Tag Archives: Muriel’s Trolley Diner

From time to time, “06880” readers mention Thompson’s or Colgan’s. Those were the 2 names — at different times — for the business on the corner of the Post Road (then called State Street) and Taylor Place.

It was an old-fashioned, community drugstore. There was “luncheonette” service, and a soda fountain (handy for Staples High students; they could walk over after school, from nearby Riverside Avenue). Paperback books were sold from revolving metal racks. You don’t see places like that anymore — not in Westport, anyway.

Today, Thompson’s/Colgan’s is Tiffany. [Insert your own comment here.]

Across Taylor Place was Muriel’s. Designed like one of the trolleys that passed right by it, Muriel’s was an old-fashioned, community diner. It burned to the ground in a 1970s fire.

This photo was taken a couple of decades earlier. It’s hard to tell the season — early spring? late fall? — and I don’t know what brought so many people (with American flags) downtown.

It seems like a special day. But every day, really, was special at the downtown drugstore, and Muriel’s.