Norwich, Connecticut West Main Street | Comprehensive Coverage Before Demolition & Rotaries | 4K

[00:00:07]It's June 10th, 2026. I'm in Norwich, Connecticut. It is a Wednesday.

[00:00:17]I'm in a commuter parking lot.

[00:00:21]But the subject of the video today is I'm going to do comprehensive coverage of West Main Street in Norwich, Connecticut, because there are some big changes coming. They're going to be putting in rotaries. There's going to be a lot of demolition of buildings.

[00:00:46]It's going from two lanes to one lane in the future. This project is starting now 2026 and I believe phase two, this is phase one, 2026. Phase 2 I believe begins in 2028.

[00:01:10]And I'll point things out to you. I'm on Salem Turnpike right now.

[00:01:18]Let me see if I can squeeze over here.

[00:01:20]Okay, there's usually a lot of traffic on this road. It's a, you know, considered a dangerous road. It's called Crash Alley. I'm not at West Main Street quite yet, but I am heading in that direction.

[00:01:39]Soon as my GPS switch is over, I'll I'll let you know.

[00:01:45]But yeah, I mean you can see way ahead there. This tons of traffic, people travel at high speeds. I mean, you know, the engineers and the experts have been involved in planning this for a long time.

[00:02:05]So, the first phase has began. There certain buildings marked for demolition. I'm going to right now I'll just drive down the the length of it and back and then I'll do some side roads, different views. I mean, I want this to be as comprehensive of West Main as humanly possible. I'm going to normally I would um go through these red lights. I would speed up the video or I would cut. But I'm going to I'm not going to do that in this particular video because uh I'm just going to observe and point things out that are going to change this light here.

[00:02:49]Originally, there was going to be a giant rotary here. I went to a meeting.

[00:02:54]I believe that meeting was at Kelly Middle School and they had experts and I mean experts. These guys, you know, do this stuff internationally and, you know, all over the United States as well that design these things and study. These are extremely smart people as we proceed forward. So, this is going to switch over to West Main, I believe, right here. My GPS may lag just a touch. Okay, so we're on West Main. This first road right here to the right, I'll go down there later.

[00:03:36]Norman Road, there's going to be a rotary right here. Literally right where I am right now. It'll be one lane on this side, one lane on the other side.

[00:03:48]So that's kind of a critical area.

[00:03:52]Again, I'll drive all the way down.

[00:03:57]Okay, see where this light good? I'm first one at the light here where this red light is. To the right is Dunham Street and to the right is a former Shell gas station.

[00:04:09]This is going to be a rotary right in front of us where these cars are driving from right to left. There's going to be a big rotary right here, one lane, no more lights.

[00:04:24]The gas station to the right will be demolished relatively soon.

[00:04:32]So, right here will be the dead center of one of the rotaries planned for, I believe, 2026.

[00:04:46]I mean, this project's going to take a while because the traffic on this road, you know, the engineers and the the planners, I mean, they know what they're doing, obviously. So, but that's going to be interesting. Okay, there's going to be a rotary. I'm This is like tailor made. To the right is the former Lamperelli's barber shop. right there. That building that's going to be demolished. That brick building right smack in front of us. That red light is going to be gone. There's going to be a rotary right dead in front of us. The cars you see, okay, I'll tell you. That's Osgood Street to the right.

[00:05:23]Right here. I'm on top of the rotary.

[00:05:25]What will be the rotary? Again, one single lane going in the direction that I'm going right now, northeast, and one single lane oncoming traffic. Boy, I'm hitting every red light here, which is actually what I want. To the right is Mount Pleasant Street, Old Times Restaurant. To the right there.

[00:05:50]I don't believe there's going to be a rotary here. I'm not I'll have to look at phase two again of that.

[00:05:58]I mean, the plans changed. I think it was going to be seven rotaries initially and now they've taken away a couple of rotaries but okay straight ahead of us to the left is a group of buildings that the Lincoln in used to be in there ans coffee shop years ago that gray building there was a print company in there pip printing was in there one time the red light you see directly in front of us there's going to be a huge rotary right there really big one the building to the right will be will remain. The only one that's coming out is that I'll go down and turn around. I'll point out the building as best I can. I'm going to try to get uh as much coverage as I can possibly muster here. So to the right is Elizabeth Street if I took that right.

