Picture Somers - Then And Now

SOMERS, CT — Today we again delve into the incredible photo book, Images of America: Somers, compiled in 2001 by Jeanne Kenyon DeBell for the Somers Historical Society. This trip takes us to page 23, and a look at a building which had several purposes in the first half of the 20th century.

An automobile showroom was built on the northeast corner of Main Street and Springfield Road in 1916. In later years, the building was utilized for storing and grading potatoes and tobacco. The small building in the right of the photo was a snack shop called the Sugar Bowl. AT one time, the smaller building also housed a post office.

The look of the corner changed dramatically in the 1960s, when the property was purchased by the Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. (CBT) and a bank was built. CBT changed to Fleet Bank in 1991, and to Bank of America in 2005. The Somers branch closed in June 2014.

In 2016, the Somers Zoning Commission unanimously approved a proposal to construct a Henny Penny on the site. Numerous delays hampered development, but the former bank building was finally torn down in Sept. 2019. Henny Penny opened several months ago.

Here is a recent photo of the property I took a few weeks ago.

Do you have a photo of an old Somers business which no longer exists, to which you own the rights and which we could feature in this column? Email tim.jensen@patch.com.

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