Derby History Quiz

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Main Street 1923

 
Main street 2005

Main Street in 1923 was the shopping hub of the Valley, and this picture shows the North Side of Main Street at the corner of Elizabeth Street. In 1923, the corner building was a drug store.  In the 1960's Derby Savings Bank built the current building which is slated to become the new Derby City Hall. If you look carefully down the street, you can see Farrel's at the very end and the hills of East Derby in the distance.

Main Street 1906

Click here to see a very early quiz which showed Main Street in the 1800's or here for a view of the south  side of Main Street a little later.

Correct answers were received from: Bill Cotter, Mayor Marc J. Garofalo, Nick from Terryville, Millie from Ansonia, Sam Rizzitelli, Mary Lou Boroski,  Naya Esposito, Fred Grant, Randy Ritter, Ken Dupke, john m. rak, Frank E Lazowski,Sr., bernie conlon, Ann Searles, robert loftus, Joe Dedo, Rosalie Cota, Brian McMahon, Mark from Bristol, Markanthony Izzo, Jack O'Callaghan, Eddie Calvert, and Alfred Gabianelli.

We also had two memories of this area that were shared:

"Remember shopping at Howard & Barbers, and Woolworth's and enjoyed eating at the restaurants, but the best part of down town Derby used to be on Fridays when you got all those delicious smells from the Derby Pure Food Store. Such good fish cakes and more...... Remember fondly all the kids running down to Vonetees after CYO meeting on Monday night."

"When I was 9, I remember watching a rescue attempt at the corner of Main and the aptly named Water St. It was the year of the big flood, 1955, and I was sitting on a metal railing in front of a building on lower Main St. They were trying to winch a rescue boat between buildings to evacuate people stranded in the corner building by the racing water. The boat and fireman were washed away... somehow he was retrieved from 'way down by the train trestle, unconscious and apparently drowned. All his clothes save the life jacket he had been wearing had been torn away by the vicious current. Amazingly, the other firemen were able to revive him. I won't forget that scene !!!"
 

To see our other earlier quizzes and learn more about Derby's unique history, click here.