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Spotlight on Drazen Shopping Center
The North Haven Times
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CLINTONVILLE-MONTOWESE-RIDGE ROAD-TOWN CENTER-NORTHERN WASHINGTON AVENUE
March 24, 2017
The Drazen Shopping Center on Washington Avenue in North Haven
has been the home of so many different retailers over the years, from hardware stores, to auto part stores, a cinema, banks, deli, furniture store, roller skating rink, supermarket and so much more. Part of the space now occupied by Retro Fitness was once one of the two anchor tenants in this plaza, First National Stores supermarket (later known as Finest). I can remember the grocery carts being filled up at the registers, to be pushed through small doors in the front that were only the height of the carts themselves, only to be loaded up into the customers cars. First National would eventually close, to be replaced by Komisar's Furniture Gallery (see ad to right), and eventually Roller Haven (see ad below). Roller Haven was the place to be during and after the "disco" era of the late 1970's, and featured a cement skating floor, while most rinks featured wood skating surfaces. Who can forget the disco mirror ball, and skating to the sounds of the Bee Gees, spun by DJ "Albie D," who would later go on to a career in radio at WKSS-FM (Kiss 95.7) in Hartford, and later, stations in Washington, DC, including WPGC-FM (95.5).
The other anchor tenant at that time was Drazen Lumber, a pre-Home Depot hardware store that served residents on the 1960's and 1970's (later became Thrifty's Hardware and finally, Lloyd Lumber). At one point, the Drazen Family actually operated a smaller Drazen Hardware Store in the plaza. Lloyd Lumber was eventually to become a JCPenney store around 1980, when JCPenney, closed their store on the Magic Mile in Hamden in anticipation of the proposed $100 million dollar North Haven Mall, which would have been the largest shopping center in Connecticut, slated to be built on Valley Service Road. JCPenney moved to North Haven as they expected to open the mall store within a year or two, but the mall was never built, due to opposition from the City of New Haven. New Haven felt the construction of the North Haven Mall would destroy downtown stores such as Macy's and Malley's. Ironically, both of those stores self-destructed without the help of the never-built North Haven Mall.
Other notable retailers located in the Drazen Plaza included the Jerry Lewis Cinema, which would later operate under a slew of different names such as Robert Donat Cinema (see ad to right), Cinema 91, and Poor Richard's Pub, where you could grab an alcoholic drink and catch a flick. Second New Haven Bank was located on front "pad" of the shopping center, later to become a co-branded KFC/Taco Bell, which only lasted a few years, mainly due to poor management. Another longtime restaurant in this plaza was Italian Food Festival, which would become Carbone's Deli (still open today in the adjacent North Haven Shopping Center). Other stores here included Radio Space, Walgreen's, Hubie's Hobbies, and many more. Let us know your memories of this plaza, by submitting your comments at the top right of this page.
Komisar's closed, and was replaced by Roller Haven.
Robert Donat Cinema was previously a Jerry Lewis Cinema.
Second National Bank, located on a "pad" in the front of the Drazen Plaza. This site would later become a cell phone store, then was demolished and gave way to a Taco Bell/KFC unit, which only lasted a few years, due to lackluster service.
Roller Haven, owned by the Mahon Family, opened just in time for the late-1970's disco craze. This rink proved to be very popular with North Haven residents for many years.
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The North Haven Times
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