Take a look back through time at a couple of Windsor’s most iconic historic commercial buildings.
144 Poquonock Ave.
This was the location of a grist mill run by Windsor founder and first minister, John Warham. For almost 300 years it stayed a mill, but all of the original structure and mill machinery has been replaced by subsequent owners. Earl Simons built the current building around 1869. During the mid-20th century, the businesses inside evolved from grains to hardware. The building has been in the hands of the Larsen Hardware family for three generations now.
Charles F. Lewis’s Old Corn Mill, c1910. Windsor Historical Society collections 2012.10.1, photo by Katherine Barker Drake.
Charles Lewis mill, c1912-1920s. WHS collections 2013.1.26.
Farmers Grain & Supply Company, c1929. WHS collections 2000.30.39, courtesy Julius Rusavage.
Johnson and Robbins, c1948. WHS collections 2009.2.17, courtesy Michael Taylor.
Larsen’s Hardware, 1975. WHS collections 2009.2.19, courtesy Michael Taylor.
192 Broad St.
What now houses the Global Driving School was originally known as the Mullaley building, an early Irish-owned grocery and general store, built in 1874. For decades, it went through different grocery store iterations, after which it housed two car dealerships: Urweider Chevolet and Chorches Motors. Most Windsor baby boomers would probably associate this location with King’s Electric, which had a steady run from 1955-1979, but before that, various versions of Dillon’s Market (formerly Dillon & Lennox, then Dillon & Wilhelm) occupied the premises.
Lawrence Mullaley’s Grocery, which occupied these premises from 1881-c1914. WHS collections 2015.1.127.
Windsor Cash Grocery, John L. Bevier, proprietor, c1916. WHS collections 1954.2.8.73.
Dillon’s Market after the 1938 hurricane. WHS collections 1988.2.3.1.
Chorches Auto (with Dillon’s Market having moved next door), c1950s. WHS collections 2001.54.169.
King’s Electric, 1960s. WHS collections 1988.2.3.1.
By Michelle Tom, librarian/archivist, 2016
Who was the Wilhelm person who was employed with Dillon on 192 Broad Street?
Barbara Wilhelm Menard
flm@gorge.net
Parkdale, OR
Hello Barbara,
That would have been Oscar Wilhelm. We have a news article from the Windsor Herald in 1933 that says he “served as a member of the Windsor Fire Company and is especially active in Palisado Lodge of Odd Fellows, of which he is a Past Noble Grand and member of the Board of Trustees.”
Michelle Tom, librarian/archivist