[00:06:50]I'm on West Main. There's also Mechanic Street if I took that right. So the building to the left there, those are all coming down. They're doing hazmat work.

[00:07:00]on that building right now. I was down there yesterday taking photographs of the building and I took a couple hundred pictures.

[00:07:07]It's digital. I mean, you can take as many pictures now as you want without worrying about running out of film or anything like that. I love film photography, but in that case back there, digital was uh helpful cuz traffic, it's hard to get there's so much traffic, it's hard to get a clean picture of the building.

[00:07:31]And I'm going to get down. I'm going to turn around. I'm going to head back, get different views. This is the uh the current West Main Street experience in Norwich, Connecticut.

[00:07:45]that will no longer be this way. So, I do a lot of videos. This one is more significant than most because this one is really I have other many many videos of me driving around and driving through West Main Street, but not nothing dedic Well, I might have done one dedicated to West Main years ago, but I don't know. This one is ultra high resolution and everything is, you know, going to be as flawless and comprehensive as I can get it. last time. I think I just breezed through here and there, but I could take some of my old videos and take all the pieces of West Main and cobble something together, but I'd rather do this dedicated coverage that I'm doing now with West Main Street specifically being highlighted.

[00:08:50]And to the right if well actually slight if I went straight ahead that would be Church Street up there.

[00:09:03]And if I when I take this left that's going to put me onto Washington Street very briefly because we're going to get back to the main the main event. West Main Street overhead is a very cloudy day today.

[00:09:23]Um, there's definitely a threat of rain.

[00:09:26]There's no question about that. When I drove to make this video, it was raining and I almost, you know, I almost did not do the video, but it stopped.

[00:09:40]So hopefully if things work out here, we'll be able to get this thing done.

[00:09:49]So I'm going over Westside. This is Westside Boulevard, this bridge, but it's going to put me very quickly back onto West Main Street.

[00:10:07]And there is the Norwitch Fire Department to the right.

[00:10:10]Viking fuel to the left.

[00:10:13]There's a Baptist church up there in the background on the right hand side.

[00:10:23]Okay, let's proceed.

[00:10:28]Okay, so there's a closer look at that Baptist church. First Baptist church established 1800.

[00:10:36]Firestone. There's tons of businesses.

[00:10:38]Okay, on the right, very important. I'm going to slow down. People behind me will not be happy. On the right is that building right smack in front of us.

[00:10:47]That's going to be knocked down and demolished like within I would very soon. Let's put it that way. Right there to the right. And again, tailor made.

[00:10:57]The rotary is going to be directly in front of us.

[00:11:01]This light will not be here. And this will be a large the largest rotary of the bunch will be right here. It's going to be beautifully landscaped. Ahead will be a single lane.

[00:11:15]I wouldn't be stopped right now. I would be moving forward at a slower speed.

[00:11:21]But that's the point.

[00:11:24]If you get on the ground, I've walked these sidewalks.

[00:11:29]traffic, two lanes, extremely high speed. People, you know, it's a 35 mph speed limit, but people do ridiculous, you know, I've seen people do 60 70 mph on this road.

[00:11:49]That will not be happening with the rotaries. It It'll be just virtually impossible. It'll be a single lane.

[00:11:58]So that was the biggest one back there and with those buildings that are going to be demolished. I have other video that I have not published yet where I walk around on the ground and cover those buildings cuz they're gone. To the left is that Lamperelli's barber shop. Louis Marino used to teach music lessons out of there back in the I don't know '7s. Long time ago.

[00:12:36]This is two lanes. It will be one in the future.

[00:12:41]The mockups that I've seen are actually beautiful to look at. I mean, it's going to be uh a big change for the area. Okay, there on the left is that former Shell gas station. It's going to be demolished soon. Right here will be a rotary. Right here, I'm on top of it coming in the opposite direction of where we started this video.

[00:13:11]I mean, you can see the traffic. I mean, it's like this is all the time. I mean, every day, seven days a week. That light directly ahead of us, that green light that I'm about to roll through, the rotary would be right here. My understanding is that Wendy's is coming out of there, I think, in 2028. I believe I mean the let's put it this way the architectural overhead drawings they're not blueprints they're kind of uh computer animated drawings indicate that that will not be there.

