Picture Enfield - Then and Now

ENFIELD, CT — Today's installment of this weekly Enfield history series, courtesy of the Facebook group Picture Enfield, features a mid-1970s look at the interior of Enfield Square, formerly a thriving mall which has fallen victim in recent years to the changing shopping trends of consumers and is set to hit the auction block next week.

This photo, looking west down the main corridor of the mall, shows a number of long-forgotten stores, including Lerner, Joyce Leslie and G. Fox. Also visible are four other things which have disappeared from the site: 1) fountains; 2) street lamps; 3) planters; and 4) customers.

Here is a fairly recent photo, looking east:

Last week's trivia answer:
Last week's Enfield trivia question was totally a tongue-in-cheek gag intended to make readers laugh. "The photo below was taken during the 1976 Bicentennial parade down Enfield Street. This week's question comes in several parts: a) how many Enfield residents at a time can actually surf on that tie; and b) how long does it take for polyester to incinerate on that tailpipe, which incidentally is not on the tail?" The answers are below the photo.

Answers: a) three to four people, comfortably; b) approximately a second and a half.

This week's trivia question:
What was the first team from the now-defunct Enrico Fermi High School to win a CCIL championship? FYI, the CCIL (Central Connecticut Interscholastic League), which disbanded in 1984, was the precursor to the Central Connecticut Conference (CCC). Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.

Do you have an old photo of Enfield you would like featured in this column? Email it, with a description, to tim.jensen@patch.com.

Historic photos courtesy of Picture Enfield; mall photo by Tim Jensen

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