Picture Windsor Locks - Then And Now

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — The latest installment of this pictorial history series takes us back a quarter century, to the pages of the 1995 Windsor Locks High School yearbook, The Herald, and a type of business which was wildly popular at the time, but which has since gone the way of powdered wigs, 8-track tapes and Nehru jackets: the video rental store.

With the advent of VCRs in the early 1980s, people began renting movies to watch at home, rather than fiddle with the rabbit ears on their television sets on rainy nights. The industry grew so large that Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Blockbuster Video chain, wound up also owning three professional sports franchises: the Florida (now Miami) Marlins (MLB), the Miami Dolphins (NFL) and Florida Panthers (NHL).

In north-central Connecticut, Video Galaxy was a popular outlet for movie rentals, with several locations throughout the area. Video Galaxy 3 was located in the north building of the Springdale Plaza at 541 Spring Street.

The boom of internet services, particularly Netflix, rendered video stores nearly extinct by the decade of the 2010s. Outside of a few Redbox rental kiosks, there are few remnants remaining of the once-thriving industry.

Here is a contemporary look at the building, courtesy of Google Maps.

Do you have a photo of an old Windsor Locks 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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