[00:13:52]So let me go down.

[00:13:54]I'm going to turn around again. I'm going to cover some of the side roads.

[00:14:03]What I should do is get in the left lane. Otherwise, I'm going to have a tough time crossing over.

[00:14:21]Okay.

[00:14:23]So, this is I'm back on Salem Turnpike right now.

[00:14:30]But I'm briefly going to turn down.

[00:14:33]Thomas Mahan School is down when I take this left.

[00:14:39]And I'll just turn around down there.

[00:14:42]But I mean, look at the cars. I mean, it's this is a high volume, high traffic road.

[00:14:51]I sometimes wonder where in the world are all these people coming from and where are they going?

[00:14:58]because sometimes it's endless depending on what time of day that you, you know, kind of get down here and Wow. Okay, there school's in session.

[00:15:10]I'm just going to Yeah, there's school buses and stuff. I got to turn around like right here. I don't want to get caught up in a big line of school buses. But that's Thomas Mahan school back there. If you're interested, I have a video on my channel that I walk around the grounds.

[00:15:30]Full comprehensive coverage of that school.

[00:15:35]I can go right on red. Yeah, why not?

[00:15:45]Okay, now I'm going to as long as the weather holds out, I'm going to cover I got covered what I wanted to do. a very important from a historic viewpoint.

[00:16:02]Everything up there on West Main Street is not going to be the way we just saw it in the not too distant future. Big changes coming very soon.

[00:16:22]But this in front of us where that light is right there is not part of it. And that was part of the original plan. So I don't know if that's going to be phased in after 2028. I don't know that because it would be it would kind of make sense.

[00:16:45]But again, the plans did change. So let me take a ride. And I'm going to take a ride down Norman Road. I'll turn around on Norman Road. There's Wendy's to the left. I think it's coming out of there in 28. All right. So, here's the Rotary would be right here. And I would be turning onto Norman Road via the rotary.

[00:17:11]And I'm just going to turn around down here real quick.

[00:17:18]speed limit 15 miles per hour because there's a lot of uh apartments and elderly housing and things of that nature around here. All right, let me turn around.

[00:17:31]Rose Hill Apartments down here.

[00:17:39]Chase Manor is down here.

[00:17:47]Okay. So, back onto Norman Road. So, we will be I mean this is kind of a virtual approach.

[00:17:57]It's not virtual. It's real right now, but use your imagination to project into the future. I'm heading to a rotary right now.

[00:18:09]So, this would be a rotary. There would be no light. I would get on the rotary.

[00:18:13]If I want to go right on the rotary, I'm all set. If I want to go left, I have to go around the rotary a little bit, work my way over, and then I will be going left as I wait for the red light.

[00:18:29]There's right on red, but the chances of me taking a right with the amount of cars I see coming is uh limited. Okay, wait a minute. I actually have an opening here. Okay. So, this would be a rotary and I'm going to turn down the next.

[00:18:58]Okay, let's see. Wow, first in line again. I can I can go right on red down here.

[00:19:05]Well, talk about a wide turn. He's hauling a water truck. So this is Dunham Street. This would be a rotary. So if I want to get on Dunham, no problem.

[00:19:15]Turn down Dunham Street. Okay, let me turn around right here at Cut and Curl.

[00:19:23]This you see directly in front of you right there. That gas station, that's a gas station shell. Used to be a shell will be demolished soon. That'll be raised.

[00:19:35]Don't know the date, but it's gonna happen real soon.

[00:19:42]All right. So, this would be a rotary directly in front of me. If I want to go right, no problem. There's no light. I would just turn right when the traffic, you know, when things when it's available to me. If I want to go left, I go around the rotary a little bit. And like every other roundabout, you just follow along and then you'll be heading in the direction that you want to go.

[00:20:18]Couple of droplets of rain on my windshield. Hopefully nothing big materializes. I'm going to take a drive up briefly up Ozgood Street. That building to the right right there, former Lamperellis and Louis Marino talk guitar lessons out of there is being raised very soon. This is Osgood Street. If I was on the rotary, I would turn up Ozgood.

[00:20:49]And I'm not going to waste any time. I'm going to turn around ASAP.

