Picture Enfield - Then and Now

ENFIELD, CT — Today's installment of this weekly Enfield history series, courtesy of the Facebook group Picture Enfield, presents a late 1970s look at Joe Dee's Restaurant, located in the rear of a building at 28 Pearl Street in Thompsonville.

The photo must have been taken around 1977, near the end of the urban renewal project in the neighborhood. The dirt in the foreground is on the former site of LaRussa's Appliance at Pearl and Asnuntuck streets, which is now a parking lot.

I know absolutely nothing about Joe Dee's, and hope some readers may possess some valuable information. I do know that the space eventually became the notorious Digger's Cafe, known on one hand for sponsoring the consistently successful Digger's Dawgs team in the Enfield Flag Football League, and on the other side of the coin, for a 1995 narcotics raid shortly before its closure.

The name of the tenant in the front of the building also escapes me, but for many years from the 1980s through the early 2000s, Marie Grady operated the Little Country Store in that spot.

The building has been vacant for about a decade. Here is a more contemporary look at the site, taken early Thursday afternoon.

(Tim Jensen/Patch Media Corp.)

Last week's trivia answer:
Last week's trivia question was, "Who stole the bust of Enrico Fermi out of the foyer in the early 1980s?" The answer is not officially known, though rumors have swirled around that very question for decades. Enfield Patch ran this entertainment-only satirical piece about the mystery on April Fool's Day 2013, which was repeated three years later. Will the true culprit ever come forward?

(Enfield Historical Society via archive.org)

This week's trivia question:
What was the first team from Fermi High School to win a state championship? Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.

(Tim Jensen/Patch Media Corp.)