed for $4.8 million. (Photo courtesy of Compass)
For many people, COVID created 2 types of hunger: for food, and for the human spirit.
Westport’s Unitarian Church helps feed both needs.
For years, a community of food-insecure people has gathered on Sunday mornings under Bridgeport’s Route 25 overpass. They celebrate together: children’s birthdays, sobriety, housing, new jobs. When ministers or priests appear, prayer circles form.
As the pandemic’s quarantine and health regulations prevented many non-profit providers from serving food at the John Street site, Unitarian Church members worked with April Barron of Helping Hands Outreach in Bridgeport to coordinate bagged lunches.
Over the past 9 months, they’ve handed out over 12,000 lunches — filled with sandwiches, drinks, fruit, snacks, and messages of support.
With donations of food and money way down, April says the Unitarian Church — and similar help from St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Norwalk — were crucial. Just as important: the interaction with people.
The Unitarian Church’s Shawl Ministry — which for years has knit and crocheted shawls for congregants — also made and gave warm hats, scarves and cowls to the John Street community this winter.
To help distribute lunches, email david@uuwestport.org. To help make lunches (Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m.), click here.
Westport Unitarian Church volunteers, with bagged lunches.
The other day, the Cornell Daily Sun highlighted the student-run Cornell University Emergency Medical Service. Working through the pandemic, they provide free 24/7 emergency care to staff, students and visitors.
Director of operations Hannah Bukzin is a Cornell senior — and a Staples High School grad. She honed her skills working hundreds of hours with the Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service.
CUEMS answers 600 calls a year — “allergic reactions, alcohol or drug overdoses, motor vehicle accidents and everything in between,” Hannah says.
Click here for the full story. (Hat tip: Dennis Poster)
Hannah Bukzin
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Klein’s is long gone from Main Street.
So is its successor, Banana Republic.
But the old department store — at least, its signage — reappeared the other day, during construction work on the property.
You can no longer buy books, records, cameras or typewriters on Main Street. But — for a while, anyway — Klein’s was back.
But for 67 years, 44 Main Street was the site of Klein’s. It was the only Klein’s on earth.
The store opened in 1937, selling small stationery items. Over the years it added records, books, cameras, typewriters, electronics and more. If it wasn’t a true “department store” like Macy’s, Neiman-Marcus or JC Penney, it was the closest thing Westport had.
Stanley Klein
From 1937 through 1999, Stanley Klein — who founded the store with his parents, Henry and Ada — was part of the store that bore his family’s name.
He was an old-time merchant: part of a Main Street that was as real as its name is quaint. He was active and engaged, in the store and throughout town.
He supported the Westport Downtown Merchants Association, United Way, Little League, and the library. Klein’s was part of the community, and there was a community feeling in the store. Some of the staff worked there nearly as long as Stanley.
He retired in 1999, handing the reins over to his son-in-law Bob Hertzel. Klein’s closed in 2004, a victim of changing local and national demographics and retail landscapes.
Stanley Klein died on Sunday, after a long battle with congestive heart disease.
He leaves behind his wife, sister, 3 children, 4 grandchildren — and the memories of generations of Westporters, who knew Klein’s was the place to go.
And Stanley Klein was the man who made it so.
Klein’s, back in the day — and before a 2nd floor was added.
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