[00:21:04]I believe this is a I could be wrong. I think it's a used to be a dental office.

[00:21:12]And let me see if I can work my way out of here. Okay, actually let me pull in to that building right there is going to be raised right there. I'm going to pull in here briefly just to get a look at it.

[00:21:30]Let me pull back.

[00:21:36]I don't know if I can. Okay, right there. I think I get it in on the left of the frame. It's tricky.

[00:21:44]I mean, I can only go back so far here, but I think I got the bulk of that in there that's coming down. That building will be no longer in existence pretty soon.

[00:21:57]And this will be a rotary directly in front of me. So again, want to go on the rotary, I just no light, I just go right. If I want to go left, I go around the rotary a little bit and I go left.

[00:22:07]It's not complicated.

[00:22:11]And this is another right unread situation, but there's a decent amount of traffic coming my way. I might have an opening.

[00:22:21]Okay.

[00:22:42]and slowly work my way down to where the next rotary rotary would be. And I want to get some visual captures, video captures of that that building or group of buildings. It's going to be demolished very soon. There were people working on it yesterday, but again, that's hazardous material that is being eliminated first, obviously.

[00:23:21]But those buildings are not going to take long to come down.

[00:23:26]That'll be an easy demo job right there. All right, I'm first in line again. Rotary directly smack in front of me. I'd be I'd have to drive on the I would have to be driving on the road right now if I was in this location in the future.

[00:23:42]Right there. All these buildings right directly in front of us coming down.

[00:23:46]Let me see if I can get another view.

[00:23:53]I'll turn around on Maple Street.

[00:24:00]I mean, I got a couple of drops of water here and there, but it's nothing radical. See if I can back up. This is some I'm taking a chance here.

[00:24:11]Okay, let me pull into this buildings that are coming down. Good.

[00:24:21]I'll get I'll get excellent video. Beyond these bushes and things right there that you or you know overgrowth is what used to be the Lincoln in among other things. Strange Brew Pub was there.

[00:24:37]Crocodiles I believe at one time. Um there was a Chinese restaurant in there.

[00:24:42]Variety of things. Ann's coffee shop was here. There was a dance studio here for many years. Um, Saras's deli was right there. I think this building right back up. Got to be real careful around here. It's kind of tricky. But anyways, that's uh that's a pretty good shot. Take a good look as that's coming down real soon. Let me get another look at this thing. The hazmat guys are out of here. That tells me uh that tells me they got that done yesterday. So that's good.

[00:25:31]Let me back in.

[00:25:33]So Asylum Street is on the right where that school bus is. And this building and group of buildings that you see are Let's do one more sweep. We'll grab this I'll go up as far as I can up to this. I remember as a kid walking through this alley. My father would come down here and buy newspapers.

[00:25:55]He b he used to buy the Daily News and the Record American and they had, you know, it was like a nice coffee shop and sodas, candy and whatever. You know, they sold a lot of different really cool things.

[00:26:11]But here's a real good look at this building that's being knocked down. I couldn't get back here too good yesterday because the guys are working on the the has hazardous material um removal and that's uh you know you got to be really you got to be super careful with that stuff.

[00:26:34]All right, schools are getting out. We got buses around.

[00:26:38]All right, let me go across. I think I'll go down mechanics. I want to point this camera at this building because it's uh it's important for me to get this in. Uh again, I do have a walk around, but I want I want comprehensive. I want to get full coverage. Nobody else is you. I'm not This is it. I my pictures that I have at his thing. High resolution photographs and video is probably going to be the only thing that we have left of this. And these buildings, some of these go back to maybe the 40s, 30s, a long time ago.

[00:27:26]I just think it's important to preserve on video and and photographs.

[00:27:32]All right. Now, I got to be real careful here. Okay. Little tricky spot right there.

[00:27:42]All right, let me see if I can point.

[00:27:43]Yeah, I can. I got a wide open view right here. Hopefully, I can absorb all the buildings. I'm going to wait for that traffic to move.

[00:28:01]All the right moves. Dance center directly in front of us. um jazz, hiphop, contemporary, children's dance, ballet, tap, lyrical, modern, every kind of dance you can think of, they taught it there.

