Picture Enfield - Then And Now

ENFIELD, CT — Today's trip down memory lane takes us back more than 110 years - to 1909, to be exact, and a wonderful photo from the Yale Collection at the Enfield Public Library. Rev. David Lewis Yale of the First Congregational Church took numerous photos of the town; a century later, the glass slides were donated to the library and digitized.

The Hartley and White general store at 1436 Enfield Street is depicted above. The business was formerly B.J. Henry's store, but became best known as Hartley's. In his original notes, Rev. Yale wrote, "At Mr. Hartley’s store, many of our people obtain supplies for their pantries and tables."

In recent times, Anthony and Lynn D'Angelo owned the property for many years, operating the business as Tony's Little Store. In late 2017, Steven Ragnauth bought the business from Vimla and Vijay Aghera and the property from the D'Angelos. He re-opened the store in June 2018 as Stevie's Little Store.

Here is a contemporary photo of the business, taken by me earlier this week.

Last week's trivia answer:
Last week's trivia question was, "A small building at 171 Elm Street, directly across from Kosciuszko (now Asnuntuck Community College), was home for many years to Lownds & Manning Realty, and is used today as headquarters for Trend 2000 Real Estate. It has not always been a real estate office, however; several other businesses occupied the site in the 1980s and 1990s, including a longtime local floral shop which bought the building and moved there in 1999. Name that shop." The answer: Spaulding Flowers and Enfield Gardens, which originated on Old King Street, then moved to the Elm Plaza shopping center before relocating in 1999 to 171 Elm, as shown in this ad from the 2000 Enfield High School yearbook.

This week's trivia question:
Pictured below is my second-grade class at an elementary school in Enfield. 30 kids, one teacher ... no paraprofessionals, no teacher aides, no armed guards, nothing. A far cry from the parents who scream that their kid's class has 18 students nowadays. In a sure sign I'm getting older, I can name every single kid in this photo, yet I have no idea why I walked into the kitchen 10 minutes ago. Everyone loved our teacher, who had been there for about 200 years and also held a second part-time job at Steiger's department store, working with my mom. Name that wonderful teacher. Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.

To register for free Enfield news alerts and more, click here.