Picture Enfield - Then And Now

ENFIELD, CT — Once again, we peruse the pages of John Zirolli's delightful book of photos and stories, entitled I Took a Little Trip to My Hometown, and stop about seven pages in to check out a long-gone relic of the "urban renewal" era of the mid-1970s: Eddie's Cafe.

Alternately referred to by Zirolli as McGuffey's Tavern, the cafe was located on the southwestern side of Main Street, just before the former Enfield-Suffield bridge. It was owned and operated by Ed McGuffey, who is seen standing on the left wearing a jacket in the above photo, taken around 1976.

Here is Zirolli's narrative about the place:

There was an old radio show I used to listen to when I was a kid titled, “Duffy’s Tavern.” It was about a local tavern in some fictional town where folks met and talked and had comic adventures during the half-hour the program ran.

Skip forward about 8 years. I had a friend in high school whose name was Ed McGuffey. Great guy. We skipped school on occasion ... Okay. More than on occasion, and drove around in his old Pontiac convertible. We had lots of good times!

Skip forward another 15 years. McGuffey owned this tavern, the Silver Cafe, down on South Main Street in old Thompsonville. People hung around there and had silly adventures and passed the time. I never went because the bar scene was never my thing.

When Thompsonville was re-developed (OOhhh-hawhaw-ho…and one or two hahs), McGuffey lost his tavern to “PROGRESS!”!

Skip forward about 40 years. The lot where the Silver Cafe was located, along with a few other businesses, is still flat, empty, unused land. NOTHING WAS EVER RE-DEVELOPED!!!!

I have no idea whatever happened to Ed McGuffey.

UPDATE: according to reader Bill Kilty, a longtime friend of McGuffey, Ed passed away in July 2020.

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Several readers said prior to McGuffey, the place was known as the Silver Grill, owned by Tom and Georgia Cavanaugh, and before that, Mike and Ann Neidum.

By the mid-1970s, the restaurant and other buildings around it were in serious disrepair, and were torn down. The photo below, also taken by Zirolli, shows the building and the adjoining former floor covering shop (anyone remember its name?) just prior to demolition.

Here is a more contemporary look at the approximate site of the Silver Grill, courtesy of Google Maps. According to town land records, the red house was built in 1900, but the tan house behind it, which is actually on South River St., was not built until 1986.

Last week's trivia answer:
Last week's trivia question was, "The beloved Connie Beckstead was evening coordinator at Asnuntuck Community College from 1977 to 1997, and in 2017, the information center at the college was named in her honor. Another landmark honoring Connie and her husband Brenton is known as Beckstead Memorial Garden. Where in Enfield is the garden located?" The answer: it is in the grassy area adjacent to the Route 190 west bridge on-ramp from Pearl Street, just down the street from the former Beckstead homestead at 262 Pearl. Jeanne Rago, a former neighbor of the Becksteads, was the first person to provide the correct answer without actually Googling, copying and pasting an article from another publication, including copyrighted photo (grrrrrrrrr).

This week's trivia question:
Enfield lost its only Major League Baseball son this week with the passing of former Boston Red Sox pitcher Bill Spanswick. As detailed in this article, Bill was a minor-league roommate of future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski. I grew up and went to school with Bill's youngest daughter Susan, and one day in the mid-1970s, word got around the neighborhood that Yaz was in town. Kids were appearing literally out of nowhere to meet the legendary star. On what street did the Spanswicks live when that happened? Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.

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