Tag Archives: Post Road West

Pic Of The Day #712

Posted on March 30, 2019 | 4 comments

Art and architecture on Post Road West (Photo/Tracy Porosoff)

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Photo Challenge #193

Posted on September 9, 2018 | 15 comments

There are many ways to describe the location of last week’s Photo Challenge.

Post Road West, right over the bridge. The 2nd floor apartments over Arezzo restaurant, Winfield Street Deli, Stephen Kempson and Age of Reason. The Hunt & Downs Building. Across from National Hall.

All are correct. It’s a familiar sight, even if the angle was different. Click here for the photo.

Congratulations to Tom Ryan, Elaine Marino, Rich Stein, Fred Cantor, Seth Goltzer, Bruce Salvo, Linda Amos, Rosalie Kaye, Bobbie Herman, Martha Witte, Joelle Malec, Yvonne Ferris, Joyce Bottone and Michael Calise. No matter how they identified it, they nailed the challenge.

Here’s this week’s photo:

(Photo/Mark Mathias)

We’ve all walked by it — often. But how many of us actually notice it?

If you have, click “Comments” below.

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Posted in Downtown, Local business, Photo Challenge, Restaurants

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81-Unit Housing Application Withdrawn; Aquarion Meeting Still On

Posted on July 12, 2018 | 1 comment

You know that controversial plan to build 81 units of housing on the small parcel of land between Post Road West, Lincoln Street and Cross Street? The one that was going to draw a huge crowd to tonight’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting?

It’s off the table — for now.

Cross Street LLC has withdrawn its site plan application. P&Z director Mary Young said it will be resubmitted. Public hearings will begin again September 6.

But there’s still plenty of action at Town Hall tonight. The P&Z meeting has been switched to Room 201/201A.

Moving into the auditorium — also at 7 p.m. — is a Public Utilities Regulatory Authority public hearing.

The topic: Aquarion’s proposal to build 2 large water tanks on North Avenue.

 

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Posted in Environment, Local politics, Real estate

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Friday Flashback Follow-Up: Where The Hill Is It?

Posted on May 20, 2018 | 13 comments

When I first saw last Friday’s flashback — a shot of an almost-empty Westport road, circa 1930 — I was pretty sure it was taken on State Street (now the Post Road), looking east past what is now Compo Shopping Center, toward where the Humane Society sits today.

But I wasn’t positive. So I asked readers what they thought.

Over 60 comments poured in. Many agreed with my guess. But others ranged up and down the Post Road, and across town to places like Nyala Farm.

Someone even thought I was right, but looking in the wrong direction (the old IHOP would be on the left, with the fire station and then — yes — the Humane Society on the right).

Alert “06880” reader Tom Ryan took out his camera. He offers these 3 images, and some thoughts.

This (above) was his original guess — the same as mine. However, he says, “you can’t see the road bend left (at the top) in the current photo. I think that rules it out.”

Picky, picky.

Here’s his second shot:

It shows Post Road West looking east, with Kings Highway Elementary School just out of the frame on the right.

Tom writes: “This one looks good as well. But notice the angle of the right side of the road. Seems dead straight in the original photo but more angled in today’s photo.”

Finally — looking east on Post Road West, just past Whole Foods — there’s this:

Tom says:

“I think this is a match, mostly because of the angle of the right side of the road in both past and current photos. You can also see the curve left in the distance, and the slope of the road seems to be the same.

“Lastly, the stone wall on the left is still there, and about the same distance from the road as in the original photo (although you can’t see it here because of the trees).”

The mystery continues. There’s only one thing we know for sure.

There was a lot less traffic back in 1930.

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Posted in Friday Flashback, Places

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Drag-gone: The Sequel

Posted on April 18, 2018 | 11 comments

Earlier today, I ended my story on the move of Dragone Classic Motorcars from Post Road West to Orange by suggesting the 11,000-square foot property might be the site of a medical marijuana dispensary.

Some readers took me seriously.

I was kidding! It’s directly opposite Kings Highway Elementary School. You’d have to be smoking some heavy stuff to believe that would fly in this town.

But here’s something to consider.

Word around town — from reliable sources — is that a developer has closed on the former classic car showroom. He’s got his eye on the property next door too — where Villa del Sol planned to move.

Why? He wants to build 8-30(g) affordable housing there.

As in, 150 or more 2-bedroom apartments.

The former Dragone property and its neighbor, on Post Road West.

