Picture Windsor Locks - Then And Now

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — This periodic informal series highlights businesses from Windsor Locks' past, and what those locations look like today. The Windsor Locks Library has painstakingly had most Windsor Locks High School yearbooks digitized on archive.org, and this column will feature advertisements from the past pages of The Herald.

Our initial offering comes from page 87 of the 1964 Herald, and takes us back to a delicious business which originated sometime in the 1920s: Barbieri's Home Style Bakery at 34 Main Street. For many years, the bakery was operated by Josephine (Barbieri) Draghi, her brother Ted Barbieri and Ted's wife Jane.

On a side note, in 1967 Ted Barbieri became the first president of the Connecticut Fly Fisherman's Association. The bakery survived until the 1970s, when much of the area was torn down for redevelopment.

Ted Barbieri died in 1988 at age 67. Josephine passed away in 2002 at 83, and Jane lived to be 95 until passing in 2017.

The Waterside Office Park was constructed along Route 159 beginning in 1985, and the 34 Main Street address currently belongs to the optometry practice of Dr. Seth Seidel. Here is a more contemporary shot of the site, taken last week.

Do you have a photo of an old Windsor Locks business which no longer exists which we could feature in this column? Email tim.jensen@patch.com.

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