If the Branford BOE Moves Out, What Would You Like to See at 1111 Main Street?

Yesterday the Branford Eagle reported that the  has taken the first steps in possibly moving their downtown offices at 1111 Main St., to . The Board voted unanimously to take the first steps toward a move at Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting, the Eagle reported. Patch was unable to attend this BOE meeting. 

Earlier this year, the Giordano family was in possible negotiations to swap a building they owned with the town’s former post office now serving as the BOE building and use it as a mixed-use commercial space. This plan came about when the BOE had intentions to move headquarters to possibly 175 N. Main St. (owned by the Giordano family) or the . All these plans fell through and no town buildings were ever sold or swapped. 

The Eagle reports that the building will be turned back to the town but no specific dates were given. Please check back.

We reached out to  yesterday afternoon to see what the town's plans for the building might be, should it be turned back over to Branford, but have not heard back.

Construction of the building at 1111 Main St., began in 1927 according to the now defunct Branford Review and was finished in 1928 when it opened as the Branford Post Office. The Review reports that horses were utilized to dig the foundation and haul equipment.

Prior to 1928, the Branford Post Office was located at the corner of Hillside Avenue and Main Street where the current  is today. Over the years, this building off Hillside has withstood a fire (when it was Alfredo’s Restaurant in the late 1970s) and saw lives as a tire shop, a dry goods store, and even a bank. In the late 1980s it was the restaurant Chez Bach according files at the . Reference Librarian Debby Trofatter assisted us in our research.

In the late 1970s when then First Selectman John Sliney was running Branford, a new home for the Post Office at 1111 Main St., was being sought. He said in the Branford Review, it was his hope to keep the post office downtown “where it belongs.” The post office eventually found its home off of Park Place. 

Before finding their home at 1111 Main St., the Board of Education administrative offices were formerly located in the Laurel Street School. According to 1994 New Haven Register articles dug up by Trofatter at the JBML, Laurel Street School was demolished to make way for the new police department that year. According to several articles in the Register, the RTM approved $60,000 for renovations to 1111 Main St., so it could become the new BOE offices. Shortly after the summer of 1994 when the school's fate was in limbo, the BOE took up their current quarters.

What do you want to see at 1111 Main Street? A commercial business? What kind? What are some other ideas?