Picture East Windsor - Then And Now

EAST WINDSOR, CT — The latest edition of this periodic informal history series, highlighting buildings from East Windsor's past and what those locations look like today, brings us back to a great picture book called Images of America: East Windsor. Released in 2017, the book was compiled by Ceil Donahue and Jessica Bottomley for the East Windsor Historical Society.

On page 75, we find a 1925 photo of a pair of buildings comprising the Broad Brook Garage, constructed in 1918. In the foreground is a small structure with a red tiled roof and gas pumps, and behind it is a building which housed at various times a Buick dealership, a Chevrolet dealership and a repair shop which also sold new and used cars. At the left edge of the photo is the Broad Brook Grammar School.

The school burned down in 1961, and a brick building constructed in its place which became the East Windsor Town Hall. It is currently home to the Broad Brook Fire Department, about which we will read much more later this week. The two automotive buildings still stand, though not in use as active businesses. I fondly recall spending 400 bucks there to buy a 1976 red Ford Mustang back in '82.

Here is a more contemporary look at the scene, courtesy of Google Maps.

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

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