[00:28:14]Very popular place. To the right is the what used to be the Lincoln for that's the I would say that's 297 West Main Street. Historically, I think the Lincoln in was probably there the longest.

[00:28:28]um later on, you know, crocodiles. I think it was a nightclub or bar and Strange Brew, which is now down in the city.

[00:28:37]But, okay, there's a clean look. Let me angle this thing over there a little bit. Okay, there's Lincoln.

[00:28:47]And let me try to I mean, I I can only get so much. And right there, I think I got the building on the end, but there is a tree blocking us a little bit.

[00:29:00]I have an idea here. Hopefully there's nobody.

[00:29:05]Okay.

[00:29:08]This is going to be tricky. I'm going to have to I don't know if I want to do this. I don't know if I want to go left down here. Yeah, I might. Uh, I'm going to go out a different way, but I do want to Whoa, I'm not used to this parking lot here.

[00:29:32]Okay, this is one way. I'm going the right direction, but did not know that.

[00:29:43]Okay, so let me jump on mechanic straight and I want to work my way behind what used to be the Lincoln in.

[00:29:54]Actually, we'll get a real good shot when this car moves.

[00:29:59]Hopefully, it goes right. I'm going to linger here for a second and try to get that building that's going to be knocked down. It'll be directly in front of us.

[00:30:08]Okay, this person is moving. So, right there, we got a really good view of the building that's coming down.

[00:30:16]And this I don't have to stay here, but let's grab it.

[00:30:23]All right.

[00:30:29]Now, I'm turning into as if I was going to the Lincoln Inn back in the day. I would turn in here and park.

[00:30:41]There's a decent sized parking lot. It used to be a bar. There used to be a restaurant. People said they had great pizza. I you know, spaghetti and meatballs, whatever.

[00:30:52]All right, so we're pulling into the Lincoln Inn.

[00:30:55]What used to be Lincoln in right there.

[00:30:58]Let me let me get in back.

[00:31:01]I mean, this is a uh this is the parking lot. You can see the lines over there.

[00:31:06]Many, many spaces.

[00:31:10]Um some of it's in rough shape. I'm going to turn around.

[00:31:17]I kind of wanted to get a real wide.

[00:31:21]Actually, let me try to maybe I can pull it off.

[00:31:26]I mean, I'm in a conventional car. If I was in more of an SUV or some kind of a Jeep or something, I probably wouldn't care. But this is a regular conventional car. So, let me turn around.

[00:31:53]Okay, now approaching the back of the former Lincoln in. I mean, I say Lincoln because it was Lincoln the most for the most years and things like that, but it's been other things.

[00:32:06]right there. That's the back. It's a handicap access. So, they, you know, whatever. I mean, they kept with the times. The Lincoln in didn't have any handicap access because that's prior to those laws being implemented.

[00:32:27]And I'm exiting what used to be the Lincoln and it's wide open.

[00:32:35]All right. So, this puts me right back on what will be the rotary to the right.

[00:32:39]That building's going to be demolished.

[00:32:41]Right in front of it says demo application for demolition.

[00:32:46]So, again, perfect timing. Nobody in front of me. I'm first in line directly in front of me. I'm not sure of the exact configuration, but there's going to be a rotary here. Maybe it'll be slightly to the right where these buildings behind me are. I don't know because the building on the left sessions um yoga and spin class whatever they have there is not moving and neither were the buildings on the right. So that tells me they're going to encroach on the buildings that are being demolished.

[00:33:27]I'm going to turn up another street to get another look at that barber shop.

[00:33:42]Actually, I don't want to turn there. I want to turn. There's actually a small Okay. Crane Avenue. I don't think you know this might be one of the roads.

[00:33:49]Boy, that guy was really tailgating me back there. Totally unnecessary. Um, okay. So, this is Yeah, Crane Avenue. I I think this might be a dead end.

[00:34:03]I got to turn around for sure.

[00:34:06]Obviously, I It's kind of a no-brainer.

[00:34:08]I mean, there's nowhere to go. So, but this street will blend right into the rotary. And this is also also going to afford us a perfect view.

[00:34:27]You know something? I'm going to let this guy go. Somebody's pulling out. I want to I want to stand. I want to linger a little bit.

[00:34:36]I want to linger a little bit.

