Picture East Windsor - Then And Now

EAST WINDSOR, CT — The latest installment of our new periodic informal series highlighting businesses from East Windsor's past, and what those locations look like today, brings us to page 145 of the 1982 edition of the East Windsor High School yearbook, the Archive. Among the class sponsors that year was the J & R Mobil station, at the corner of Route 5 and Main Street.

Among the notable items spotted in the above photo is the "Self-Serve Island" sign on top of some of the gas pumps. While self-serve is the norm today (unless you're in New Jersey), it was somewhat of a novel concept nearly four decades ago.

The building is currently occupied by Coachlight Motors, a used car dealership. It was named in honor of the Coachlight Dinner Theatre, a 632-seat hotbed of live entertainment which operated next door from 1972 to 1992.

Here is a contemporary view of 276 Main Street - the official address of Coachlight Motors - in a photo taken by me last week.

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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