#WestHartfordCT

By Ronni Newton on We-Ha.com on September 23, 2021

A stroll through the Old North Cemetery on North Main Street in West Hartford reveals gravestones bearing many familiar names – names used for town roads, schools, and key landmarks – but it’s also quickly apparent that many of the stones are in a state of disrepair.

“I’ve always had an interest in doing something about that cemetery,” said Matthew Warshauer, a history professor at Central Connecticut State University who is known to town residents for the Halloween displays at his North Main Street home, right up the street from the historic cemetery.

Many of West Hartford’s founders are buried in the Old North Cemetery, which was created in the late 18th century after the Old Center Cemetery (a block farther south) became too small. It also serves as the final resting place of veterans from the American Revolution, War of 1812, and the Civil War. Continue reading.

By Ronni Newton on We-Ha.comi on July 28, 2021

The West Hartford Greater Together Community Fund, which announced in January plans to award the first $25,000 of grant money to local nonprofits, announced Wednesday that seven organizations have will receive awards in the inaugural cycle.

The program, formed by The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and administered by an all-volunteer advisory committee of town residents, considered applications for grants to fund projects that would “improve or enhance the quality of life in West Hartford or otherwise contribute to address a direct need” in the town, the committee said in a news release announcing the grants. Continue reading.

By Ronni Newton on We-Ha.com on June 20, 2021

West Hartford’s second annual Juneteenth celebration, held over the weekend of June 19-20, 2021, was full of joy juxtaposed by serious messages and actions, with the observation culminating late Sunday morning as a crowd gathered for the rededication of the town’s green as Unity Green.

West Hartford’s town green – that narrow triangle of land that splits the northbound and southbound lanes of South Main Street just south of Farmington Avenue and is the longtime site of banners and public gatherings – had previously been named Goodman Green, in honor of Timothy Goodman, who deeded it to First Church, which in turn has leased the land to the town since 1924. Recent research into the town’s history conducted as part of the Witness Stones project brought to light the fact that, along with some of West Hartford’s other prominent families for whom roadways and buildings have been named, Goodman was, indeed, a slaveholder. Continue reading.