There’s already a plan in the works for the other side of Post Road West — the former “blighted homes” site on the crest of the hill heading downtown. That’s on the Planning and Zoning Commission agenda, for 81 8-30(g) units.

For a while, most Westport zoning battles have been waged on the other side of the river.

Westward ho!

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Posted in Local business, Local politics, Real estate, Restaurants

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81 Housing Units On The Horizon

Posted on April 3, 2018 | 45 comments

If Westporters have traffic and density concerns about 9 homes proposed for the 2.2-acre Daybreak property, I wonder how they’ll react to this news.

Next Tuesday (April 10, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall Room 309), the Architectural Review Board hears a proposal for an 81-unit residential development near one of our town’s most congested intersections.

The application — submitted for property owned by Cross Street, LLC — is for the property bordered by Post Road West, Lincoln Street and Cross Street.

That’s just beyond Kings Highway Elementary School and Westport Rehabilitation Complex (formerly Mediplex), on the crest of the hill leading to Riverside Avenue, Wilton Road and downtown Westport.

Post Road West, where 81 units of housing are proposed.

A couple of years ago, several blighted homes were bulldozed there. The lot has been vacant since — except for one house.

The development will consist of 27 1-bedroom homes, and 54 2-bedroom houses.

Oh, yeah: It’s an affordable housing proposal, under the state’s 8-30g statute.

Comments offered at the ARB meeting will be considered by the Planning & Zoning Commission, when they review the application.

(Hat tip: Matt Murray)

45 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Local politics, Real estate

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Photo Challenge #169

Posted on March 25, 2018 | 22 comments

Last week’s photo challenge hit the sweet spot.

There were several good (but wrong) guesses. Some correct ones. And added historical information/background from a very alert “06880” reader.

Molly Alger’s photo showed — as Morley Boyd and Wendy Cusick knew — the stone pillars in front of the glass office building on Post Road West, opposite Marion Road at the Norwalk border. (Heading toward town, it’s on the right.  Click here for the photo, and all the guesses, on-target and off.)

Wendy explains:

That office park was once a house, I believe. It might have been set off the road. Pillars like these were known as decorative survey markers. In this case they possibly marked an entrance or right of way to the property.

The property was probably a lot larger. It was probably divided up and sold as lots in the 1970s. The office park was built in 1978 or ’79. I remember it being a gleaming new glass building.

Here is this week’s challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see it, please click “Comments” below.

O course, back stories are always welcome!

(Photo/Larry Untermeyer)

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Pic Of The Day #339

Posted on March 22, 2018 | 1 comment

Earlier this week — before the snow — a tree was reflected in a Post Road West office building. (Photo/Amy Schneider)

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Friday Flashback #61

Posted on October 13, 2017 | 11 comments

Westporters have watched with interest as renovations begin on 1 Wilton Road.

That’s the quaint little building squatting underneath the massive Wright Street office project.

Today it’s one of the many frustrating reasons for back-ups at the Post Road West/Riverside Avenue intersection. Plans to move the building to create a turning lane have been rejected (perhaps to rise again, in the future).

Once upon a time, that section of town was less chaotic. Back in the day, a man could stroll down the middle of State Street — past a still-familiar streetscape that includes National Hall (now The ‘Port restaurant).

But I’m sure turn-of-the-20th-century Westporters found plenty to complain about.

Look at that mud! Those rocks, and the wagon ruts!

And I know some folks thought that watering trough didn’t need to be smack in the center of the road.

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Posted in Downtown, Friday Flashback

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“Lots” Of Action

Posted on September 22, 2013 | 4 comments

There’s a lot going on on the lots on and near Ludlow Road.

Demolition permits have been requested for 57, 63, 69, 71 and 73 Post Road West — the dilapidated homes that are among the 1st views of downtown seen by drivers heading east on US 1.

Post Road West, Westport CT

Because the buildings are more than 50 years old, the Westport Historic District Commission will review the applications.

Given the state of the homes, it should be a no-brainer.

Meanwhile, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-3 to deny an application by Beit Chaverim Synagogue to construct a 4,000-square foot building at 24 Ludlow Road — across the street and up the hill from its current location at 85 Post Road West.

The congregation could appeal in court, or come back with a different proposal.

Stay tuned. With the opening of Bartaco and several other restaurants on Wilton Road, and the changes in store up the hill, this often-overlooked part of Westport may be ready for an extreme makeover.

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Posted in Downtown, religion, Restaurants

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