[00:34:42]And there's nobody behind me. So, okay.

[00:34:45]Apparently, this building is still functional. I didn't know that.

[00:34:49]Good. The London day used to work out of that building right to the right hand side there. So, directly in front of us, I'm going to when this car goes right, I'm going to just linger here for for a second. This is Crane Avenue. The building directly in front of us. Let's get a really good look at it.

[00:35:06]Lamperelli's Barber Shop. It says garage barberh shop was there at one time.

[00:35:13]Marino Louie Marino, legendary guitar teacher, classical guitarist in Norwich.

[00:35:20]Um, taught out of that building. And I'm just going to linger a little bit. Wait for these cars. Get the, you know, I want to get the experience here.

[00:35:33]And you can see the amount of traffic. I mean, it's uh significant.

[00:35:39]It's 3:02 p.m. 75°.

[00:35:49]And for scale, there's going to be a person walking in front of the building.

[00:35:54]So, for scale, we can see the size of the building right there.

[00:36:03]And I think I might have an opening here.

[00:36:07]Okay.

[00:36:10]So, that would be the rotary there off of Crane Avenue. That would those folks are going to be blending right into the rotary as the rain picks up. So, I think I'm going to end the video soon. Let me get into this shell. I'll give you a comprehensive look at this building that's being knocked down. But, I covered everything I wanted to cover.

[00:36:32]So, regardless of the Rain is not going to do any damage to this video.

[00:36:43]Oddly, there are cars in here. So, right, let me back up because the rain's starting to pick up. Let me get a wide shot of this thing. I have a video where I walk around. So, I mean, I got it. I have everything covered.

[00:37:01]But right there used to be Shell gas station. As a matter of fact, to the left, you can see that white building cut and curl now.

[00:37:11]Hair, nails, waxing. This apartment's in there. That house used to be there. That whole house was moved.

[00:37:21]And this is I've gotten gas here many a time.

[00:37:27]Let me see if I can back up and get another view. I can't believe people are actually in here. I mean, I'm in here, but I don't see anybody else doing any filming or uh, you know, video. Got to be careful. Whoa, there's big poles behind me. So, right there's another shot of that Shell gas station right there. Used to be air for the tires and everything.

[00:38:04]As we cruise slowly through Shell gas station, I'm going to cruise down to Asylum Street where the rotary would be and we'll end end the proceedings at that location.

[00:38:36]All right. So, West Main Street, the buildings that are going to be demolished, covered from every conceivable angle.

[00:38:49]Actually, there's one more angle. Now that I'm here, I want to grab and it's the side of uh the building what used to be.

[00:39:02]Lamperelli's Barber Shop.

[00:39:08]Let's just point this thing right at it.

[00:39:11]I want to get every angle. I'm going to get every angle. Okay, there. There it is. Right there. There were apartments up there and music lessons and barber shop right there directly in front of us. That's going to be gone soon. Take a look. This video is going to be significant for capturing these soon to be demolished structures.

[00:39:38]I mean, if you look at my videos over the years, you go 10 years ago when I first started doing them, you're going to see a lot of changes anyways, but this one's more focused on specific things that are going to be happening very, very soon. They are happening.

[00:39:53]Demolition and things of that nature are going to be undertaken uh momentarily on the buildings that uh are in front of us down there on the left.

[00:40:07]But I'm going to once I get on Silent Street, I'm going to end the video and I can pass this person here. This is uh not going to be doing a lot of this in the once it's a single lane situation.

[00:40:23]It's going to be a rotary.

[00:40:25]Everybody will be turning right into the into the places. Man, I love being I'm going to end this thing off right here. So, I am at the to the left of the buildings that are coming down. I mean, I'm repetitive here, but I I want to be um I am looking directly at the ro what will be the rotary directly in front front of us. A very large rotary.

[00:40:55]So, let's absorb this. When I turn left, I'll I'll end the video. But this is what it looks like June 2026 and it's not going to look like that much longer.

[00:41:13]I mean, it's going to be a long lengthy project, but once they begin, let's get a look at this building right here.

[00:41:22]Okay, so now I'm on Asylum Street.

[00:41:25]That concludes coverage, comprehensive coverage of West Main Street in Norwich, Connecticut.

[00:41:35]Thank you for joining me.