One of Connecticut’s iconic shopping spots turned 50 this week.
Olde Mistick Village in Mystic opened in 1973.
Property manager Chris Regan took an emotional journey down memory lane of other iconic buildings that opened then, especially the World Trade Center in New York.
“When we talk about the 50th anniversary being on that day, it is kind of remarkable to some degree but sad at the same time,” Regan said. “It gets me every time when we talk about it as September 11th, 1973, is when we opened up and it just blows my mind that we shared the same date, and that’s why we put it on the 12th.”
Regan thanked his mother, Joyce Olson Resnikoff, who founded Mistick Village and is retiring at age 86, for her entrepreneurial spirit that helped women start their own businesses with low interest loans.
At the time, banks wouldn’t provide them loans without their husband or a male counterpart signing for them.
“I never asked for financial statements,” Resnikoff said. “I wanted that person to feel this is my dream. It was my dream 50 years ago and it still is.”
Today, Olde Mistick Village boasts around 50 shops. Half of them are female-owned.
The village has also become a major tourist attraction in southeastern Connecticut. It will be the backdrop for two Hallmark movies coming out this year.
